Campus View Apartments

80 and 84 Howe Street are two 6-story apartment buildings located on Howe Street between Chapel and George Streets. Today, both help to satisfy the desire for affordable and student housing but as the property upon which these buildings stand were once three separate lots, each has a separate and distinct past.



The earliest record that I could find on either property dates from 1891. In that year, Henry K. Beach, who already owned property at 86 Howe, purchased the lot at 82 Howe Street. Two years later, in November of 1893, a New Havener named J. Willis Downs spent $9000 constructing a 2.5 story frame house next door to Beach’s property at 80 Howe Street. According to the Sanborn maps, this new property was built out of brick, an element which no doubt brought variety to a row of wood framed houses. Along the way, Beach sold his parcel at 82 Howe to a man named C.S. Redfield for in 1905, Redfield is listed as having built a two-story frame barn on that lot.



By 1911, Beach and Redfield retained ownership on their properties but 80 Howe changed possession once again. Max Miller, secretary of the Warner Miller Co. Railroad Supply, held that property for a couple of years before selling it to Edward and Emma Clundt who then sold it to the Debussy, Kusterer Co. (a real estate firm) in 1926.



In 1928, a contractor named Frank Rubino took out a building permit on 80-82 Howe Street in order to build a 71 occupant apartment tenement costing about $160,000. This structure still stands today. In the 1930s, the 80 Howe Apartments were managed by the City controller, Arthur D. Moller. They were “efficiency apartments,” home to a wide variety of middle-class and professionals from nurses to city clerks. Construction next door at 84 Howe St., which would become a 77 unit apartment building, began a year later (1929). Despite some minor repairs, an update to the roof structure, heating system and, telecommunications system, neither building has really changed significantly since construction almost eighty years ago. Today, the 80 Howe apartments are managed by the Chelsea Company and 84 Howe, known as the “Campus View apartments,” is managed by C.A. White.