Arnold Hall, Maison B Café (storefront, ground level)

06511

Maison B Café is lined up on the same block as Warby Parker, J. Press, L. L. Bean,

TYCO Print, and taco joint Tomatillo. This block is the southern side of the Broadway Island. Retailers and food businesses also line the North side of the island, along Broadway, with some notable ones including Barnes and Nobles, Urban Outfitters, Good Nature Market, and J. Crew.

The building that TYCO and L. L. Bean currently occupy, to the left of Arnold Hall, is part of 272 Elm St., a Yale graduate residential hall built in 2018 to fill in another vacant lot on that block. These two buildings, which are seamlessly attached and stylistically similar, form an expansive window-shopping environment with the rest of the block.

Maison Mathis, which opened in August 2013, was an appropriate pick for the Broadway district. The retail space in Arnold Hall had been vacant since its construction, and Broadway’s Au Bon Pain had just closed down that summer (Disare 2013). With a cozy white-navy-leather aesthetic and outdoor seating in the warmer months, the café invites tired and hungry shoppers, tourists, and students to take a seat and enjoy food slowly, in “Belgian time.”

Arnold Hall is part of Yale and the City of New Haven’s Broadway renewal and expansion project, which started around 2000 (New Haven Register 2013). It was controversial at the time, as a sign of Yale’s gentrification of New Haven and the pushing out of local businesses for national ones. Now, the Broadway district is entirely owned by Yale, known as the Shops at Yale, and it has indeed become the central retail district of downtown New Haven.

Researcher

Amelia Lee

Date Researched

Entry Created

N/A Date

Last Updated

N/A Date

Historic Name

Style

Colonial / GeorgianModernist

Current Use

University/College, Two-Family House

Era

1980-Today

Neighborhood

Broadway

Tours

Year Built

2006

Architect

Newman Architects

Current Tenant

Mid 1800s to ~1930: 310 & 312 Elm St., a Two-Family home is constructed sometime in the mid 1800s, and the two homes functions as both family homes and boarding houses. Building demolished ~1930. Main residents and boarding house owners are as follows: 310 Elm: - R.C. Bright, wholesale clothes and rags dealer, and his family (1887-1911) - Frank B. Standish, MD (1913-1915) - Mary L. Tyrrell and daughter (1913-1915) - Anna B. McGinness (1920-1924) - A. I. Abrahams, tailor (1929) 312 Elm: - Wm. H. Clark, janitor (1886-unknown) - Leonard E. Peck, letter carrier (1898-1901) - Anna H. Terrill (1911-1920) and family, ran boarding home - James E Davenport, deputy sheriff & Yale patrol (~1913) - Thomas G Shepard (~1920) - Harry L Carpenter (~1924) - Steven J Carney (1929) 1930 to 1938: Yale acquires the lot sometime 1930-1934 and builds a Society Hall. Now 304 Elm St. The Sachem Club, a Yale University Club, uses the space 1934-1938. 1939 to ~1980s: Knights of St. Patrick, an Irish Society in New Haven est. 1878, purchases the building to use as clubhouse. ~1980s: Building reacquired by Yale, society hall demolished, lot left empty and turned into a parking lot in early 00s. 2006-2007: Arnold Hall is built by Yale for residential, institutional, and commercial purposes. 2013-Present: Belgian eatery Maison B Café (formerly Maison Mathis) rents the storefront of Arnold Hall.

Roof Types

Gable

Structural Conditions

Street Visibilities

Yes

Threats

None known

External Conditions

Dimensions

9m x 15m building (585 sq. m.), 39m x 22.5m lot with courtyard (877.5 sq m.)

Street Visibilities

Yes

Owner

Yale University

Ownernishp Type

Private;Non-profit;Yale

Client

Yale University

Historic Uses

ResidentialSchoolMixed UseInstitutional

gallery
the sign and street-facing gate for Arnold Hall and its courtyard. Alayna Lee, “Yale to Offer Mixed-College Housing,” The Yale Daily News, February 12, 2020, https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2020/02/12/yale-to-offer-mixed-college-housing/.
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The look into Arnold Hall courtyard, from the gate. The arched walkway has decorative brick on the left, an homage to Robert Arnold on the right, and white arched ceilings in between the two red brick arches. Amelia Lee, 2023.
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The mockup view of Arnold Hall, which looks almost exactly like how it currently looks. Newman Architects, “Design Build Projects” (Issuu, January 23, 2019), https://issuu.com/newmanarchitects/docs/newman_architects_design_build.
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view from the other side of the archway, looking from inside the courtyard, on the east side. You can see an entryway to the building, the symmetrical windows, the dormer windows, and the stone ground tiling. Amelia Lee, 2023.

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