Edge of the Woods

An expansive compound, 379 Whalley Avenue reflects the Modernist movement at the time of the structure’s initial construction. Its long brick austere walls create a sense of density that is interrupted by the levity of the glass and steel portico facing the parking lot. The pedestrian along Whalley Avenue should notice the enclosed porch which served as the original entrance and ticket booth of the structure back when New Haven residents would arrive to see a movie or rock concert. The vast space of the interior has now been repurposed for Edge of the Woods, a supermarket serving organic foods to health-oriented consumers.

S. Simonson Length of tenure is unkown but ownership is noted in Sanborn 1901

E.C. Dow: Length of tenure is unkown but ownership is noted in Sanborn 1901

Maurice Bailey: The Whalley Movie Theater: 1926 – 1944

Maurice Bailey: Whalley Café Cinema: 1944 – 1978

Agora Ballroom: 1982-1983

Twilight Zone: 1983-4

The Metro: 1985

Edge of the Woods 1985 – Present

Residential structures existed on the site before they were demolished in favor of a movie theater on the area in the 1920s. The theater would then be converted into nightclub in the 1980s. Finally, the structure would be converted into a supermarket in the late 1980s.

The site would also experience growth other than the supermarket structure. In 1900, a structure was built towards the back of a lot which would serve as a pillow factory. It would eventually become vacant, but Edge of the Woods, seeing an expansion opportunity, bought the structure in 2012. The bottom floor now serves as a warehouse; the top floor contains two apartments. The property owner and manager of Edge of the Woods is also responsible this structure.

Across the parking lot is a strip mall containing a dry cleaner, tax accountants, and fast food restaurants that was built in 1968. The shared parking lot became a source of contention between the property owner of Edge of the Woods and the owner of the strip mall. When the property was put up for sale, Edge of the Woods proceeded to purchase it. In this manner, Edge of the Woods is not only a supermarket but also a property manager, operating under the corporate name, Dodge Realty LLC. 

The Sanborn maps and the New Haven Atlas of 1911 reveal that the site was first developed at the turn of the 20^th Century as large residential properties. By the 1920s, when Whalley had become increasingly commercial and the property had been sold, the existing structure was demolished, and a small movie house was constructed. The movie house would serve the local neighborhood population for the first twenty years of its existence until a renovation in the 1940s expanded its capacity to seat 945 people. At this point, the movie theater began to receive reels from larger production companies and became increasingly competitive within Maurice Bailey’s portfolio of New Haven movie theaters. Bailey’s theaters closed with his death in 1978.

With the entrance of Rock & Roll into mainstream culture, there was a demand for music venues throughout the country and New Haven. On York Street, Toad’s Place opened its doors in 1975. Agora Ballroom was established at 379 Whalley Avenue in 1983. However, the site would change names annually until 1985, when it would cease its operations as a short-lived music venue.

Meanwhile, a group of yogis had created a vegetarian supermarket on Edgewood Avenue in order to promote their vegetarian lifestyle to the broader public. Looking to expand, they saw an opportunity at the site on Whalley Avenue. Accordingly, they moved into the site in 1986 and have operated their supermarket ever since. It is important to note that Claire’s Corner Copia, the famous vegetarian restaurant, had opened its doors in 1975. Perhaps the emergence of Edge of the Woods suggests a larger sociocultural trend that prioritizes healthy food. If so, the commercial history of 379 Whalley Avenue reflects greater trends in American culture –– in music and in food. 

Edge of the Woods sits on Whalley Avenue, a major thoroughfare in the City of New Haven that is lined with many commercial properties. In fact, Edge of the Woods is only a half-mile from a corporate supermarket, Stop & Shop. On the block-scale, it shares a parking lot with smaller commercial operations across from it. This strip mall and the supermarket are managed by the same property owner. Although Edge of the Woods fits neatly into the Whalley Avenue streetscape, if approached from the North, the structure signals an abrupt border to the quiet residential neighborhood of Beaver Hills. The back of the building and the austerity of the unpainted brick contrasts sharply with the color and detail of the Greek Revival homes along Norton Street. 

Edge of the Wood’s customers likely arrive by car. After steering their way through the narrow parking lot, they face the blank sturdy walls that support the structure. The austerity of the modernist façade however is broken by a slight decorative element: the outdoor light fixtures hanging at the level of the first-floor ceilings curve in the Art Noveau whiplash fashion. Relative to the size of the structure, these lights are slender. There is also a green ribbon that runs parallel to ground before a kink shifts it upward. Both the lights and ribbon complement the atrium whose magnitude and decorative elements present a departure from the rest of the structure. It resembles a glass portico topped with a hollow triangular pediment, with steel beams in place of columns. The glass windows on the first floor continue this neoclassical motif, their steel borders representing columns. The focal point of the exterior is marked by the circle of steel at the top of the portico. The portico and light fixtures were added after the conversion of the structure into Edge of the Woods.

The Whalley Avenue façade presents an exemplary model of adaptive reuse. Where there once stood a lobby and ticket booths to a movie theater, there is now floor to ceiling windows that allow light to filter into the café section of the complex. The frieze that once announced what movies were showing below the movie theater’s marquee now announces ‘Natural Foods.’ While this side of the exterior was once the principal façade of the structure, it now plays a secondary role.

The back of the building is not particularly relevant except in the sense that the commercial/industrial nature of its function contrasts sharply with the Greek Revival architecture of Norton Street. In fact, the zbuilding has a kink in order to accommodate a residential building that interrupts the linear border of the lot on which Edge of the Woods sits.

The interior is also an interesting example of adaptive reuse. In its iteration as a movie theater, the floor was slanted so as to provide an unobstructed view of the stage/screen for seats. But when the building was repurposed as a nightclub, the floor was leveled. The balcony which once held seating for patrons or standing room for revelers, now holds additional café space and a section for health books. The ticket booths now hold kitchens for the deli and café on the first floor. The observant visitor may notice Ionic columns in the corners of the interior on the second floor, reflecting the decorative tastes of the 1920s movie theater. The stage is now covered by drywall, separating the food section from the area intended for unloading, storage, and separation. Most impressively, the current owner has built an entire wooden balcony on the second floor that extends from the original balcony to the northern side of the building.

The décor of the building reflects the horticultural centricity of Edge of the Woods. The arches supporting the balcony, are painted as trunks with branches expanding upward. The balcony is painted as the canopy.  The produce section exists under the skeleton of a hoop house. Nonetheless, the structure alludes to its past with neon signage from Paramount, a New Haven movie theater that closed in the early 1970s. The bright green sign accentuates this vegetative motif, harmonizing past and present use. 

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