Character-Defining Features of The New Haven Green
By Channing Harris and Christopher Wigren
This document is intended to inform evaluation of potential changes to the Green suggested by consultants to the City of New Haven and Proprietors of the Green. It is intended as a temporary measure, pending the creation of a revised, more detailed, National Historic Landmark documentation and an archaeological survey.
Historical Background
The Green was laid out about 1638 as the centerpiece of the original plan for New Haven, consisting of nine large squares in a tic-tac-toe formation, on land purchased from the native Quinnipiac. Originally known as the Market Place, it provided open space for a wide variety of civic institutions and functions, including as a market and parade ground, and as the site of the meeting house, burial ground, school, statehouse, pasture, whipping post, and town pump. The meeting house was located approximately in the center of the Green. Other buildings were located where convenient, and informal paths crisscrossed the space.
The Federal era brought a concerted program of improvements that started with the cutting through of Temple Street in 1784 and included constructing three new churches and a new statehouse as well as planting elms and other trees, erecting a fence, closing the burying ground and removing gravestones, plotting fixed walking paths, and razing extraneous buildings. By the 1820s the basic appearance of the Green had been established, and it has remained remarkably constant ever since. Except for the demolition of the statehouse in 1889 and the addition of the memorial flagpole in 1928, changes over the past 200 years have been minor. Renovations in 1912 (guided by Olmsted Brothers Landscape Architects and heavily promoted by local antiquarian George Dudley Seymour) and 1986–1990 (planned by Quennell Rothschild Associates landscape architects) had the reinforcement of the Green’s historic character as their major goal.
In addition to its design as a cultural landscape and the architecture of the three churches, the Green is significant for historical events that have taken place on it, including civic events, protests, military musters and parades, from the American Revolution to political rallies and protests, including appearances by the Marquis de Lafayette, Abraham Lincoln, and John F. Kennedy.
Character-Defining Features
The National Park Service defines a character-defining feature as “A prominent or distinctive aspect, quality, or characteristic of a historic property that contributes significantly to its physical character. Structures, objects, vegetation, spatial relationships, views, furnishings, decorative details, and materials may be such features” (The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties with Guidelines for the Treatment of Cultural Landscapes [1996]). In short, these are the features and characteristics that are most important in shaping the Green’s visual character as it has existed for approximately two centuries. Identifying them and understanding how they function can help future stewards of the Green to protect and enhance its identity at the heart of New Haven while making sympathetic modifications to suit the current needs of the community.
Materials
For a space of this size, the palette — the menu of features — is quite short, comprising trees, grass, fencing, streets and paths, and buildings.
Trees on the Green historically have been large shade trees, beginning with two elms in front of James Pierpont’s house in 1686, probably the origin of the street name. Elms, here and elsewhere throughout the city, have always been a dominant species, and in the 20th and 21st centuries maintaining them has been key to preserving New Haven’s identity as the Elm City. Today, disease-resistant elms line the perimeter of the upper and lower Greens, with double rows flanking the continuous paved “mall” on four sides of the lower Green. Mixed deciduous trees fill much of the interior of the upper Green, providing a canopy of dappled shade.
Grass is first recorded in 1654 and has been a constant, particularly once the Green was fenced from traffic at the turn of the 19th century. In colonial times a fenced area of premium “English Grass” was rented for grazing.
Fencing The first fences, of wood, were replaced in about 1846 by the present cast-iron fence with granite posts which elegantly frames the space. Nineteenth-century photographs show matching iron gates that could be used to close Temple Street to traffic. A prominent New Haven symbol, it set a standard for similar cast-iron fences around New Haven urban parks, such as Wooster Square and Trowbridge Square Park.
Streets and Paths The four principal, multi-lane streets of asphalt with granite curbs and concrete sidewalks define the Green edges. Temple Street, cut through the center of the original Green in 1784, forms the dividing line between the Upper and Lower Greens and matches the other streets’ vocabularies. It also serves the three churches — in a practical sense, by providing access, and in a design sense, by providing a datum line along which the churches are arranged. The stone-dust Mall around the Lower Green with its granite curbing was constructed in the 1910s based on recommendations by Olmsted Brothers Landscape Architects. Footpaths crisscross both halves of the Green, following paths of desire. Although their diagonal lines add a note of informality to the Green, they adhere to a design language of straight lines that matches the symmetrical placement of the churches. The paths have been paved with asphalt since at least the first decade of the 20th century. Old photographs show herringbone brick walks along Temple Street in front of the churches and outside the fence. Distinctive paving of brick and stone accents the plazas of the three churches, Bennett Fountain, the flagpole, pathway corner entrances and bus stops; added in the 1980s, these paved areas blend harmoniously with the Green’s historic character.
Buildings Since it was first laid out, there have always been buildings on the Green, and the line of three elegant churches is one of its most prominent features. The last building to be constructed was the third state house, in 1827. By 1848, when the Methodist congregation sought to replace its existing church near the intersection of College and Elm streets, a decision had been made not to allow any new buildings to the Green, and the Methodists moved to the other side of Elm Street. The state house itself was demolished in 1889, and no new buildings have been constructed since then.
Other Elements Monuments and memorials are strictly limited in number. The Memorial Flagpole (1928) is a focal point of the Lower Green, replacing an earlier, simpler flagpole. The Bennett Fountain (1908) marks the entry to the Green at the intersection of Church and Chapel streets — the epicenter of Downtown New Haven. The Dixwell monument, at the rear of Center Church on the Upper Green, is small but represents the sole above-ground reminder of the burials underneath. The determination to avoid adding features guided the construction of a fountain donated by the Regional Water Authority in 2002–2003; rather than add a new element to the Green, the fountain was designed as a ring around the existing Memorial Flagpole. Other monuments, such as the stone markers at the crosswalk entrance in the middle of the Church Street side, are not character defining features but are unobtrusive. Later landscape furnishings, while not historic, reinforce the Green’s identity as an historic park, with lighting, bus shelters, benches, and trash receptacles that reflect 19th-century styles.
Design Characteristics
The ways the palette of materials is deployed on the Green also help determine its historic character.
Size and Scale With edges defined by wide streets, tall trees and an elegant fence, the square Green averages approximately 840 feet on each side. At approximately 16 acres, New Haven’s Green is one of the largest in Connecticut. Not only is the Green big, but it feels big: the broad sweep of open lawn on the Lower Greena and the long vistas within the Green and out to the surrounding city contribute to its expansive scale. The taller and more monumental buildings which flank the Lower Green on Elm, Church and Chapel are a sympathetic scale to this larger open space.
Two Areas Temple Street divides the Green into two areas. The western portion, or Upper Green, slopes gently down towards the southeast and is planted with shade trees forming a nearly continuous canopy. The three historic churches with their towers face Temple Street in a row. The eastern portion, or Lower Green is level, with a double row of elm trees around its perimeter surrounding a vast open lawn, capable of accommodating as many as 100,000 people for events. The Memorial Flagpole is a focal point in the center of the lawn. Although they are distinct, these two areas are united by a common language of grass and shade trees and by visual and physical connections.
Openness and Views The use of shade trees contributes to an overall sense of openness on the Green. Elms, the most numerous species, have a high branching pattern that creates a tall ‘ceiling’ and allows views within the Green, from the Green to the streets and buildings outside it, and from those streets and buildings into the Green. Recently planted rows of ornamentals on the Upper Green depart from this historic pattern; their lower growth habit limits this openness. (A similar effect can be seen at Wooster Square, where cherry trees planted around the perimeter create more of a sense of enclosure.) Views into and out from the Green are also respected by the use of a temporary stage erected in summer at the north end of the Lower Green.
Rectilinearity The square shape of the Green, the aligned row of churches, and the straight pathways all create an overall characteristic of rectilinearity. At the same time, diagonal paths lined with benches and somewhat irregular spacing of trees on the Upper Green add light touches of naturalistic informality within the formal framework. This rectilinearity echoes the larger Nine Squares laid out in the 17th century as New Haven’s founders sought to bring order to the wilderness and set the basis for the expansive grid of later streets.
In summary, the simple and elegant landscape of the Green has served New Haven well, providing an ordered, flexible setting for countless events, imbued with a rich cultural history, natural beauty and providing a conceptual and real center for our community.
Channing Harris, ASLA (Emeritus), serves on the Board of Directors of the New Haven Preservation Trust. Christopher Wigren is Deputy Director, Preservation Connecticut.
January 2025
James Wadsworth, Plan of the City of New Haven taken in 1748. Showing Nine Squares, unimproved Green. Yale University Library, digital collections.
E. View of the Public Square or Green, in New Haven, c. 1850, showing trees, fence, churches, and state house. John Warner Barber, Connecticut Historical Collections.
Lower Green, c. 1905, view north toward Elm Street showing open lawn, diagonal paths, and flagpole. Detroit Publishing Company Collection, Library of Congress.
Temple Street, late 19th century, view south with Center Church on right, showing canopy of elm trees and iron gates. Courtesy of Preservation Connecticut.
New Haven Green, A Restoration Plan, 1986. Parisky Associates and Quennell Rothschild Associates.