Era: Early-Mid 19th Century



Historic Name: Horace Thompson House



Neighborhood: Wooster Square/Mill River (Originally the New Township Neighborhood)



Area: Eastern side of Olive Street between Lyon and Grand Streets.  The area features a mixture of commercial, residential, and industrial architecture dating from the mid 19th Century through mid 20th Century.



Historical Tenants:



1840 – Horace Thompson (then 87 Olive)



1851 – Horace Thompson



1913 - Mrs. Mary Keough



-       John F. Callahan



1969 – Amendola Ralph & Bartholemew



2009 – Robert Nichols



Building Description:



Height: 2 ½ stories



Dimensions: 25’ X 48’ north wing; 3’ x 21’ south wing, 7’ X 17’



Building materials: Clapboard (interior), Brick (exterior), Cut stone (foundation)



Structural System: Wood frame, Load-bearing masonry, Post and beam



Roof: Gable (to street), Asphalt Shingle, 3 Bay side hall plan façade, Fully pedimented façade gable, Original 6/6 window sash has been replaced by 2/2 and 1/1 sash, in the early 20th century



Windows: Federal style head on the 1st story and incised head on 2nd story



Chimney: Central



Porch: Columns on the front entry porch (original Greek revival style) have been replaced by Italiante style scroll sawn brackets; however the front doorway’s original flanking sidelights and moldings remain intact.



Additions: An integral 2½ story wing and several smaller additions project from the year of the main block. On original site with minimum alterations



Positioning: Exterior visible from public road, interior accessible



History of the Building:



Horace Thompson, a prominent and prosperous local mid-19th century builder and joiner, built 157 Olive Street for himself (most likely with his own hands). Thompson maintained his successful joiners shop at the rear of his property. The house reflects the early development of Olive Street as a primarily residential area. Horace was listed as living at this address by 1840 in the New Haven City Directory.  He was most likely employed in the construction of other nearby residences in the William, Lyon, and St. John Street areas.



Today 157 Olive Street is a currently operating as a two-family home.  It was most recently sold on April 3, 2009 for around $370,000.  It boasts 5 bedrooms, 20 bathrooms, and approximately 2,924 square feet of interior space.  The property has a lot size of 6,970 square feet and was built in 1880.



History of Residential Olive Street:



The New Township area, first developed in the early- to mid-18th Century expansion of the town, constituted the land to the east of the creek.  By the end of the century and the peak of maritime prosperity in New Haven, the neighborhood was the flourishing center of the seaport. Around this time it acquired its name, the ‘New Township,’ a title that reveals “both the maritime community’s confidence of future growth and also a sense of separateness from the rest of the town.” (Brown 179)



The plan to build the Farmington Canal in 1825 heightened demand for real estate in the area and brought about the construction of Wooster Square, a symbol of the community’s sense of status. By the 1830s it was becoming a more densely populated residential area:



“William Street from Olive to Franklin was opened by William Lefflingwell and Abraham Bradley in 1830 for the benefit of adjoining pastures…. A few years later Sidney M. Stone made a trade in the purchase of the pasture lot through the center of which opened Lyon Street from Olive to Bradley Street, securing a tier of building lots on the other side…. As the new crossroads were being opened and the new business enterprises began to develop on the Easter district of the city, quite a number of merchants and traders began to become interested and influenced to make investments and purchases of lots and parcels of the lands or the erection of tenement houses for sale, or rent…. ” (Morse)



While the failure of the canal in 1837 meant an end to the boom of development, it was not long until plans for the railroad—the state’s first—bolstered new hope for the community’s economic success. James Brewster, a carriage maker, built the railroad in 1839 along the eastern edge of the township. His carriage factory and the ‘industrial park’ he built around it marked the historical transition of the New Township from a maritime center to one of manufacturing. Up sprang the New Haven Clock Company, the Candee Rubber Boot Company and many more.  The industrial golden age of New Haven lasted from 1835 to 1865.



In architectural character the community remained self-contained.  The area exhibited satellite village clusters with side streets housing many skilled artisans and laborers and Chapel and Wooster Square boasting the more affluent homes of the heads of industries. Yet despite the lack of drastic outward change, over time the neighborhood suffered.  Post-revolution, most of the industry moved, primarily to Winchester. With the influx of foreign labor in the 1890s  (primarily Italian), the upper-middle class and factory owners fled the area. By the time of the depression the area was described as one of New Haven’s major slums and some of the older buildings, falling on disrepair, were torn down.



“Gasoline stations have been one of the chief reasons for the elimination of old time dwellings in these downtown neighborhoods, while another reason is the desire, in the present period of economic stress, to demolish non-income producing buildings so as to reduce the taxes upon the property… within the last few months the brownstone and brick dwellings at Chapel and Olive Streets have been torn down… today few of the ancient buildings, which spoke of the days when the wealthy resided there, remain standing.” (Atteres)



Yet, despite the economic downfall of the area—or perhaps, because of it—the architecture of the historic area, for the most part, remained unchanged. In the 1940s the New Township area narrowly avoided complete demolition by aggressive urban planning efforts, but by the 1960s the character of the neighborhood met new appreciation and the Redevelopment Agency’s Rehabilitation Program instated new zoning practices to preserve the area as a historic district:



 “Objectives: The major area of the Project is the residential portion anchored on the Wooster Square Green and extending from Olive Street to the new line of Interstate Route 91 and from a point below Wooster Street to the northernmost boundary.  The improvement and protection of this neighborhood will require the acquisition of a site for a new school and community center and the site of the Sacred Heart School for new residential construction.  The main neighborhood will be insulated from heavily travelled Water Street and its commercial-industrial frontage by the closing of Warren, Brewery and Brown Streets between Wooster and Water Streets and by the clearance of the predominantly industrial area north of this street facility.” (Redevelopment and Renewal Plan, 1961)



Sources:



Atteres, Paul. Squire Mix Place. August 1932, The Dana Archive.



 Brown, Elizabeth Mills. New Haven: A Guide to Architecture and Urban Design. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976. (p. 179-182)



 Manuscripts & Archives, Yale University. With Brothers & Clark, Hall & Peck Records. Group 1820, Series II, Boxes 1130,1131, and 1134.



 Morse, Gardner.  Statement by Gardner Morse Regard Conditions In and About 1824-37. 1887, The Dana Archive.



 New Haven Museum. New Haven Historical Society. Historic Resources Inventory. February 1981.



 Redevelopment and Renewal Plan For the Wooster Square Project Area. New Haven, CT. Adopted 1958 and amended 1961.