Hockey House

When seeing the Hockey House at 380 Crown St. for the first time, your attention might be drawn to the overlarge wooden doors. These doors, which originally served as the entrance to a now-demolished Yale building, typify the house’s energy: surprisingly variegated, but stylistically coherent. Renovated in 2011 by Pike International specifically for the Yale Men’s Hockey Team, the second story’s bluish metal façade appears to clash with the first floor’s mottled concrete, until the purple front door manages to catch your eye and the motif. Inside is further evidence of the house’s adaptive reuse, with walls composed of recycled wood, and a spacious living room that still hints at the building’s past life as a commercial space. Non-athletic undergraduate tenants live there now, but the house continues to pop out from the block.

1884*: Harriet F. Robinson – residential (most likely a single-family home)

1927*: Alfonso Palmieri – mixed-use (residential/commercial)

1952*: Frederick J. Santarcangelo – mixed-use (residential/commercial)

1959-1973: John & Sal Beauty Salon (owned by Salvatore Benedetto and John Esposito) – mixed-use (residential/commercial)

1973-2011: John Esposito – mixed-use (residential/commercial), eventually abandoned

2011-present: Pike International – residential (rooming house now leased to Yale undergraduates)

*date ranges are unknown

The 1886 Sanborn Co. map indicates that 380 Crown, along with the adjoining plot, were owned by a Harriet F. Robinson. These buildings were most likely single-family homes; in 1924, this was still the case. (One residential real estate website states that the house presently standing at the address was actually constructed in 1920, meaning the original structure would have been torn down.) In 1927, Alfonso Palmieri—ostensibly the homeowner—added his garage (18, 19). The house would still have been wood-frame (15), and the garage introduced concrete and “rubberoid” materials to the site. By the 1950s, the ground floor of the building had been converted into a store owned by Frederick J. Santa (22). Besides work on the storefront, alterations during the decade included enlargements to the garage and the back porch, indicating that attention and money were still invested in the residential portion of the structure (20, 21). 

1959 was a momentous year in the history of 380 Crown. This was when Salvatore Benedetto and John Esposito—the proprietors of John & Sal Beauty Salon—filed for a permit to shake up the building (23, 24). Their construction resulted in the shape and structure we see today (16, 17). Besides the rear section appended to the existing house, they also replaced the old wood frame with steel, and incorporated more concrete into the building. The last documented construction activity in the beauty parlor period came in 1973, when Esposito did more work on the storefront (25). It is unclear when the salon failed, but though the property remained under the Esposito name until 2011, it was abandoned and boarded up long before Pike International purchased the plot.

The renovation in 2011 is better described as a rebuilding; the abandoned structure was completely gutted and imagined anew. Pastor acknowledged that the renovation was a “very unusual process.” The Yale Men’s Hockey team had already hired Pike to design a house for them before the company had purchased the derelict property or hired a designer. Pastor, employing principles of ecological sustainability, needing to abide by rooming house regulations, and hoping to pay homage to Eero Saarinen’s Ingalls Rink, produced an idiosyncratic plan that Pike’s contractors speedily executed. The renovation was completed in September of that year.

(Recycled materials in the house include black-stained oak floors, railings, and stainless-steel balusters from a house in Millbrook, NY, deconstructed in 2001. That same house supplied the Brazilian granite that adorns the bar and kitchen. A 16-foot-long oak church pew was taken from St. Bernadette Parish in New Haven and placed in the living room area as permanent seating. Bars and decks were transplanted from a bowling alley in Hamden, CT. The paneled oak door of Yale’s former Brewster Hall became the distinctive decoration at the entrance. Blackboards from a school house in Vernon, CT now serve as backsplash in the kitchen, and the metal kitchen sink came from another recently-demolished home. If that was not enough, the same wood used to board up the abandoned house was reused in the sculptural walls in the basement, kitchen, and living room; and rafters from the roof were repurposed into an entrance screen separating the living room from the entrance. The final touch: a Saarinen sketch for Ingalls Rink was converted into a mural and painted onto a basement wall.)

The hockey team, lamentably, sullied the house to the point where they moved out after only five years. After sitting empty for a year, Pike refurbished the house (with new interior paint schemes), and a new group of Yale undergraduates, affiliated with a co-ed fraternity, became tenants in fall of 2017.

The history of 380 Crown parallels the arc of American downtowns, adhering to the trends of commercialization over the course of the 20^th century, and the burgeoning forces of gentrification in the 21^st century. There has been a house of one form or another at 380 Crown Street since at least 1886. Early additions to the structure included a garage, denoting the automobile’s democratization and increasing presence in cities. By 1927, there are records of the building being used as a commercial space: the first floor was used as a store, though the second story remained residential. This layout proved long-lasting, even as the property changed hands. Notably, the owners of the property in the 20^th century appear to have been of Italian descent; 380 Crown passed from Palmieri, to Santarcangelo, to Benedetto and Esposito.

Though that block of Crown Street has remained dense with auto repair shops throughout the decades, it appears as if this building was used as a plumber’s office before 1959. After that year, 380 Crown became the address of the John & Sal Beauty Salon. The proprietors completely overhauled the building before opening their salon—which likely became a node in the surrounding community. City zoning regulations required that they continue to use the second floor as a residential unit; perhaps Benedetto or Esposito lived above their shop with their families. But, like so many other small downtown businesses over the latter half of the century, the salon ultimately failed; the property stood abandoned for a significant amount of time before Pike bought it for only $90,000.

When Pike, needing a house to develop for the hockey team, purchased 380 Crown, no Yale students lived in the area, nor did anyone expect to see student migration to this block. (The parking lots and auto-related businesses, which remain today, further accounted for the seemingly low price.) Fernando Pastor, the designer on the project, believes the construction of the Hockey House “pushed the boundaries.” This was also the first house or apartment that Pike developed beyond restoring a structure to livable conditions. Almost twice the amount of money that was spent in purchasing the neglected lot—$165,000—was poured into the renovation. Today, city tax assessors value the property at $378,500. Pastor and Pike have since converted another unused lot at the end of the block into two new rooming houses; Yale students, both undergraduate and graduate, have filled the houses in between.

In a 2011 New Haven Independent article on Pike’s development in New Haven, Shmully Hecht, the company’s founder, proudly declared he was clearing out the “cocaine central of New Haven.” That Pike is an agent of gentrification is obvious; the company spent aggressively during the recession of 2008-2009, consolidating its hold on over 1,000 apartments across the city—including a conspicuous volume around downtown, close to Yale’s campus. Pike had foresight; rents continue to climb as more students push the radius of upscale development further away from campus. The history of the Hockey House also makes clear who has been displaced along the way.

But the flow the Hockey House has ushered in is also contentious because of its future. Even as Yale continues to invest in the residential college system, students still seek independent spaces away from campus, defying the university’s wishes. (In the 2017-2018 year, more than a quarter of juniors, and almost 40 percent of seniors are living off-campus; Yale hosts an off-campus housing fair for graduate students, faculty, and staff only.) But this new sort of rooming house seems to offer a reasonable compromise for the school and its students: strictly regulated by zoning code, these structures are safe as well as spacious; and since they are designed for groups hoping to live together, they might preserve suite dynamics. In addition, such spaces can serve as foci for alternative social scenes—potential rebuttals to fraternities that seem perpetually embroiled in troubling scandals.

From its earliest history as a family home, through its mixed use as a combined store and residential unit, past its time as a beauty salon amid car shops, and up to its current state as a dual marker of architectural innovation and urban renewal, the salient story of the Hockey House has always been reflective. 

The Crown address situates the Hockey House a block removed from the Chapel shopping district. Historically, Crown Street has been one of the least densely populated streets in downtown New Haven, instead rife with automobile service companies. The block between Park and Howe continues the trend today: rooming houses and multi-unit residential buildings are interrupted by various flat spaces, including Enterprise Rent-A-Car, the Crown Towing company complex, and a parking lot for a commercial stretch of Chapel Street. The Hockey House’s distinct colors and style stand out from the businesses, but also from the other residential buildings on the block, most of which are of more standard forms. On the Howe corner, however, stands another rooming house designed by the same architect, Fernando Pastor, demonstrating similar principles of reuse. The various residential addresses are all inhabited by Yale students, resulting in an atypical blend of non-luxury New Haven businesses and off-campus student housing in the same vicinity.

Two stories plus a basement, the house looks like it was constructed over time, in separate phases. This appearance is purposeful: the building’s history was highlighted during its most recent renovation, and different segments of the house retain distinct appearances. The gabled portion of the roof covers the middle segment, which contains the kitchen, living room space, and an ADA-compliant bedroom and bathroom on the first floor, and three more bedrooms on the second (see photo 1). This segment’s façade was finished with blue-gray metal layering, which contrasts with the underlying brick and the dark concrete used in the very front of the building (2-5). 

Above both other segments of the house, the roof is flat, creating an (inaccessible) balcony in the front and an extended roof deck above the rear (1-2, 6). Stairs connect the middle segment to the back of the building, which is on a lower level and contains four more bedrooms with high, lofted ceilings. The side of the back segment is finished with cream-colored concrete masonry unit (CMU) blocks, which also cover the entire side of the house facing Howe Street (5-7).

Inside the house, reused materials predominate. Recycled wood was used in crafting several sculptural walls (10, 11). Exposed steel beams—with which the older wood frame was replaced in the mid-20^th century—run along the entire ceiling of the middle segment’s first floor, continuing from the kitchen to the bathroom (14). Hardwood floors were added during the renovation. (See Site History for an extended list of reused materials and their sources). As per rooming house regulations, exit signs hang above the front and back doors (12-13). A ramp just inside the front door provides access to the first floor; on either side of the ramp are the stairs leading to the basement and to the second floor.

Given that the building was extensively overhauled in 2011, and refurbished again in 2017, the house is in impeccable condition inside and outside. 

1. “380 Crown St, New Haven, CT 06511 - Estimate and Home Details | Trulia.” Trulia Real Estate Search. Accessed February 26, 2018. https://www.trulia.com/p/ct/new-haven/380-crown-st-new-haven-ct-06511--2005337532.
2. 380 Crown LLC. “Building Permit to Renovate Interior,” June 9, 2011.
3. Andruilli, Frank. “Building Permit to Remodel Storefront,” September 28, 1973.
4. Bass, Paul. “Pike Builds An Empire -- & Rebuilds A City.” New Haven Independent, July 8, 2011. http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/pike_builds_an_empire_--_rebuilds_city/.
5. Benedetto, Salvatore. “Building Permit to Erect Sign,” March 14, 1960.
6. John & Sal Beauty Salon. “Building Permit to Renovate and Remodel Structure,” October 15, 1959.
7. “Nomination Form for Chapel Street Historic District.” National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form. United States Department of the Interior Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service, November 1978.
8. O’Daly, Britton, and Oct 31, 2017. “Off-Campus Housing Rate Falls.” Yale Daily News. Accessed February 26, 2018. https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2017/10/31/off-campus-housing-rate-falls/.
9. Palmieri, Alfonso. “Building Permit to Add Concrete Garage,” September 12, 1927.
10. Pastor, Fernando. Interview by Marc Shkurovich. Phone, February 24, 2018.
11. Sanborn Map Company of New York. “Insurance Maps of New Haven Connecticut,” 1886.
12. ———. “Insurance Maps of New Haven Connecticut,” 1924.
13. ———. “Insurance Maps of New Haven Connecticut,” 1973.
14. Santa, Frederick J. “Building Permit to Remodel Store Front,” September 13, 1955.
15. Santarcangelo, Frederick J. “Building Permit to Englarge Rear Open Porch,” October 6, 1953.
16. ———. “Building Permit to Expand Garage,” August 17, 1952.
17. Sherk, F. Allen. Letter to Salvatore Benedetto and John Esposito. “Decision from Board of Zoning Appeals,” November 12, 1959.
18. Uniat, Lindsey. “Men’s Hockey Moves to New House.” Yale Daily News, October 20, 2011. https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2011/10/20/mens-hockey-moves-to-new-house/.
19. “Vision Government Solutions.” Accessed February 24, 2018. http://gis.vgsi.com/newhavenct/Parcel.aspx?pid=16662.