305 Crown Street

Located on a block of Crown Street known for its Italianate row houses, the large building at 305 stands out due to its unassuming façade. 305 stands in relative anonymity, its plain brick face accented only by modest windows and a straightforward molding near the roof. Its appearance provides no details about the building’s purpose; passersby may believe they are walking past an apartment complex, a school, or an office building. Indeed, the building’s indeterminate exterior effectively represents the mixed-use nature of its facilities. 305 Crown contains Yale Drama and Yale Repertory Theater faculty offices, a theater rehearsal room, the headquarters of two student-run publications (The Yale Herald and The New Journal), workspace for Yale’s LGBTQ+ community, and is the administrative home of The Episcopal Church at Yale. In this way, the structure helps maintain the welcoming environment Yale’s diverse base of students has found in this neighborhood.

1928-1973: The Yale Hope Mission (Christian mission, sheltered people in need of housing)

1973-1995: The Young Israel House at Yale (Kosher Kitchen)

1995-present: Mixed-use building for Yale, primarily Yale Drama/Repertory faculty offices

There are no available records that reveal the site’s history prior to 1928. It was likely an open lot. 

In 1928, 305 Crown Street was built to accommodate the growing size of the Yale Hope Mission (4). The Yale Hope Mission was established some time between 1905-1909, during the undergraduate years of founding Yale student and Christian missionary William Whiting Borden (5). Born into a well-to-do Chicago family that made its fortune mining silver in Colorado, Borden made a name for himself at Yale by seeking to spread the word of God throughout the school’s entire population (6). He was highly successful in doing so, organizing various daily prayers and Scripture readings, and soon earned a reputation for steering even the most unlikely students towards the teachings of Christ (7). Soon, Borden realized the seaport city of New Haven attracted homeless people, alcoholics, prostitutes, and “every sordid sort of riff-raff” (8) that was in need of shelter and, in his eyes, guidance towards Christianity. He founded the Yale Hope Mission to take in those who were in need, and by 1930 the mission found its home at 305 Crown where it could accommodate far more people than when it was founded. Indeed, the building’s role as a Christian mission explains the scripture passages that can be found on the exterior of the building. On the far right corner of the face, its reads: “I am the way, the truth, and the life—John 14:6.” And on the east facing side of the exterior, the transom above the entrance reads: “Come Unto Me—Matt 11:28.”

Borden died young in 1913, but the Yale Hope Mission at 305 Crown marched ahead until the 1970s (9). In the 1970s, the building became known as the home of the Young Israel House at Yale. The Israel House served the Orthodox Jewish students of the university and was a welcoming space where the growing number of Jewish students could find community and solidarity (10). The space quickly became a staple of all Jewish life at Yale, which had only relinquished its quotas on Jewish student enrollment in the early 1960s (11). The student-run Israel House was informally known as the Kosher Kitchen because it was where the university’s Jewish students ate many of their meals from 1973-1995 (12).

The Young Israel House at Yale moved locations in 1995 (13), and 305 Crown Street again found itself in a transitory period. This was when the building started to become a mixed-use space for Yale, the role it still fulfills today. Presently, the building primarily functions as office space for faculty of the Yale Drama Department and the Yale Repertory Theater. The building also provides a rehearsal room for Yale’s theater students. In addition, the building houses the office for The Episcopal Church at Yale and offers study space for the school’s LGBTQ+ community. In this way, nearly a century after its construction as a Christian mission 305 Crown still provides a sense of openness and acceptance that welcomes the neighborhood’s growing diversity.

305 Crown is wedged between residential row houses and the Asian-American/Native/Latin American cultural houses of Yale University. Across the street is a residential parking garage for the tenants of nearby Crown Towers. 305 stands in an area known for its off-campus student housing and the Crown Street nightlife where food and drink favorites like Bar, Louis’ Lunch, and Geronimo’s entertain the city’s young adults. The building is further separated from its surroundings given the fact that most of the nearby buildings were constructed in the nineteenth century whereas 305 was built in 1928 (3). Due to the lively nature of the mixed commercial and residential surroundings, this building fades to the background amidst the hustle and bustle of the neighborhood and goes generally unnoticed by those who do not have specific business within its walls.