Ann Taylor

The Chapel Street district that existed at the founding of New Haven is quite different from the downtown area we recognize today. New Haven’s founding 9 square grid included the downtown section of Chapel Street, which includes today’s address 968 Chapel (formerly 54-55 Chapel Street in 1841), but was once a residential block along the New Haven Green. Chapel Street between Temple and College was home to residents like Hezekiah Howe, a New Haven Bookseller whom Howe Street is named after, and who also printed the first edition of Webster’s Dictionary. An 1824 map named “Doolittle’s Map of 1824” from the Dana Collection depicts the nature of this block.

Dana Collection Scrapbook, Chapel 2, Image 160 Dana Collection Scrapbook, Chapel 2, Image 206 Jefferies & Co., “Store, China Department,” New Haven Free Public Library Digital Collections, accessed September 24, 2015, http://nhfpl.omeka.net/items/show/225