22 Lynwood Place

Rich, sophisticated Queen Anne finishes define this 2ó story multi family home. Painted clapboard and scalloped details frame a projecting bay atop a brick base. Elegant cornice molding and subtle bosses in relief give a graceful air to this home. Built between 1888 and 1897 on the then-fashionable, sleepy Lynwood Place to comply with newly-issued city fire codes, the residence originally housed professionals

working at local businesses or industries; Yale students lived here as early as 1908. 

Most recently, 22 Lynwood Place has been home to members of the Yale Sailing team. 22 Lynwood also serves as a model of some of New Haven’s news and legal drama; formerly owned by Wendell C. Harp’s Renaissance Management Company, the title of the property was ‘sold’ for $0 to a new limited liability company, with Wendell Harp’s son Matthew as principal, in 2011, the year of the elder Mr. Harp’s death – a year in which Renaissance owed over $1 million in unpaid taxes. Since then, Mr. Harp’s wife, formerly a state senator, has become mayor of New Haven, and much of Renaissance’s tax debt has disappeared.

1927: Clarence B. Davis, Maurice C. Resnik, and Mrs. Eliza J. Treat

1970: Stephen Parks and William Goodrich

2007: Members of the Yale Sailing team

Nearby streets were home to many of the communities of individuals who worked at the nearby carriage manufacturing plants. The Dwight Street Historic District was largely undeveloped until the 1820s. At that time, Elm Street (then known as Samaritan Street) “was marked by a scattered collection of lowly shacks” in which dwelt an impoverished African-American community working agricultural jobs at nearby farms [7, 19].

Industry became an essential part of New Haven’s economy, and concomitant with the rise of the arms, hardware, and paper manufacturing businesses, the Town of New Haven set out a plan to connect these factories with northern New England and the St. Lawrence River by the development of a canal to Farmington. Population continued to grow in pace with the manufacturing economy, and speculators gobbled up large tracts of land around Dwight Street, hoping to capitalize on this growth by establishing new streets and homes [ibid.].

In particular, the carriage manufacturing industry grew to be an essential component of New Haven’s economy; indeed, New Haven would soon be one of the global leaders of carriage manufacturing. Henry Hooker and John Osborne opened a carriage shop in 1827 across Park Street from present-day Davenport and Pierson Colleges. The Dwight Street neighborhood became an area for artisans and laborers, many of whom were employed at one of the nearby carriage factories. In 1880, the Hooker and Osborne Company sold land that would become the fashionable Lynwood Place, whose structures were built to comply with new fire codes [ibid.].

The current home at 22 Lynwood Place was constructed between 1888 and 1897 [1]. Prior to its subdivision, the current plot of land on which 22 Lynwood Pl. sits was part of 12 Lynwood, and the street was known as Lynwood Street until the early 1920s [20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25].

22 Lynwood Place is currently owned by 22 Lynwood LLC. The title to the property was transferred to 22 Lynwood LLC from Wendell C. Harp’s Renaissance Management Company in 2011 following Mr. Harp’s death. [9, 10]. Renaissance Management topped Connecticut’s Delinquent Taxpayer Accounts list for years with over $1 million tax liability in 2011, and it seems that the ownership restructuring may have been part of son Matthew Harp’s reforms of the family business [11]. 22 Lynwood LLC shares its corporate seat with Renaissance Management Company, and Matthew Harp remains the principal of 22 Lynwood LLC [12, 13]. Future researchers could consider further investigating this connection and the unfolding of new ownership of 22 Lynwood Place.

Renaissance acquired the property in August of 1974 for $54,000 [9]. Unfortunately, the tax records of the City of New Haven do not extend further back than this year; we can nevertheless piece together significant portions of the ownership history from building permits filed over the years. A permit from May 1982 cites Ed Bennett as the owner [6]; Mr. Bennett’s relationship to Renaissance Management is unclear.

In December of 1966, owner George Napels, who resided in North Haven at the time, filed a permit to convert the site to a tenement, i.e., a site occupied by three or more families [4]. Since 1966, the home has been a tenement-style rental, divided into three residential units.

Before Mr. Napels, Minnie Davis and her estate were the owners of 22 Lynwood, evidenced by building permits from 1941 and 1921 for the addition of a fire escape and interior alterations, respectively [2, 3]. No property line is visible between 22 Lynwood and 26 Lynwood on the 1924, 1964, and 1973 Sanborn Maps; both were owned by Wendell C. Harp and Renaissance Management Company from 1974 to 2011.

In 2011, 22 Lynwood LLC became the owner of 22 Lynwood Place, and in 2014 26 Lynwood LLC became the owner of 26 Lynwood Place. Perhaps future studies of 22 Lynwood Place should further investigate the connection between these two sites.

Details concerning the tenants of the building over time are murkier. Members of Yale Sailing have resided at 22 Lynwood since 2007, and it has significantly shaped the team’s social life. City directories over the years (e.g., 1913) have not consistently enumerated the residents of this. Some residents from 1927 and from 1970 are listed above, in “Past Tenants.” Unlike some of the neighboring homes, 22 Lynwood had telephone service by 1970 [14, 15, 16].

Going back further in time, the home was not always inhabited by Yale students; before the home became a tenement, Maurice C. Resnik, an attorney, lived at 22 Lynwood in 1927. Lynwood Place has long been a haunt for Yale students, however. The History of the Yale College Class of 1908 and that of 1914 both mention students living on Lynwood Place during their time as undergraduates, as well as after graduation [17, 18].

Lynwood Place is a small, one-way residential street nestled between Elm Street and Edgewood Avenue. Lined with trees for its short, one-block span, Lynwood offers a reprieve from the bustling Broadway business district nearby. Architectural styles as varied as the simple rowhouse, the Italianate townhouse, and a Neo-Tudor house populate the streetscape, but the Queen Anne mode popular at the time of

Lynwood’s development in the late 19th century predominates [7].

The homes on Lynwood Place are brick, as the street was developed shortly after the promulgation of new fire codes [1].

Originally inhabited by professionals who worked at local businesses, Lynwood Pl. is now undoubtedly intertwined with Yale’s social fabric [8]. Residents of the block include Chabad at Yale, the Sigma Chi fraternity, the Nathan Hale Society, and members of Yale’s lightweight crew team. Indeed, as the university’s frontier has pushed westward, Yale has invested in better lighting for the street; Yale Security now patrols the street and monitors it with cameras [ibid.].

Nearby streets were home to many of the communities of individuals who worked at the nearby carriage manufacturing plants [7]. See the “Site History” section for more information.

22 Lynwood Pl. is a prime example of a modest, middle-class interpretation of a Queen Anne home. On the front (east) façade, a steeply pitched gable roof – common among speculative housing projects of the 1880s – juts forward, its sharp angle accentuated by a projecting cornice held up by elongated, curvilinear brackets [7]. Small bosses and other relief ornamental notes adorn the ends of the cornice. A bay of two full sized windows and one half-sized window extends further from the main structure supported by a sequence of brackets. Above the windows and framed by the cornice, decorative scallops alternate with wood bands of shingles to give a subtle undulating texture to the otherwise horizontal forms. Clapboard set into rectangular panels surrounds the windows on either side. Another projecting bay emphasizes the entrance on the north side of the front façade. This bay likewise has a cornice that extends out of the elevation, with a similar scallop-and-line pattern beneath. Below the second gable, on the second story, is another full-sized window with clapboard on either side. Transitioning between the first and second stories, a bell-shaped skirt and triangular pediment lift the eye from the entrance porch up to the wood detailing of the second and third stories. The pediment gestures towards the Greek Revival style: dentils and incised brackets further decorate the entrance, and slender columns subtly support the overhanging bay. Wood details are painted a slate blue-gray, forming a pleasing juxtaposition with the main brick structure. The first-floor windows are tall and narrow, topped by a simple arched lintel. Thick horizontal elements frame the window from below. Finally, a thick, brown water table runs around the entire building, about two feet off the ground. (Architectural terminology pulled from [1].) 

Building permits reveal few documented modifications to the structure since its construction; some interior alterations occurred in 1921, a fire escape was added in 1941, and the residence became a tenement in 1966. [2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Garbage of various kinds litters the modest front yard.

[1] New Haven Historic Resources Inventory, Dwight Area, (New Haven: The New Haven Preservation Trust, 1984), 522.

[2] Building Department of the City of New Haven. Permit, No. 17520. Lynwood Place, 22. Issued January 3, 1921.

[3] Building Department of the City of New Haven. Permit, No. 25268. Lynwood Place, 22. Issued March 27, 1941.

[4] Building Department of the City of New Haven. Permit, No. 74125. Lynwood Place, 22. Issued December 7, 1966.

[5] Building Department of the City of New Haven. Certificate of Occupancy, No. 3228. Issued May 2, 1968.

[6] Building Department of the City of New Haven. Permit, No. 91562. Lynwood Place, 22. Issued May 25, 1982.

[7] National Register of Historic Places Inventory, Dwight Street Historic District, New Haven, New Haven County, Connecticut, National Register #83001281. 7.2-7.3, 7.60, 8.2-8.6.

[8] Foxhall, Emily. "Yale, meet New Haven: town-gown on Lynwood Place." Yale Daily News, October 21, 2010. Accessed February 23, 2018. https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2010/10/21/yale-meet-new-haventown-gown-on-lynwood-place/.

[9] New Haven Property Lookup, Vision Government Solutions. 2016. Accessed February 14, 2018. http://gis.vgsi.com/newhavenct/Parcel.aspx?Pid=16822.

[10] “Wendell Carl Harp.” New Haven Register, December 7, 2011. Accessed February 26, 2018. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nhregister/obituary.aspx?pid=154913832.

[11] O'Leary, Mary E. "New Haven's Toni Harp says she had no involvement with late husband's business, tax problems." New Haven Register, May 25, 2013. Accessed February 26, 2018. https://www.nhregister.com/connecticut/article/New-Haven-s-Toni-Harp-says-she-had-no-involvement-11393547.php.

[12] 22 Lynwood LLC. Commercial Recording Division, Secretary of State of Connecticut. Accessed February 21, 2018. https://www.concordsots. ct.gov/CONCORD/PublicInquiry?eid=9744&businessID=1021462.

[13] Renaissance Management Company, Inc. Commercial Recording Division, Secretary of State of Connecticut. Accessed February 21, 2018. https://www.concordsots.ct.gov/CONCORD/online?sn=PublicInquiry&eid=9740.

[14] New Haven Directory (New Haven: Price & Lee Co., 1913). 956.

[15] New Haven Directory (New Haven: Price & Lee Co., 1927). 1019, 1395.

[16] New Haven Directory (New Haven: Price & Lee Co., 1970). 123.

[17] History of the Class of 1908, Yale College, Volume 2. 3 vols. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1914. April 2008. Accessed February 22, 2018.

https://books.google.com/books?id=_EQ4AAAAYAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s

[18] History of the Class of 1914, Yale College, Volume 2. 3 vols. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1914. Accessed February 22, 2018.

https://books.google.com/books?id=UF1AAAAAIAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s

[19] “Dwight Street Historic District.” New Haven Preservation Trust. Accessed February 25, 2018. http://nhpt.org/index.php/site/district/dwight_street_historic_district/.

[20] Sanborn Map Company of New York, Insurance Maps of New Haven, Connecticut, Volume 2, 1901, 147.

[21] Sanborn Map Company of New York, Insurance Maps of New Haven, Connecticut, Volume 2, 1886, 48.

[22] Sanborn Map Company of New York, Insurance Maps of New Haven, Connecticut, Volume 2, 1924, 202.

[23] Sanborn Map Company of New York, Insurance Maps of New Haven, Connecticut, Volume 2, 1964, 202.

[24] Sanborn Map Company of New York, Insurance Maps of New Haven, Connecticut, Volume 2, 1973, 202.

[25] Sanborn Map Company of New York, Insurance Maps of New Haven, Connecticut, Volume 2, 1923, 44. Photo taken at the Building Department of the City of New Haven.