Fair Haven Heights - Architecture

Architecture

Originally, the Heights was generally fields and woods. In the 18th and 19th centuries, this area saw the construction of many homes in the Victorian Gothic style. Spacious homes were built by successful businessmen high above the river on East Grand Avenue, Clifton Street, Sherland Avenue, Lenox Street and Quinnipiac Avenue.

James F. Babcock, a lawyer and publisher of the New Haven Palladium newspaper built a large Victorian Gothic home on 30 acres (120,000 m2) of land between East Grand Avenue and Clifton Street. The present day address is 89 Sherland Avenue. A few years later the house, two barns and a carriage house were sold. The Babcock home was altered and two more homes were built. Arched woodwork decorates the eaves and high gables. On the southern part of what was the Babcock estate at 154 East Grand Avenue can be found the Victorian Gothic home of the Moody family. Lucius Moody was a successful insurance agent. his wife, Dr. Mary Blair Moody was the first woman physician in the area. Sharp gables, porches and bays, and decorative woodwork complete this example of wooden Victorian Gothic. Two Victorian Gothic cottages remain at 106 and 112 Sherland Avenue.

The Charles Ives home originally was built on Clifton Street on land that is now Fairmont Park. The Ives redstone walls and gates remain. Charles Ives, a lawyer, not to be confused with the composer, Charles Edward Ives, was a member of the Connecticut General Assembly and Speaker of the House in the mid-19th century. The Ives’ Victorian Gothic home was designed by Rufus Russell. In the early 1920s the Ives’ property was purchased by the City of New Haven to become Fairmont Park. The Ives’ home was moved across the street, and made into two two-family homes. (151-153 and 159-161 Clifton Street). Further down Clifton Street at 80 and 84 stand two Greek Revival homes on high cellars.

The Henry Lancraft house was built on Lenox Street in the Victorian Gothic style. The Lancraft brothers were builders and oystermen in the late 19th century. A redstone wall remains on the property with an entrance at 120 Lexington Avenue.

Coming down the hill to 61 East Grand Avenue one finds the Foote-Chamberlain house. Built in the 1830s in the Italian Villa style it sits above a stone wall topped by an iron fence. In the late 19th century the house was renovated with the addition of a veranda, two ells, a balustraded roof and scalloped shingles.

All along Quinnipiac Avenue one can find homes that were built by families in the oyster business, banking and provisions. The Barnes Victorian Gothic home can be found at 1212 Quinnipiac Avenue. Henry Barnes and his neighbor Horace H. Strong along with Franklin H. Hart were wholesale dealers in meat, seafood and vegetables. At 965 Quinnipiac Avenue stands a home built by Willet Hemingway. Descendants of the family continued to live in the home for years after it was built in the late 1840s. At the turn of the 20th century changes were made in the house that altered it to the Victorian Carpenter Gothic style. In 2002 the now 3 family home was purchased by Doug and Cheri Forbush who continue to occupy and maintain it. The bright pink house, located at the corner of Hemingway Street and Quinnipiac Avenue, serves as a useful landmark while driving or walking through this historic neighborhood.