Court Street Row Houses

Unique among many residential streets in New Haven, Court Street is a narrow, one-way street that primarily encourages pedestrian traffic. The street runs directly from the New Haven Green to the Wooster Square Green, beginning and ending at two significant public locations in New Haven. Thus, Court Street truly is a street that exists for the purpose of community, rather than simply for thoroughfare. The neighborhood of Wooster Square, where the row houses are situated, was historically an upper-class neighborhood, boasting many large homes directly around the historic square.7 Not unlike most neighborhoods, though, it underwent great change as a result of the increased industrialization of New Haven, and the Court Street Row Houses were built to extend the neighborhood to accommodate a broader range of economic demographics. With the advent of middle-income housing in Wooster Square, a great population of immigrants were ushered into the neighborhood representing many demographics, especially Italian immigrants. Thus, they were intended to be humble structures amidst an affluent neighborhood, although further, more recent gentrification of Wooster Square has made the block a status-indicating address.

13 Court Street (example)

1924-1925 Single-family residential

1945-1946 Furnished rooms (rooming house)

1969 Apartments - two residents, one vacant unit

1983 Apartments - two residents

Before Court Street was constructed and designated as residential territory, the land where the row houses were built was occupied by a multi-purpose community space known as “Mix’s Museum,” which featured various activities, including a wax statue museum, an ice cream parlor, and a beer garden.9 Mix’s Museum sadly burned down in 1851, leaving a sad, empty lot in its absence. Besides the museum was a lush community garden known as “the Columbian Gardens,” the land which was later subdivided and sold to the Home Insurance Company for development into the Court Street Row Houses. The longstanding history of community on the land beneath the row houses perhaps contributes to the ongoing sense of pride and community that residents of Wooster Square and Court Street share to this day.

Following a period of economic prosperity in New Haven, the Home Insurance Company, in a grand gesture of urban investment, bought the block of Court Street and constructed the Court Street Row Houses to provide middle-income housing amidst the affluent Wooster Square neighborhood. Yet, as the city became more industrialized, there became an increasing need for shorter-term, affordable housing, so the homeowners of the Court Street Row Houses converted them into furnished rooms, or rooming houses. Tenants of these units were predominantly new immigrants of Irish, Italian, German, or Jewish descent.8 When the Great Depression struck the United States, poverty overtook Wooster Square, and the rooming district that had emerged became derogatorily known as a “skid row,” accompanied by a great increase in crime. In the 1960s, the City of New Haven invested in the revitalization of the block, converting each home into two apartment units and naming strict laws restricting renovations of the buildings to maintain their historical accuracy. Now, the residents of the Court Street Row Houses are a close-knit community of neighbors, many of whom are associated with Yale University.

Unique among many residential streets in New Haven, Court Street is a narrow, one-way street that primarily encourages pedestrian traffic. The street runs directly from the New Haven Green to the Wooster Square Green, beginning and ending at two significant public locations in New Haven. Thus, Court Street truly is a street that exists for the purpose of community, rather than simply for thoroughfare. The neighborhood of Wooster Square, where the row houses are situated, was historically an upper-class neighborhood, boasting many large homes directly around the historic square.7 Not unlike most neighborhoods, though, it underwent great change as a result of the increased industrialization of New Haven, and the Court Street Row Houses were built to extend the neighborhood to accommodate a broader range of economic demographics. With the advent of middle-income housing in Wooster Square, a great population of immigrants were ushered into the neighborhood representing many demographics, especially Italian immigrants. Thus, they were intended to be humble structures amidst an affluent neighborhood, although further, more recent gentrification of Wooster Square has made the block an exclusive address.

The Court Street Row Houses are a series of 22 connected homes. They are homogenous in their dimensions: each is approximately 20 feet wide and 30 feet deep, three-stories tall, and features a basement (and in some cases a sub-basement). The backyards are small, only containing enough room for a patio, and the front of the houses feature a small, decorative wooden portico, which complements the brick facades. They are built in the Italianate architectural style, a more decorative version of the preceding Greek Revival style.3 Aside from the occasional paint job, the facades of the houses have not changed in appearance since their construction in the late nineteenth century. 4 A reflection of the industrial era in which they were constructed, the Court Street Row Houses appear as though they were in an assembly line. Yet, despite their large-scale uniformity, they each have unique details, especially in such customizable features as the entryways and windows.5 Each doorway is accessible by a staircase lined with cast iron railings, the front portico giving residents a superior vantagepoint to the street. Inside, the buildings have undergone individual renovations and reconstructions. Most notably was the widespread renovation of the Court Street Row Houses in the 1960s into apartment units. The open floorplan lent itself to an easy reconfiguration of space, as renters simply had to close off or open up existing doorways in order to create more private living quarters for tenants.6

Brainard, G. (2001). Party Walls: Understanding Urban Change Through a Block of New Haven Row Houses, 1870-1979. Journal of the New Haven Colony Historical Society , 48(1), 3–29. Brown, E. M. (1969). The Historic Houses of Wooster Square: An introduction to the history of Wooster Square and its architecture: A portfolio of houses built before 1880. New Haven Preservation Trust. New Haven’s court street is ‘like its own little town.’ (n.d.). https://www.nhregister.com/connecticut/article/New-Haven-s-Court-Street-is-likeits-own-11361806.php U.S. Department of the Interior. (n.d.). Italianate style 1850s. National Parks Service. https://www.nps.gov/articles/italianate-style-architecture.htm#:~:text= Italianate%20buildings%20were%20more%20playful,newly%2Davailable% 20building%20pattern%20books Www.duodickinson.com. (n.d.-b). + http://www.duodickinson.com/NHMag-May2012-RowHouseRenaissance.pdf