USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > New Haven, a book recording the varied activities of the author in his efforts over many years to promote the welfare of the city of his adoption since 1883, together with some researches into its storied past and many illustrations > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60
,
IV.
LOOKING FORWARD : AN ADDRESS BEFORE THE WOMEN'S CIVIC CLUB OF NEW HAVEN ON MARCH 25, 1908.43
[The guest of the club for the afternoon was George Dudley Seymour, the leader in the movement 'to improve the physical condition of the city of New Haven and who was instrumental in moving former Mayor Studley to appoint a committee of prominent citizens to see what steps could be taken to bring his ideas into realization. Mr. Seymour began by regretting that the report of the architects engaged by the committee was not yet made. He had hoped to comment upon it. The archi- tects, as will be remembered, are Cass Gilbert, president of the American Institute of Architects, and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., the well-known landscape architect.] Mr. Seymour then went on to say :
"As to the preliminary report of the architects, I may say in a general way that Mr. Gilbert is prepared to recommend an improved approach from the new Union Station to the Green. This, if adopted, will provide a striking site for a hotel and other buildings of a semi-public character, such as apartment houses and stores, to say nothing of greatly enhanc- ing the appearance of the City as approached from the station. The great hotels of the world are being more and more located so as to be easy of access to union railway stations. A great hotel cannot depend for its support upon permanent guests ; it must attract a large transient trade. Mr. Gilbert thinks that his plan might be carried out at an expense so moderate that it would be fully justified by the results secured.
43 Reprinted from the New Haven Journal-Courier and the New Haven Palladium of March 26, 1908. The bracketed paragraph, from the New Haven Journal-Courier, is printed to take the place of the writer's first paragraphs, his manuscript not having been preserved ..
60
NEW HAVEN :
Mr. Olmsted will show us how our existing parks may be con- nected in series, and urge the acquisition of areas now pro- curable at moderate prices for conversion later on, into play-grounds for little children-neighborhood parks for neigh- borhood use. We also need tracts for public athletics, fields for the young men who work in shops, stores and offices. As the City grows we shall more and more need parks for our working population, parks for building up again the physical strength so freely expended day by day in factory and store for the enrichment of the City. To improve the health of the laborer is to increase his efficiency. Everything that makes for health and morals in a community is good economics. Fine schools, fine parks-these attract and retain a high class of citizens.
"After examining our parks, Mr. Olmsted said he was at a loss to understand how our Commissioners were able with such a small annual outlay for parks to do so much in the way of improvements and up-keep. He feels that we need more small parks in the crowded portions of the City, as well as more land here and there in the outskirts of the City, not only to extend our park acreage as a whole, but also to provide for connecting the parks that we now have into a chain engirdling the City.
The Group Plan Assured
"Our group plan is assured. When I suggested last June to the citizens that the frontage on the Green of Elm Street, between Church and Temple streets, should be acquired by the City and used for public buildings, I felt sure that ultimately all that land would be acquired and used for public purposes, but I hardly expected that within a year the plan would be assured. The deeds have not, I think, passed, but it seems now certain that the City and County will before long own this entire property, and that it will be occupied by the Ives Memorial Public Library, by the New Haven County Court House, and perhaps by a hall of records. Mr. Gilbert has the
61
LOOKING FORWARD.
plans for the new Public Library well under way, and the county commissioners and bar committee are collecting data as to what court rooms and other conveniences will be required in the new Court House. They were authorized by the Legis- lature to secure a site and a plan, but no building operations can be taken up until after the next session of the Legislature, when it is expected that the building will be authorized.
The New Postoffice
"In my open letter, published last June, I pointed out the need of a new postoffice, showing that the present building could not possibly be made to serve much longer the needs of this growing community, and that without buying up the adja- cent property its extension was virtually out of the question, in view of the law governing Federal buildings. Now the question has been taken up in good earnest. We may not secure an appropriation for this purpose from the present Congress, but the agitation has been well begun, and should be kept up unceasingly until an appropriation has been secured.
"One plan is to enlarge our present building; another is to replace it by a larger building, for which some of the adja- cent buildings would have to be cleared away. The subject is one of such paramount importance that I hope that it will not be settled without a far look into the future and in a pro- gressive and enlightened spirit. It is hard for a resident of any of our larger cities to think of a postoffice otherwise than as a building of monumental character representing the Fed- eral Government. The aim of citizens throughout the country has always been to secure large appropriations from Congress for building costly postoffices, conspicuous in their character and monumental in scale. These buildings are supposed to represent the energy of the citizens of a city and their ability to get large appropriations of public money. It will be diffi- cult for New Haven-it is difficult for the citizens of any American city-to turn away from all this and look at the postoffice question from an entirely different point of view- to divorce it as it should be divorced, from every consideration other than utility.
62
NEW HAVEN :
"Europe has always led us in the matter of cheap and convenient postal service. Foreign governments have long realized that a postoffice building is one of the last building's that should be made to typify the power of the government or depended upon to adorn a city. Its utilitarian needs are paramount; as soon as they are disregarded, the building becomes to that extent disqualified for its initial purpose. A postoffice should provide an enormous single room with an overhead light. Nothing else can be made to secure the same amount of convenience and dispatch in the handling and sorting of mail matter. This great room should not be broken by masonry partitions, but should be supported on 'points,' so called, so as to secure the best possible diffusion of light and the greatest amount of freedom of movement for clerks and mail matter. It has been the American practice to locate the Federal offices in rooms above the distributing room, just as in our own postoffice here, where the clerks, who serve us so faithfully, work in a perpetual twilight-in a great space insufficiently lighted and badly ventilated. Obviously an overhead light on the ground floor cannot be secured in a building of more than one story in height.
"Futhermore, a postoffice should be located as close as possible to the railway station, so as to reduce to the mini- mum the time and labor and cost of handling in-coming and out-going mails. The less mail matter is handled the greater the safety from injury and loss. . Anyone who has ever observed the hundreds of heavy trucks back of the postoffice building in New York City, will readily see how much trucking might have been saved if this building had been located close to a railway station. President Roosevelt has, in a recent message to Congress, recommended an extension of our alto- gether inadequate parcels post system. The parcels post idea must inevitably be extended in this country. When it is extended the volume of mail matter will be enormously increased, and the time, labor, cost and danger of carrying it back and forth through the streets of cities will increase in the same proportion.
63
LOOKING FORWARD.
"We cannot afford to run the risk of making a mistake in the location of our new postoffice; we should consider the plan now being advocated by the Treasury Department with open minds. The new main postoffice in New York City is to form a part of the new Pennsylvania Railway Sta- tion, so that the handling of the mail will be reduced to the minimum. New Orleans is also proposing, I believe, to locate her new postoffice close to the railway station. I am ready to admit that it may be that the wisest thing for us to do here. will be to keep our postoffice where it is now. All I am contending for is that we should not make up our minds to do it until we have threshed the whole subject out by a full public discussion. Let us not ask for an appropriation for a new postoffice until we are sure we know, not what we want, but what is the best thing for us, and for the genera- tions that will succeed us, to have.44
# In the forepart of 1909 I was placed upon a committee appointed from the Chamber of Commerce to consider the question of a new postoffice. While traveling in Europe I wrote Mr. Charles E. Julin, the secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, my views on the subject in response to a notice of a meeting of this committee. This letter was presented to the committee and so far as published in the New Haven Journal-Courier of August 8, read as follows :
"BIARRITZ, FRANCE, July , 1909.
"Dear Mr. Julin :
"I have from the first been greatly interested in the subject of a new postoffice for New Haven. To put the matter frankly, I am afraid we are far more likely to get what we want than what is best for us to have. I say this after considerable study of the subject and some knowl- edge of the modern idea of postoffice requirements, and after considerable conversation on the subject with James Knox Taylor, the supervising architect of the Treasury Department. I can't quote him, but I feel sure that if he expressed his mind freely he would say that what we should have is a big one-story building close to the railroad station for the handling of the mail. The handling of mail requires, for facility, sanitation and economy, a one-story building with overhead light. First-class facilities for the handling of mail matter cannot be secured in a two-story building, as anything above the first story cuts off light and air. This is every- where abroad recognized as the best type of building and is what the Treasury Department advocates. Proximity to the railroad station is the modern practice in Europe and coming to be in the United States. We should look forward to the time when parcels post will so enormously
64
NEW HAVEN :
An Equality of Opportunity
"So much for the municipal improvement movement here in New Haven so far as it concerns new buildings, a better approach to the town, accessions to the parks, and so on. In all this we are participating in a national impulse for civic improvement-an impulse now felt indeed almost all over the world. I may as well say that my own feeling about the movement here in New Haven is now, and has been from the first, far more serious than is expressed by the term 'City Beautiful,' as it is used. The fruits of the movement here will, I hope, be found, not alone in a city better adapted to the requirements of modern life, more dignified of aspect, more harmonious in its architecture, more convenient for the trans- action of public and private business, better adapted for the free movement of its citizens from one part of the city to another, better equipped for the health and comfort of people
increase the bulk of mail matter that it will be wasteful of time and money to haul it through the streets. In my opinion, New Haven should ask for $1,000,000 for two buildings-a one-story postoffice building proper, near the new railway station, and a fine Federal building on a site facing the Green. The Tontine Hotel site could not be improved upon.
"This Federal building should be designed to accommodate on the first floor a main substation of the postoffice and, above, all the local functions of the Federal Government such as customs, recruiting office, marine inspection, etc. The top of the building should, of course, be devoted to the United States courts. This plan of two buildings would put us in the forefront of thoroughly up-to-date cities. It is the practical solution of the problem. I feel confident that Mr. Taylor would, if free to do so, endorse every word I have written. Nor will anyone deny that, for the Federal building, a site facing the Green is the only site comporting with the dignity and authority of the central Government. I suppose that property owners with buildings near the present postoffice would fight any plan to change the location of the postoffice. But I am not thinking of indi- vidual interests, but the general good. A new building on the old site could not be built without buying in the entire block, and that would cost more money than the plan J have outlined. Now that the Tontine site is available, it would be a pity not to secure it. It is a unique opportunity, comparable only to the opportunity, happily utilized, of securing the only proper site for our new County Court House.
"Very truly yours,
"GEORGE DUDLEY SEYMOUR."
65
LOOKING FORWARD.
of moderate means who live here the year around, but in a city in which there will be as near as humanly possible an equal opportunity for every citizen to enjoy such privileges as the city affords. It seems to me that municipal improvements on a large scale must promote the solidarity of municipal life, for the reason that everything that tends to make the citizens of a place think about the same thing tends to bring them together.
"The collections of the Yale Art School and the Peabody Museum were opened to the public on Sunday afternoons for the first time on February 16.45 It was thought at the time 45 The chief treasures of the Yale Art School are the Trumbull and the Jarves collections. In connection with the civic improvement movement, of which the Sunday opening of the Yale Art School and Peabody Museum are features, the following quotations from the writings of James Jackson Jarves, who made the collection bearing his name, are of interest :
"The first duty of art, as we have already intimated, is to make our public buildings and places as instructive and enjoyable as possible. They should be pleasurable, full of attractive beauty and eloquent teachings. Picturesque groupings of natural objects, architectural surprises, sermons from the sculptor's chisel and the painter's palette, the ravishment of the soul by its superior senses, the refinement of mind and body by the sympathetic power of beauty-these are a portion of the means which a due estimation of art, as an element of civilization, inspires the ruling will to provide freely for all. If art be kept a rare and tabooed thing, a specialty for the rich and powerful, it excites in the vulgar mind envy and hate; but proffer it freely to the public, and the public soon learns to delight in and protect it as its rightful inheritance. It also tends to develop a brotherhood of thought and feeling. During the civil strifes of Italy, art flourished and was respected. Indeed, to some extent, it operated as a sort of peace society, and was held sacred when nothing else was. Even rude soldiers, amid the perils and necessities of sieges, turned aside destruction from the walls that sheltered it. The history of art is full of records of its power to soften and elevate the human heart. As soon would man, were it possible, mar one of God's sunsets, as cease to respect what genius has confided to his care, when once his mind has been awakened to its meaning." James Jackson Jarves, 1820-1888. The Art Idea. Second ed. 1865, p. 337.
"The desire for art being awakened, museums to illustrate its technical and historical progress, and galleries to exhibit its master-works, become indispensable. In the light of education, appropriations for such purposes are as much a duty of the Government as for any other purpose connected with the true welfare of the people; for its responsibilities extend over the entire social system."-James Jackson Jarves. The Jarves collection of Italian primitives is now recognized as one of the finest outside of Italy.
66
NEW HAVEN :
to be more than likely that very few people would at first avail themselves of the privileges of visiting these collections-that it would take the public some time to find out what new oppor- tunities of pleasure and profit had been opened to them. Some placed the limit of attendance on the first Sunday for both the Art School and Museum at one hundred. Some thought that even that figure was too high. Contrary, therefore, to all expectation, over 1,000 people visited the Museum and 1,500 the Art School the first Sunday. The succeeding Sundays have shown increased interest rather than any falling off. The Museum and Art School have now been opened six succes- sive Sundays, and it is probably no exaggeration to say that 15,000 people have visited these collections on these six days-, . with what stimulation of interest in natural history and the fine arts no one can tell.46 One gratifying result of the Sunday movement has been that there is a greatly increased attendance during the week days; but as to that attendance I can give no figures. I think it is not sufficiently understood by the general public, and on that account I mention here, that the Art School and Museum are open week days to the general
46 In an address by former President Eliot of Harvard University to teachers who were using the art museums within their reach as instru- ments of education, he said in part :
"I should like to call attention .... to the point that this teaching through museums is not only the teaching of beauty, of grace and of the history of artistic man; it is more than all these things. It is the teaching of morality and the teaching of the way toward happiness. I have lately had occasion to think a good deal about the conditions of labor in our American society, and the saddest thing I have learned is the lack of the happy spirit in labor in the American industries. That is a most pathetic and lamentable thing. It seems to be a fact-the lack of the happy, con- tented, satisfied spirit in American labor. What is the cure for that prodigious evil? It is the bringing into the American industries of the method and spirit of the artist. The artist rejoices in his work; it is the chief satisfaction and happiness of his life. He is not looking for pleasures outside his work; he is finding pleasure in his work. And what is the nature of that spring of happiness for the artist? It is his ideal of excellence, merit, ideal merit, perfection in his work, the bringing of the execution to the fair ideal. Now, that is what is needed throughout all industries, and one means of bringing into American industries this source of happiness is the kind of sowing and planting which this museum has been doing."
67
LOOKING FORWARD.
public without charge. To assist in understanding its col- lections the authorities of the Museum have compiled a descriptive leaflet of four pages, written in simple language. This is distributed free of charge to all visitors. The Art School has now brought out a small leaflet which was distributed to visitors for the first time last Sunday. The exhibits in the Museum are provided with comprehensive descriptive labels; similar labels would add greatly to the interest and value to the public of the collections of the Art School. I hope the great interest shown by the public in the Museum and the Art School will lead to the publication for each institution of a handbook corresponding to the hand- book recently issued at a cost of fifty cents by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts-a book so wide in its range of informa- tion that to be thoroughly familiar with it is to have almost a liberal education in the fine arts. Arrangements have been made at the Museum, I believe, to provide small parties with guides to explain the different objects shown, while Professor Weir, of the Art School, has announced three lectures open to the public and designed to draw attention to the Art School collection. Only six weeks have elapsed since the Art School and Museum were opened on Sundays to the public, but this Sunday opening already has the character of a permanent institution. Bridgeport has received the message, according to the papers, and it is to be expected that many persons living in the surrounding towns will avail themselves of the oppor- tunity of trolley transportation and come to New Haven and familiarize themselves with these collections. The mem- bers of the Society of Arts and Crafts, just organized in Meriden, are employed in the various shops during week days, but they can come on Sunday to the Yale Art School. I do not see why the Yale Art School should not do for New Haven and the environs of New Haven just what the Boston Museum of Fine Arts is doing for Boston and its environs.
"In this connection and on the subject of coordination let me add that the librarian of the New Haven Public Library has identified that institution with this Sunday opening movement
68
NEW HAVEN :
by publishing in the papers lists of books in the Library, which may be advantageously read preparatory to visiting these collections. The Museum and Art School can hardly fail to be benefited as the result of this Sunday opening movement in so far as they will be compelled to resort to a better arrange- ment of their collections-to place them in better shape for examination and study. Unquestionably, also, both collections will now receive important additions. The Museum has already been presented with a gift of Indian implements collected in this locality ; pictures and other objects of art will undoubtedly now find their way to the Art School, all drawn out by the feeling that many persons possess that they are only trustees of valuable works. As someone has said, rare works of art, once only accessible to the rich, are now more and more placed in the possession of the people. Museums are perpetual invitations to the wealthy to place their treasures where the public may see them and enjoy them.47
4 "After all, what is the function of art but to preserve in permanent and beautiful form those emotions and solaces which cheer life and make it kindlier, more heroic and easier to comprehend; which lift the mind of the worker from the harshness and loneliness of his task, and, by con- necting him with what has gone before, free him from a sense of isolation and hardship."-Jane Addams in "The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets." The Macmillan Company, New York, 1909.
"I have spoken of the ultilization of public recreations as if they were to be expected to yield only health, and enjoyment, and improved powers of perception; but I should deal with the subject very imperfectly if I did not point out that the right utilization of public reservations is a strong agency for promoting public morality, and a high standard of family life." President Eliot of Harvard University.
"But during these later centuries at the very time that the city has become distinctly industrial and daily labor is continually more monotonous and subdivided, we seem to have decided that no provision for public recre- ation is necessary. It would be interesting to trace how far this thought- less conclusion is responsible for the vicious excitements and trivial amuse- ments which in a modern city so largely take the place formerly supplied by public recreation and manly sports. It would be illuminating to know the legitimate connection between lack of public facilities for decent pleasures and our present social immoralities." Jane Addams.
1
69
LOOKING FORWARD.
"The immense success attending the opening of the Art School and Museum on Sundays has led to a proposition now under consideration to have the New Haven Colony Historical Society building opened to the public on Sundays. While it is true that the collections of the Historical Society may not have the interest to the general public of the collections of the Art School and Museum, there are doubtless thousands of people in this community who would gladly avail themselves of an opportunity to inspect the memorials gathered in that building of the earlier history of the city. The lessons to be learned there are varied, and no one can tell how stimu- lating those collections would be in the way of historical interest to many minds who have now scarcely a glimmering of the path by which we have come. I hope the authorities will decide to open the building Sundays and holidays for a portion of the year at least. If that should be done, the librarian of our public library could publish lists of books relating to our local history and helpful to all intending visitors. The various objects on exhibition in the Historical Society building are labeled, but I think that in the interest of the general public the collections might be relabeled to advantage. The importance of labeling objects shown in museums in such a way as to inform and not confuse the visitors, is being more and more appreciated.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.