Geronimo Tequila Bar & Southwest Grill

Built 1865 as a residential building in the popular Italianate style, 271 Crown Street has largely stayed the same by adapting to the changing dynamic of Crown Street and has outlasted a majority of its original neighboring residential buildings.



According to the 1981 report done by the Connecticut Historical Society, 271 Crown was built for James M. Mason and his family. The 1888 Sanborn map of New Haven reflects his residency there (Figure 1). Mason owned a clothing store at 446 Chapel Street and was also the Clerk of the New Haven School District.



Built as a three-story, load-bearing masonry structure with a shallow flat roof and cupola, broad projecting roofline with modillion cornice and denticular molding supported by corner consoles, the building reflects the popular Italianate architectural style of the time period (1850s-1870s). The front façade is five bays wide with regularly spaced window openings with sandstone lintel and sill. The second story front has a circular window which was not original.The first floor storefront is a 1965 addition with a standing-seas metal roof over two large display days and center entry porch.



The building belonged to James M. Mason until the 1911 Sanborn map reflects the dwelling belonged to a C.A.F. Phizen Meyer (Figure 3). In 1913, the building belonged to Nathan Cohen. The building was home to the Book & Gavel Club in the early twentieth century, a society of the Yale Law School. The New Haven directories in 1914-1915 display the residential building as vacant until its most prominent resident, Yale D. Bishop, moved into the home in 1916. Yale D. Bishop according to the New Haven directories (Figure 4), was an insurance adjuster and proprietor at The Colonnade restaurant in West Haven. Additionally, he was the owner of Hotel Bishop in 1074 Chapel Street.



Bishop occupied 271 Crown from 1916 until 1949, a time period during which reflects a significant changing dynamic on Crown Street. When 271 Crown was originally built in 1865, the Sanborn maps displayed a highly residential neighborhood occupying Crown Street. However, the 1923 Sanborn Map with paste-overs until 1930 (Figure 5) shows how buildings along Crown were increasingly becoming commercial and the building to the right of 271 Crown was torn down and converted into a gas station.



In 1949 Yale D. Bishop presumably passes away as the directory from that year shows a conversion of the originally single occupant home, to holding multiple residents. Among the residents listed is a Mrs. Bishop, presumably widowed and taking on boarders. In 1965, 271 Crown is back to having a single owner/resident listed as Paul Covington. With this change, the original entry porch was replaced by a storefront addition. The addition of the storefront to the building clearly demonstrates the impact of Crown Street’s conversion from a residential street to a commercial and retail street. 271 Crown manages to adapt to this change in dynamic through the first floor conversion into a storefront with apartment units in the second and third floors.



In 1969 the China Trading Company occupied the first floor storefront and stayed there until 1999. Owned by Grace C. and You Dong Hom, 271 Crown not only has converted into a commercial/residential building, but it also reflects the changing demographic of the area.  In 1981 the CT Historical Commission reported the primary threat to building as renewal, and deterioration of neighborhood.



In 2003 271 Crown became home to the Chai Society, a Yale members only Jewish club maintaining the first floor storefront and upper floor apartment units. 2007 marks the year Geronimo Tequila Bar & Restaurant moved into the first floor store front and expanded the storefront into a raised outdoor dining/bar patio that abuts the sidewalk. Geronimo is a widely popular restaurant in New Haven attracting a primarily Yale associated, young crowd. The upper floors continue to be rented out as multiple apartment units.



Overall, 271 Crown has remained largely the same structure but its adaptations to function reflect its change in surrounding urban landscape from residential to commercial/retail.