Holcombe T. Green Hall (Yale School of Art)

This modernist building, with its horizontal façade of glass and marble, was designed by the famous architect Louis I. Kahn.  It was constructed only a year after his addition to the Yale University Art Gallery just up the street,[1]and he later designed the Yale Center for British Art on the same block.  Though now home to the Yale School of Art, this building was originally commissioned by the Greater New Haven Jewish Community.[2]  Conceived as a “memorial dedicated to the men who have given their lives in the service of their country” in the words of John Fox, president of Jewish Center, the building was meant to embody ideals of dignity and beauty with its sleek aesthetic.[3]

[1]“Architecture: Louis Kahn Building,” (New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 2018), https://artgallery.yale.edu/about/architecture.

[2]Braffman, “Moving the Center,” in Jews in New Haven Volume VIII, 87.

[3]“Jewish Community Center Plans New Building: To Serve Community” (New Haven: New Haven Register, Sunday, December 9, 1951), Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven Archive.

Holcombe T. Green Hall occupies what used to be two lots, 1156 and 1162 Chapel Street.

1916-1922: Mary E Scranton owns 1156 lot; Marshall J Adams, MD owns 1162 lot

1923-25: Association of Freemasons owns 1156; Marshall J Adams, MD (and now also Edward W Bull) owns 1162 lot

1926: 1156 lot is vacant; Adams and Bull own 1162 lot

1927: University Preparatory School owns 1156 lot; Adams alone owns 1162 lot.

1928-38: sometime during this period (unclear precisely when since town directories were unavailable), the University Preparatory School and Adams both forfeited ownership of their lots.

1939-48: 1156 lot is a “Vacant store”; 1162 is owned by S. D. Amspoker, chiropractor, Mrs. M. M. Hoffman, nurse, and Richard Roose.

1949-1951: 1156 lot is owned by “Brenner’s Parking”, presumably associated with Brenner’s Service Station, who had owned the lot at 1157 Chapel Street since the late 1930s; 1162 lot is owned by DeCaprio Motor Sales

1952: The Young Men’s and Young Woman’s Hebrew Association purchases 1156 and 1162 Chapel Street, where they break ground for the new Jewish Community Center to replace the old buildings there

1954-1985: The Jewish Community Center owns the building spanning lots 1156 and 1162 Chapel Street, now under the simplified address “1156 Chapel Street”

1996-Present: Yale owns the old JCC building, having purchased it after a decade of dereliction, remodeled and then reopened in 1999 as the Yale School of Art[1]

[1]This information is synthesized from the 1911 Atlas of New Haven, the Sanborn Maps of New Haven 1886-1973, and the annually published New Haven Directories by Beecher and Bennet, Inc. from 1916-1975.  These resources are available in the New Haven Museum as well as the Yale University maps archive.

This information is largely addressed in the “Past Tenants Section.”  

Green Hall exists on what used to be two municipal lots, 1156 and 1162 Chapel Street.  From 1916 they originally held private residential buildings, which became more and more public in use as time went on.  They were the locus of medical practices with the various M.D.-owning tenants, education with the University Preparatory School, and religious activities with the Association of Freemasons.  After some time of vacancy, they came to function as car dealership retail space with Brenner’s Parking and DeCaprio’s Motor Sales immediately before the JCC’s construction.  The Greater New Haven Jewish Community purchased both lots, broke ground in 1952, tore down the extant buildings, and constructed their new Community Center opening in 1954.[1]

[1]This information is synthesized from the 1911 Atlas of New Haven, the Sanborn Maps of New Haven 1886-1973, and the annually published New Haven Directories by Beecher and Bennet, Inc. from 1916-1975.  These resources are available in the New Haven Museum as well as the Yale University maps archive.

The social history of this building is perhaps its most dynamic aspect.  Its construction, occupation, and eventual evacuation by the Jewish Community of Greater New Haven illustrate broader social trends of Jewish populations in Southern Connecticut.

In the late 1940s during the immediate postwar period, many Jewish American men were coming home from war, redoubling population counts of Jews in the Greater New Haven area.[1] The old Hebrew Association building at Dwight Street was dubbed “inadequate, outmoded, dingy, bursting at the seams, poorly located”[2]in building campaign promotional materials.  A new building was “not a luxury [but] a necessity,” in the words of Samuel Leff, Center Campaign Director.  

The construction would occur “in the march of progress toward a modern, adequate and beautiful Jewish Center of, by, and for New Haven.”[3]  The President of the Jewish Center, John J. Fox said that the building would be “a memorial dedicated to the men who have given their lives in the service of their country… [serving] in the advancement of the traditions of American democracy.”[4]It would be “a testimonial to the community ideals of New Haven’s Jewish people and to their interest in the City’s cultural and social life.”[5]

Beyond these community ideals, the construction had religious and historic significance for the Jewish Community: it would occur at the juncture of Rosh Hashanah and the centennial anniversary of the Jewish Center Movement in the United States.  The migration from the Dwight Street building into the new, modernist Center on Chapel Street was likened to the revitalization of the State of Israel, the promised land of dreams that had become a reality.[6]  Perhaps coincidence, though perhaps spurring his selection, four years before his commission, Louis Kahn had returned from a trip to Israel, on invitation from the Israeli Government, to study the state’s planning and building program.[7]

Eventually, in the late 1970s, the Jewish Community had migrated westward, and the Chapel Street building’s upkeep was costly.  It was “perceived as inaccessible and unsafe by [a] large portion of existing and potential membership,” and there was “no guarantee of overcoming locational stigma” if the community were to undergo an expensive renovations project.[8]With all this in mind, the JCC moved to Woodbridge, where it remains today.[9]

About a decade later in 1997, Yale University purchased the derelict, but ideally located, building.  Deborah Berke, then-professor and now Dean of the Yale School of Architecture, led a gut redesign effort to restore the building’s façade and optimize its internal space for the Yale School of Art.[10]

[1]“Jewish Center Facts,” in promotional pamphlet, Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven Archive.

[2]“What is the Need?,” in Prospectus for the New Jewish Community Center, Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven Archive.

[3]Samuel Leff, “Now Or Never – A New Jewish Center For New Haven,” in a newspaper, n.d., Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven Archive.

[4]“Jewish Community Center Plans New Building: To Serve Community” (New Haven: New Haven Register, Sunday, December 9, 1951), Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven Archive.

[5]“The Jewish Center,” (New Haven: New Haven Register, Saturday, June 21, 1952), Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven Archive.

[6]“Concept of Rosh Hashanah Motivates Center,” in unnamed newspaper, September 10, 1950, Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven Archive.

[7]“New Community Center Building Plans Prepared by Top Architects,” New Haven: unnamed newspaper, 1946, Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven Archive.

[8]Community Center: Alternatives Study, 1979, Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven Archive.

[9]“Welcome,” JCC of Greater New Haven, 2018, https://www.jccnh.org.

[10]“Yale University School of Art New Haven, CT,” http://www.dberke.com/work/yale-university-school-of-art.

This building sits at the heart of New Haven and Yale’s campus in the historic Chapel West district.  Its clear influences from Louis Kahn’s original design echo the Yale University Art Gallery and the Yale Center for British Art, both located one block up the street.