Yale-China Association

The house at 442 Temple St. has sat at the corner of Temple and Trumbull since 1851, when it was built for a prominent New Haven tailor. Since then, it has been home to Yale professors and Yale offices alike. Its striking red exterior with Downingesque qualities makes the building seem anomalous to the commercial and monumental buildings nearby. Mirroring the cottage qualities of the Downing residences, its rustic feel still serves to welcome visitors off the highway into the loftier buildings of Yale. Owned by the university since the early twentieth century, the building has housed a variety of Yale affiliates. The Yale-China Association now occupies the entirety of the building after having occupied parts of it since the mid-twentieth century.  

A.A. Thompson (Partner, Thompson & Pekham, tailors), 1851-1869

Mark Bailey (Yale Professor of Elocution), 1869-1914

Bailey Family, 1914-1928 (Trinity Church’s Rev. Charles O. Scoville lived there in 1915)

Yale University, 1928-Present (Rental office space, 1928-1965; Yale-China Association, Office for International Students and Scholars (OISS), and janitorial staff (upstairs only), 1965-1997; Yale-China Association and OISS, 1997-2008; Yale-China Association, 2008-present)

Before the construction of the building in 1851, the intersection of Temple and Trumbull streets was home to Mrs. Apthorp’s School and Home for young ladies from 1825-38. The school was moved in 1838 so that New Haven could extend Temple Street. Since A.A. Thompson constructed his home, 442 Temple has been home to the current building, consistently but with additions (3).

Since the house was built, the intersection has become far less residential, with most buildings surrounding it now almost entirely owned by Yale (7). The 1911 Sanborn map shows mostly houses surrounding then Mark Bailey’s house, along with longstanding Yale buildings further down the block on Hillhouse. 

Built in 1851 for A.A. Thompson, a partner in Thompson & Peckham tailors, the house at 442 Temple St. has served a variety of purposes (2). After Thompson moved out, the house was the home of Yale elocution professor Mark Bailey from 1869-1914. In 1928, his family sold it to Yale University, who used it as mixed office space until 1965. In 1965, it became home to a variety of student groups and to Yale’s janitorial staff (2). Many of these groups, like the Yale-China Association, had been displaced from the offices of the Berkeley Quadrangle, which was razed to make room for Berkeley College in the 1930s (1). The Yale-China Association’s temporary home at 442 Temple has slowly become permanent. Originally, the Yale-China Association shared the first-floor space with the Office for International Students and Scholars (OISS), and the janitorial staff used the second floor. When the janitorial staff relocated, Yale-China was in the midst of expansion and applied to Yale to get the upstairs portion. When Yale OISS relocated down the street on Temple, Yale-China got full use of the building (1). 

What is now the Yale-China Association was founded as the Yale Foreign Missionary Society in 1901 in a bout of religious fervor on Yale’s campus. Quickly, it became focused on educational, rather than evangelical tasks (9). Over the course of much political change in China, the Yale-China Association adapted and now works on cultural understanding between Yale and China (8). The Yale-China Association uses 442 Temple St. as its main offices for such work and also as a place to host events such as Lunarfest for the Chinese New Year. 

The Yale-China Association has a lengthy history with this building and has seen it through many changes. Though the house was always pristinely maintained on the exterior because of its proximity to the highway and the building’s role as a “gateway” to campus, the building had been subject to Yale’s “deferred maintenance” practice (1). Deferred maintenance allowed very basic surface repairs to the interior of buildings. Thus, the Yale-China Association itself was responsible for much of the interior renovations of the the 1990s. The main room now serves as a home to Yale-China artifacts and a meeting space for the Yale-China Association. 

Situated on the corner of Temple and Trumbull streets, the house at 442 Temple St. sits a stone’s throw away from one of the first Yale University signs off the highway (1). Yale used to call it a “gateway” building, and as such, they immaculately preserved 442 Temple’s shingled exterior and Italianate porches even as the inside deteriorated (1). It is situated on a block on which Yale owns every building with the exception the Mormon church adjacent to the Yale-China Association. It looks out onto the commercial Whitney Avenue but sits across from uniquely Yale buildings such as the Berzelius tomb. Its bright red exterior contrasts with the monumental, neoclassical style across the street. The building is interestingly situated at the intersection of residential property on Temple Street, commercial property on Whitney, and Yale’s property, with a hodgepodge of architectural styles and building uses. 

442 Temple St. has deceiving looks. Its bright red shingles and perfect paint make it feel out of place and strange, rather than a part of a legacy of American architectural history. But past researchers of the site aptly describe it as a “very rare, early example of a Downingesque bracketed cottage” (2). Like many of the buildings on Trumbull and Hillhouse, it offers an interesting and distinct architectural style (2).

The house itself is an odd shape. It would be a square, were it not for its side and rear additions. It is unknown when these side and rear additions were installed, but photos show that it must have been before the 1950s (6). The façade on Temple Street has a long one-story wing, which could have originally been a porch but no longer serves as such (2). The main room of the house has a one-story octagonal bay window. The entrance on Temple is plain. On Trumbull, the French doors have projecting cornices on brackets with pendants. The upper windows are plain. 

Inside, the main room is large and open, home to many Yale-China Association events, with seating on the octagonal bay window looking out onto Berzelius and Whitney Avenue. Yale-China renovated this room within the past ten years (1). The Trumbull Street side of the house has a small office space. Upstairs, more typical office space houses various Yale-China purposes

The Yale University Building Plans show the complex inside space of Yale-China, which resulted from its add-ons. In these plans the two intricate sets of stairs are visible, one in the back by the first floor kitchen and one in the center by the main hall. The stairs also lead downstairs to a spacious basement with an oil burner and lots of storage space that Yale-China uses (5). 

(1) Chapman, Nancy (Former Executive Director of the Yale-China Association). In discussion with the author. February 8, 2018.

(2) Ryan, Susan. “442 Temple St.” Historic Resources Inventory Building and Structures, September 1981. New Haven Museum, New Haven, CT.

(3) "No. 442 Temple St, Residence of Mark Bailey.” Dana Scrapbook v. 50, p. 109. New Haven Museum, New Haven, CT.

(4) “The House at Temple and Trumbull St. Occupied by Mrs. Apthorp’s School.” Dana Scrapbook, v. 50, p. 115. New Haven Museum, New Haven, CT.

(5) “442 Temple St.” Yale University Building Assignment Plans. RU 4, Box 2, Folder 75. Yale University Manuscripts and Archives, New Haven, CT.

(6) Mrs. R.S. Managun to Yale University, January 8, 1959. Yale University Buildings and Grounds Photographs. RU 703, Box 36, Folder 755. Yale University Manuscripts and Archives, New Haven, CT.

(7) Image of 1911 Sanborn Map. Dana Scrapbook, v. 49, p. 43. New Haven Museum, New Haven, CT.

(8) Chapman, Nancy E., and Jessica C. Plumb. The Yale-China Association: A Centennial History. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2001.

(9) Yale China Association. “Mission, Values, and Vision,” Yalechina.org. < http://www.yalechina.org/about/mission>.