This one-story building on the corner of Chapel St. and Park St. is currently occupied by three businesses: Gag Jr.’s Liquor Shop, Alternate Universe Comics and Cards, and Dunkin’ Donuts. Upon visiting the site, I learned that the owner of the building, who calls himself Gag and also manages the liquor shop, has owned it since 1975. He said the structure has held up pretty well and he intends to keep the building in his family ownership, as it is a great location for foot traffic, being on a corner and so close to Yale.



At the New Haven Museum and Historical Society, I found a 1979 Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation survey of the building. It sited the date of construction as circa 1940 but did not list an architect. The building’s present and historical uses were listed as commercial, and the style of the building is vernacular with modern elements. The materials were listed as composite facing concrete and brick, the roof flat, and the structural system load bearing masonry. The dimensions of the structure are 60 x 40 feet, and the structural and exterior conditions of the site were both listed as excellent. Notable features of the building include: “This building holds three storefronts on Chapel St., one with its entrance in the building’s rounded southeast corner. A pebbly composite material covers the main façade, accented by two narrow inset bands of crushed red-orange glass along the upper section.” Its historical and architectural importance read: “Though cluttered by interior and exterior signs, this post-1931 structure is intact. Reworking of the signage could create an interesting and effective commercial building.”



I also found a Sanborne map from 1956 at the museum, which provided the additional information that the walls are 12 inches thick, the building is 16 feet tall, and there were at the time (and still are) three openings for windows on the first story. I also looked at the museum’s directories dating back to the 1940’s and found that the address of the building was not listed in 1948 but was listed in 1949, so it must have been built at that time. I then checked the directories every 10 years up until the present and found that a variety of shops have been in the building, starting with Merit Laundry at 1179, Greenhouse W. Grocer at 1181, and Bob’s Liquor Store at 1183. It was interesting that 1183 always remained a liquor store, though it changed names a few times, and 1181 was a grocery store until it became a comic store in 1991. But the 1179 address changed stores every time I looked it up, from a cleaners/Laundromat to a driving school to a White Tower restaurant to a Subway to finally a Dunkin’ Donuts. I wonder if that has to do with the fact that it holds the corner location on Chapel and Park.



Finally, I visited Manuscripts and Archives and found memos dating back to 1935 that documented the ownership and tax status of the land on the corner of Chapel and Park. It seems that the plot shifted ownership from Charles Carroll to Eva Peck to Edith Golden to Esther Cuomo between 1935 and 1948. The memos also contained notes about the right to maintain the eaves, blinds, stills and leader pipes in the building and a right of way for previous owners to walk through the building. Accompanying these memos were two sketches (which I have attempted to recreate) from 1947 and 1961 documenting the angles and measurements of the building.