United Church Parish House

After relocating from the present-day Yale University Press building at 302 Temple, United Church hired a local architect to produce this Brutalist mixture of exposed concrete and brick in 1961. The structural footprint—two rectangular boxes connected by a shorter, one-story box—prizes symmetry and rectilinear space. This striking hub of community life inverts conventional elevations by dwindling, rather than growing, towards its center. Regardless, United Church, established on the New Haven Green in 1742, retained its colonial heritage in this mid-century expression of urbanism.

The earliest map of 1886 depicts an unidentifiable building on the lot that would become 323 Temple (4). Since 1901, however, the Samuel Hemingway House stood on the lot and belonged to Yale University. In 1959, United Church expressed interest in exchanging its existing Parish House at 302 Temple (today’s Yale University Press) with Yale to acquire 323 Temple (5). The Yale Daily News reported the deal’s acceptance in January of 1960, quoting then-Reverend Alexander Winston as saying, “the church plans a modified colonial-type structure of red brick with white trim” (6). The Parish House Finance Committee was established and hired Dwight Building Company to raze the old Hemingway House (5). Pedersen-Tilney, a local New Haven architect, was chosen to design the house in its signature Brutalist style (5). Since its completion in 1961, the only only one renovation occurred in 2013, which replaced flooring and gave an interior facelift (5). The exterior has remained unchanged. In 2016, the building was appraised at $2.6 million (7).

From its earliest known use, this lot has served noble purposes of civic life. The precursor to the Parish House, Yale’s Samuel Hemingway House hosted Yalies enlisted in the U.S. Air Force during their time in New Haven (6). After settling on the site (see Site History), United Church envisioned a wide range of functions for its new building, namely the expansion of the United Community Nursery School (5).

Since its construction in 1961, the Parish House has continuously hosted numerous service organizations and events, including Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Yale Hunger & Homeless Action Program, Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services, Connecticut Food Bank, and the New Haven Scholarship Fund, among others (5).

Towering structures of adjacent Church Street—Chase Bank, The Taft, and 2 Whitney—loom above the Parish House and render it a mere stage to much grander verticality. Despite its relative stature, the Parish House’s brutalist façade contrasts with the golden window treatments of Chase Bank and the warm red exterior or 2 Whitney. The structure also interacts with Yale’s Timothy Dwight College across Wall Street, a similar composition of brick and white-trimmed colonial windows.

This two-story, symmetrical building emphasizes horizontality above all else. T-shaped concrete slabs repeat along the roof, projecting continuity across the one-story chasm between each two-story rectangle. Concrete also frames the brick siding in orderly quadrants. This exterior subdivision of space—a modern visualization of colonial era scale—masks the building’s larger interior volume. Yet, for all its order, the plan is somewhat unapproachable, with only a slight overhang at the entrance door to suggest invitation to passers-by.

The paralleled exterior disguises dramatically different functions for the two large rectangular spaces: viewed from Temple street, the left contains an open gathering space; the right contains two stories of classrooms and offices. Most importantly, it inverts conventional plans by shrinking—in all 3 dimensions—towards its center, connecting rectangle. Thus, the entranceway serves as a sort of tunnel between two, isolated nodes of activity. The building narrates its own use: all enter through a small chamber to reach the final destination of shared space. In this way the Parish House prizes communal gatherings facilitated through requisite meekness.

(1) Sanborn Map Company of New York, Insurance Maps of New Haven Connecticut, Volume 2, 1973, 208.

(2) Sanborn Map Company of New York, Insurance Maps of New Haven Connecticut, Volume 2, 1924, 208.

(3) Sanborn-Ferris Map Co., Insurance Maps of New Haven, Connecticut Volume 1, 1901, 2.

(4) Sanborn-Ferris Map Co., Insurance Maps of New Haven, Connecticut Volume 1, 1886, 14.

(5) “United Church Parish House, 1958-1963,” Nicole René Atchison, Church Administrator, United Church on the Green, 27 August, 2013.

(6) “University, Church Trade Properties on Temple Street, Yale Daily News (New Haven, CT), Jan. 28, 1960.

(7) “323 Temple Street,” New Haven, CT Online Assessment Database, http://gis.vgsi.com/newhavenct/Default.aspx, accessed 10 February, 2018.