Cordova Apartments

Picturesque without being overbearing, the Cordova Apartments are perhaps one of Orange Street’s most successful residential additions of the early 20^th century. The 11-unit apartment building charms with its Spanish Colonial Revival detailing including a crisp red tile roof, a subdued stucco façade, and elegantly arched windows. Wholly unique in comparison to the surrounding structures, the Cordova Apartments manage to blend in with Orange Street’s architectural diversity while pleasantly standing out.

1921

    Mr. Benjamin J Davis

Mrs. Mary E Law Davis

1924-25

(1) Morris Kligerman

(2) Jane L Curtis

(3) John H Dowd

(4) Libby S Ruth

(5) Anna C Ray

(6) Max Wolfe

(7) Benjamin J Davis

(8) Ralph S Goodwin

(9) William McCance

(10) Mrs. F Stilson

Thomas Cozier

1944-45

(1) Cecil A Horst

(2) Mrs. A M Menge

(3) Charles A Devine

(4) Edward W Kelleher

(5) George F Bazin

(6) F A Hauff

(7) Henry Schoenberger

(8) Harry A LaVine

(9) Mrs S M Keane

(10) Mrs H L Sargent

Norman M Cowley

John C Varonne

Abraham Sugenheimer

Ben F Forman

1955

(1) Mrs. Mary L Johnson

(2) Mrs. A M Menge

(3) Charles A Devine

(4) Edward W Kelleher

(5) George F Bazin

(6) Catherine Finnegan

(7) Henry Schoenberger

(8) Osborn E Horton

(9) Mrs S M Keane

(10) Mrs H L Sargent

Norman M Cowley

John C Varonne

R M Sugenheimer

1967

(1) Arthur E Dejon

(2) Ruth L Menge

(3) Mrs. L H Brown

(4) Marion F Clark

(5) Helen M Connor

(6) vacant

(7) James C Bowe

(8) Osborn E Horton

(9) Mrs. S C Keane

John C Varonne

R M Sugenheimer

Frank Chagnon

1981

(1) Arthur E Dejon

(2) J Barillari

(3) A Neidlinger

(4) Marion F Clark

(6) Maud A Sullivan

(8) Valentine Stechscholte

(9) Katherine C Keane

(10) P M Mahoney

John C Varonne

Ian Balfour

Deborah Esch

Robert Lester

Jean Jackson

Douglas G Nash

The lot at 671-675 Orange Street has only ever hosted one building: the Cordova Apartments. Until construction began in 1921, the space sat unused for a number of years. Considerably larger than the surrounding residential plots, the 1911 Atlas of New Haven shows that the land was part of the much larger estate holdings of the late Pierrepont Beers Foster (1811-1886). A New Haven native, P. B. Foster already came from a wealthy family but acquired much land after the death of his first wife Stella L. Bishop (7). Coincidentally, today both families have streets named after them.

Maps indicate that Foster held most of the plots along Foster Street and upper Orange Street at the time of his death. Today, nearly all of them have been developed with the notable exception of 657 Orange Street. The land adjacent to the Cordova Apartments was the original site of William L. Foster’s house. William, the son of Stella and Pierrepont, built a three-story wooden frame home on the land in 1871. Upon his wife’s death the home was inherited by their son, Major Pierrepont B. Foster, who subsequently sold it to St. Joseph’s parish in late 1940 (9). By 1945, the address is listed as “St. Joseph’s Community Center” in the city directory but newspapers clippings from the Dana Collection reveal that the property was sold that very same year to the Trustees from the first Methodist Episcopal Church of New Haven (3,9). Some time during the next decade, the original structure was demolished and the lot has remained vacant ever since.   

Jacob Weinsten was the architect behind the Cordova Apartments (13). A well-respected member of the Architects’ League of New Haven, Weinstein immigrated to America from Russia as a boy in 1892 before attending New Haven’s public schools and eventually graduating from Yale College. His architectural firm located at No. 6 Church Street was responsible for various residential buildings including many of brick apartment buildings in the East Rock neighborhood (10).

Completed in 1921, Weinstein’s Spanish-Colonial-inspired complex was initially listed as the “Bungalow Apartments” in the city directory (1). All 11 of the building’s units were quickly occupied and some time in the first few years the name was switched to the “Cordova Apartments” (although the Sanborn maps consistently mislabel the structure as “Codova Apartments”) (11). In 1942 the complex was sold to Lester H. Brown for the price of $44,000 (8). By the time of the 1981 Historic Resources Inventory the property had again passed hands to David and Constance D’Atri (13). Today it is still owned by Constance D’Atri who lives in Guilford, Connecticut (14).

A noticeable trend for the apartments is how tenants tend to inhabit the building over long periods of time—in some cases even passing the unit on to family members. For instance, directory records show that a ‘Mrs. S C Keane’ continuously occupied apartment no. 9 from at least 1944 through 1967 and by 1981 the apartment is listed under the name ‘Katherine C Keane’—most likely a daughter or relative (3,4,5,6). More research on the lives of the building’s many tenants still needs to be done.  

Please refer to the “Past Tenants” section for a comprehensive list of the Cordova Apartments’ tenants over nearly the past hundred years.

According to a 1981 entry in the Historical Resources Inventory, the Cordova Apartments building is a “sensitive addition to upper Orange St.” that “respects its neighbors” (13). Such a conclusion can be drawn from the fact that most of the surrounding residential buildings are from the mid to late 19^th century and are only two or three stories tall. Unlike the new five-story brick apartment complexes built down the street, Cordova’s scale and picturesque massing complement the Second Empire and Queen Anne style dwellings that came before it. Thus it blends into its residential setting while adding to the neighborhood’s distinct and historically eclectic character. 

Located on the same block as both St. Joseph’s Church and the Clifford Beers Guidance Clinic (formerly the Edward Street School), the Cordova Apartments situate tenants right in the heart of the neighborhood activity. An empty adjacent lot is especially convenient for tenants, serving as a grassy park for exercise and activities as well as providing extra light and air to the apartments that look out onto it. The spaciousness of the area is a welcome respite from some of the urban crowding experienced elsewhere on the street.      

Strolling past the eclectic mix of architectural styles on display in the neighborhood, one is immediately drawn to the building’s bright red clay tile roof, which seems to echo the stony facade of East Rock in the distance. The L-shaped apartment building sits neatly on its 0.4-acre lot with a shallow hip roof and cream-colored stucco walls. Upon approach, some of the apartment’s more refined details begin to emerge, like the triple grouping of round-top windows with their radiating panes and Doric pilasters, or the distinct flourishes of the bell-shaped gamble ends which are punctuated by a neat circular window. The façade is subtle yet highly ordered, with a string course around the second floor and an occasional blind arch above select windows. Although only two stories high, a sense of verticality is achieved by the soaring picturesque gambles as well as an irregular spacing of cornice brackets that align with the vertical edges of the windows. Massing, as well as a smart use of lines, makes the overall structure appear balanced and well organized.

The irregular footprint of the structure hosts an airy side-yard that almost functions as a courtyard. Entrances to the apartments are situated along this internal stretch and in the past there was a large pergola that framed the outer edge of the lot. Designed by landscape architect Fredrick Davis Jr. and documented across records for the property, the pergola featured column supports and a matching tile hip roof (13). The concrete base supports for the pergola remain in the yard despite the fact that none of the original structure remains. 

While there were once rain gutters running vertically along the street-front side of the building they have since been removed and staining from water runoff is now observable. Beyond a few patches of peeling paint on the window frames, there are few signs of physical decay.

1.    1921 New Haven Directory, Vol. 81 (The Price & Lee Co.)

2.    1924-25 New Haven Directory, Vol. 84 (The Price & Lee Co.)

3.   1945-45 New Haven Directory, Vol. 105 (The Price & Lee Co.)

4.   1955 New Haven Directory, Vol. 115 (The Price & Lee Co.)

5.    1967 New Haven Directory, Vol. 127 (The Price & Lee Co.)

6.   1981 City Directory: New Haven, Connecticut.

7.    Cutter, William Richard (ed.), “New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of Commonwealths and the Founding of a Nation, Volume 3” (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913)

8.    Dana Collection: Bk. 39, p. 42.

9.   Dana Collection: Bk. 39, p. 38-41.

10. Hill, Everett Gleason, “A Modern History of New Haven and Eastern New Haven County, Volume 2” (New York: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1918)

11. Insurance Maps of New Haven Connecticut Volume Two, (New York: Sanborn Map Company of New York, 1923)

12. National Register of Historic Places “Orange Street Historic District, New Haven, Connecticut” (United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1985)

13. New Haven Historic Resources Inventory (New Haven: The New Haven Preservation Trust, 1984) 2533-2544.

14. New Haven Tax Assessor Database, “671 Orange St.” (Vision Government Solutions Inc., 2016) http://gis.vgsi.com/newhavenct/Parcel.aspx?pid=11692