A Virtual Jane’s Walk of Beaver Hills
By Elizabeth Holt
New Haven is a city of wide ranging architectural styles, from early Colonial homes to Modernist masterpieces, often found side-by-side. However, some neighborhoods feature unique concentrations of certain styles.
The Beaver Hills Historic District, significant for its collection of early 20th-century suburban residences, is particularly notable for the Tudor Revival houses found here. Many of these are located on Ellsworth Avenue and Colony Road.
Take a virtual walk down these tree-lined residential streets and learn more about how Beaver Hills developed as one of New Haven’s earliest examples of a planned and promoted subdivision. Along the way, stop to appreciate the beautifully preserved Tudor Revival houses that represent the district.
Neighborhood History
Beaver Hills owes its architectural style and continuity to an early 20th century real estate development corporation that turned the area into one of New Haven’s earliest planned subdivisions.
Before the turn of the 20th century, the area that is now Beaver Hills remained dominated by dense woods and open fields. Following the death of George Mead, a farmer who owned much of the land, in 1906, the farmland was subdivided by his heirs. Led by Mead’s eldest son, D. Irving Mead, the heirs formed the Beaver Hills Company in 1908. The company then began acquiring other farmland, expanding northward, and finalized an overall subdivision plan.
At the intersections of Goffe Terrace with Norton Parkway and with Ellsworth Avenue, the company constructed brick gateway piers that defined the southern terminus of the neighborhood. They feature tile plaques with beavers as a nod to the area’s history.
An Ideal Suburb
The Beaver Hills Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. According to the nomination form, the Beaver Hills Company promoted the area as having “a novel opportunity to those who would live in their homes, designed with reference to their own needs and surrounds, with all that gives one pride in location.”
To ensure consistency in design quality, the company instituted a number of restrictions. The streets were carefully laid out with landscaped curbs and tree-lined sidewalks. A full range of house plans in different styles were provided to patrons to “avoid undesirable cheapness of design” and a group of professional architects was retained for consultation purposes. Company stipulations even included the requirement that new owners must build a single-family house costing a minimum of $3500. Information from the Historic Resource Inventory suggests that most houses were constructed at costs considerably higher than the minimum. The Frank Clugman House at 606 Ellsworth Avenue was constructed at a cost of $12,000, while the Edith Caplan House at 610 Ellsworth Avenue cost $14,000 to build.
Frank Clugman House, 606 Ellsworth Avenue, 1935.
Edith Caplan House, 610 Ellsworth Avenue, 1930.
The resulting neighborhood reflected “the ideal of the House Beautiful and the House Useful combined for the man of average income.” By all accounts, the Beaver Hills Company efforts to create an exemplary suburb was not only successful, but had significant impact. At the time of its development, subdivisions like Beaver Hills were not yet the norm in American cities.
Tudor Revival Style
While some streets and neighborhoods are notable for their variety of architectural style, Beaver Hills is significant for its concentration of a few early 20th century suburban house styles, with Tudor Revivals being a highlight.
Tudor Revivals account for 29% of the houses in Beaver Hills, with most of them found along Colony Road and Ellsworth Avenue. Based on late Medieval and early Renaissance English architectural styles, Tudor Revival became a popular suburban housing style in the 1920s.
Known for their eclectic details, Tudor Revival houses are usually asymmetrical with steep, multi-gabled roofs and decorative entryways. Typical details of this house type include ornamental half-timbering (4 Colony Road), patterned brickwork (165 Colony Road), prominent chimneys (620 Ellsworth Avenue), slate roofs, and casement leaded-glass windows (160 Colony Road). These details all refer back to the Tudor buildings of England around the 16th century. For example, the asymmetry found in the plan and elevation of most Tudor Revivals reflects the historic Tudor homes of England, which were often added to over time, generation to generation.
Israel Blodinger House, 4 Colony Road, 1930.
Edith Himmel House, 165 Colony Road, 1930.
Thomas Valenza House, 620 Ellsworth Avenue, 1931.
Norman Smith House, 160 Colony Road, 1930.
With a few exceptions, the Tudor Revival houses of Colony Road and Ellsworth Avenue feature most, if not all, typical details of the style. There are, however, a couple examples of variations on these themes. The houses at 192 Colony Road and 615 Ellsworth Avenue both feature white or off-white trim against a dark background, in contrast to the more typical dark trim seen on most houses. Though not fully symmetrical, the house at 636 Ellsworth Avenue features a symmetrical double gable on its main block, giving it a look unique to its other Tudor neighbors.
Harry R. and Katherine Levine House, 192 Colony Road, 1935-36.
Minnie Krause House, 615 Ellsworth Avenue, 1933.
Rose Johnson House, 636 Ellsworth Avenue, 1938.
Not much has changed in the Beaver Hills neighborhood since the post war era. With only a few exceptions, the district has seen very little demolition or construction since the early years of the Second World War.
The Historic Resources Inventory, with photos of Beaver Hills dating to 1983, is an excellent resource that shows just how much of Colony Road and Ellsworth Avenue remain the same today.
Barney and Elsie Pitkin House, 207 Colony Road, 1931-32. (Historic Resource Inventory, 1983)
Barney and Elsie Pitkin House, 207 Colony Road, 1931-32.
Ernest Gordon House, 195 Colony Road, 1935. (Historic Resource Inventory, 1983)
Ernest Gordon House, 195 Colony Road, 1935.
To see more photos of the Tudor Revival houses of Beaver Hills, including then and now examples from the Historic Resources Inventory, and other survey information, explore our interactive map.
If the above link does not open the interactive map for you, please copy and paste the following link in your browser: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1I9fwxorrOwNfIP4X36X5dLT4GSha6FZs&ll=41.325718040531335%2C-72.9314531&z=15
Elizabeth Holt is the Director of Preservation Services at the New Haven Preservation Trust.