HEART OF THE CITY: THE NEW HAVEN GREEN

On March 24th, SSILL welcomed Christopher Wigren, Deputy Director of Preservation Connecticut to talk about the New Haven Green and its history over the past four hundred years. Christopher explained that town greens historically represented the physical embodiment of a town.

The New Haven Green was a public square and a marketplace in early times.  New England greens are a place to meet and come together as a community.

The New Haven Green has gone through many transitions from how it was during the Puritan days up until current times.  Chris walked the audience through the evolution of the green including its history, the types of buildings that were part of it during certain points in time (the Revolution, expansion of the city in the 19^th century, the “City Beautiful” movement in the early 1900’s, World War II and the Great Depression).

In the 1950’s it was decided that the city and the Green needed some attention. This prompted the “Urban Renewal” program for modernization. Chris talked about Yale’s involvement with building on the perimeter of the Green. Chris’ talk was accompanied by historical photos depicting how the Green looked in early days, maps and photos of city plans, and photos of how the Green looks in modern day times.  Chris did point out that the landscaping on the Green has not changed much in the past 200 years. The feedback received from the presentation was very enthusiastic, as many of the attendees have requested that Chris be invited back to SSILL.

To learn more about Chris’ work on the project and other Connecticut projects, please visit their website at:  https://preservationct.org