Newhallville is a neighborhood in the city of New Haven, Connecticut, [1] named for industrialist George Newhall.
As delineated on city planning maps, [1] Newhallville is bordered on the north by the town of Hamden, on the east by Winchester Avenue, on the south by Munson Street, on the southwest by Crescent Street, and on the northwest by Fournier Street. The main through routes are Dixwell Avenue, Shelton Avenue, Winchester Avenue, and Bassett Street. Once home to several industries, the neighborhood is now almost entirely residential. [2] The route of the Farmington Canal runs through the middle of the neighborhood. The former Winchester Repeating Arms factory complex in Newhallville occupies 75 acres (30 ha) in the neighborhood. It is now the site of Science Park at Yale, an initiative started in 1981 by Yale University, the City of New Haven, and the Olin Corporation to utilize and redevelop the sites and buildings where the former Winchester Repeating Arms factory was once located. [3] The southern part of the neighborhood (south of Hazel and Highland streets) and the northern part of the adjacent Dixwell neighborhood are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Winchester Repeating Arms Company Historic District, bounded on the south by Charles, Admiral, and Sachem streets.
The Newhallville area was a rural farming area until the middle of the 19th century. The Farmington Canal was built through the area in the late 1820s, but it did not bring the development that its promoters had hoped for. In the early 1850s the canal was converted to a railroad line, and George Newhall established a small factory near the railroad where he manufactured carriages. Other small factories followed, along with workers' houses and a boarding house that Newhall built in 1860 for his unmarried male employees. [4]
In 1870, the Winchester Repeating Arms Company began operations in Newhallville, which became its headquarters and center of production. By 1887, Winchester's factory employed more than 600 people. By the early 20th century, the plant covered more than six city blocks and employed more than 1,000 workers. [4] The manufacturing complex reached its peak of activity during World War II, when it employed more than 19,000 people. [5]
As Winchester continued to expand during the late 19th century and early 20th century, the land surrounding the Winchester plant was developed as housing for industrial workers, primarily in one-, two-, and three-family tenement homes. Population density near the factory was high because close-in housing was preferred by workers who typically walked to and from their places of work. Many houses in the area were built by real estate investors who built houses for rental or to be sold on speculation. During the period 1870 through 1920, some 65 to 75 percent of the households in the vicinity of the Winchester plant had at least one primary breadwinner working for Winchester, while workers in another five to eight percent were employed in other neighborhood industrial concerns, and workers in roughly two to three percent of households were engaged in ancillary commercial business activities (such as butchers, grocers, and barbers). [4]
Industrial activity in Newhallville was reduced drastically after 1965, when Winchester, at that time the largest employer in New Haven, decided to move its main production line to East Alton, Illinois. [6] After a machinists' strike in the late 1970s, the plant was sold to U.S. Repeating Arms. [5] The neighborhood's long history of arms production finally ended completely in 2006, when the U.S. Repeating Arms factory closed, laying off 186 workers. [7]
New Haven is a coastal city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut, and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,023 as determined by the 2020 United States Census, New Haven is now the third-largest city in Connecticut after Bridgeport and Stamford. New Haven is the principal municipality of Greater New Haven, which had a total population of 864,835 as of 2020.
Hamden is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. The town's nickname is "The Land of the Sleeping Giant". The population was 61,169 at the 2020 census.
Downtown New Haven is the neighborhood located in the heart of the city of New Haven, Connecticut. It is made up of the original nine squares laid out in 1638 to form New Haven, including the New Haven Green, and the immediate surrounding central business district, as well as a significant portion of the Yale University campus. The area includes many restaurants, cafes, theaters and stores. Downtown is bordered by Wooster Square to the east, Long Wharf to the southeast, the Hill neighborhood to the south, the Dwight neighborhood to the west, the Dixwell neighborhood to the northwest, the Prospect Hill area to the north, and East Rock to the northeast.
The U.S. Repeating Arms Company (USRAC) was an American manufacturer of firearms. It was established in 1981 and operated as an independent company until 1989, when it went bankrupt and was taken over by Fabrique Nationale Herstal. The company traced its origins to the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, which was famous for making Winchester rifles.
The Eli Whitney Museum, in Hamden, Connecticut, is an experimental learning workshop for students, teachers, and families. The museum's main building is located on a portion of the Eli Whitney Gun Factory site, a gun factory erected by Eli Whitney in 1798. The museum focuses on teaching experiments that are the roots of design and invention, featuring hands-on building projects and exhibits on Whitney and A. C. Gilbert.
Connecticut Route 10 is a state highway that runs between New Haven and the state line near Granby. It continues north of the state line as Massachusetts Route 10, which in turn continues directly to New Hampshire Route 10.
Whitneyville is a neighborhood in the southeastern portion of the town of Hamden, Connecticut. It started in the early nineteenth century as a factory town for workers in Eli Whitney's gun factory. Around the turn of the twentieth century, it evolved into a trolley suburb of New Haven. Today it is primarily residential, with a mixture of single-family homes and small apartment and condominium buildings. There is some commercial development centered around the intersection of Whitney and Putnam avenues.
Dixwell is a neighborhood of New Haven, Connecticut. Named for Dixwell Avenue, the main thoroughfare of the neighborhood which in turn was named for regicide judge John Dixwell, it is situated generally northwest of and adjacent to Downtown New Haven.
The Pine Meadow Historic District encompasses most of the historic 19th-century village of Pine Meadow in New Hartford, Connecticut. Located at a bend in the West Branch of the Farmington River southeast of New Hartford center, it is a well-preserved example of a rural industrial village. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.
Prospect Hill is a neighborhood of the city of New Haven, Connecticut located in the north central portion of the city, directly north of Downtown New Haven. The neighborhood contains residences, institutional buildings of Albertus Magnus University and a portion of the main campus of Yale University, including the Science Hill area, the Hillhouse Avenue area and the Yale Peabody Museum. The City of New Haven defines the neighborhood to be the region bounded by the town of Hamden in the north, Winchester Avenue in the west, Munson Street/Hillside Place/Prospect Street in the southwest, Trumbull Street in the south, and Whitney Avenue in the east. Prospect Street is the main thoroughfare through the neighborhood.
The Prospect Hill Historic District is an irregularly-shaped 185-acre (75 ha) historic district in New Haven, Connecticut. The district encompasses most of the residential portion of the Prospect Hill neighborhood.
The Winchester Repeating Arms Company Historic District is a historic district in New Haven, Connecticut that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. It includes 867 properties, which "include 858 major structures and 131 notable outbuildings." Of these structures, 876 are buildings deemed to contribute to the historical and/or architectural significance of the area, and most of these are residential. However the center of the district is "dominated" by the 75-acre (30 ha) tract of the former Winchester Repeating Arms Company, which contains industrial buildings.
The Dwight Street Historic District is an irregularly shaped 135-acre (55 ha) historic district in New Haven, Connecticut. The district is located immediately west of the center of Downtown New Haven and is generally bounded by Elm Street on the north, Park Street on the east, North Frontage Road on the south, and Sherman Avenue on the west. It contains one of the city's highest concentrations of well-preserved 19th and early 20th-century residential architecture, much of which was developed for the working classes in the city's factories. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The historic district includes most of the Dwight neighborhood and several blocks of the northeast corner of the West River neighborhood.
Marion is a neighborhood in the town of Southington in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. It is generally the area in the vicinity of the intersection of Route 322 and Marion Avenue just north of the Cheshire town line.
The city of New Haven, Connecticut has many distinct neighborhoods. In addition to Downtown, centered on the central business district and the Green, are the following neighborhoods: the west central neighborhoods of Dixwell and Dwight; the southern neighborhoods of The Hill, historic water-front City Point, and the harborside district of Long Wharf; the western neighborhoods of Edgewood, West River, Westville, Amity, and West Rock; East Rock, Cedar Hill, Prospect Hill, and Newhallville in the northern side of town; the east central neighborhoods of Mill River and Wooster Square, an Italian-American neighborhood; Fair Haven, an immigrant community located between the Mill and Quinnipiac rivers; Quinnipiac Meadows and Fair Haven Heights across the Quinnipiac River; and facing the eastern side of the harbor, The Annex and East Shore.
Whitney Avenue is a principal arterial connecting Downtown New Haven with the town center of Hamden in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Most of the road within the city of New Haven is included in the Whitney Avenue Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The designation begins at Grove Street in the northern part of Downtown New Haven and extends through the town of Hamden up to the Cheshire town line. North of Dixwell Avenue in Hamden Center, the road is a state highway and designated as part of Route 10. From the New Haven town line to Dixwell Avenue, the road is state-maintained with an unsigned designation of State Road 707. Within New Haven, Whitney Avenue is a town road. The J route of Connecticut Transit New Haven, which connects New Haven to Waterbury, runs along Whitney Avenue.
The United States Cartridge Company was an early manufacturer of cartridge ammunition for small arms. The company was founded in 1869 by American Civil War general Benjamin Butler. Company startup was during the most rapid evolution of cartridge design to date. Lowell, Massachusetts emerged as one of the most successful cartridge producers in the United States while Butler served as a congressman from Massachusetts from 1867 to 1879 and as governor from 1883 to 1884. After supplying 65 percent of American small arms ammunition production for World War I, the company was acquired by the owner of Winchester Repeating Arms; and the Lowell factory closed as manufacturing shifted to New Haven, Connecticut.
Centerville, originally spelled Centreville, is a neighborhood in the east-central portion of the town of Hamden, Connecticut. It is the location of Hamden Town Hall and other major town government buildings. It derived its name from being at the intersection of the town's two principal thoroughfares, Whitney and Dixwell avenues, both with commercial development. The rest of the neighborhood is residential, with single-family houses, condominiums, and apartments.
Highwood is a neighborhood in the south-central portion of the town of Hamden, Connecticut. It is primarily residential, with a mixture of small apartment buildings and single-family, two- and three-family homes. Commercial development is concentrated on its principal street, Dixwell Avenue. Immigrants from Germany were the first to settle the area extensively in the 1860s, followed by others from Ireland, Italy, and Eastern Europe later in the nineteenth century. Today it is predominantly African American.
The Dixwell Avenue Congregational United Church of Christ is a historic church at 217 Dixwell Avenue in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1820 as the African Ecclesiastical Society, the congregation has been a major part of African-American society in the city since then. Its current church building, completed in 1969, is a major local example of Brutalist architecture, designed by John M. Johansen. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its architecture in 2018.