Liberty Safe Haven

Located at the very edge of Ninth Square History District, 210 State Street is packed in a very urban part of New Haven with richly detailed and well-preserved 19th and early 20th-century commercial buildings. In the area, most buildings of different ages and styles conjoin together to form a continuous but cofounding facade with little or no set-back from the sidewalk. The diversity of the constructions incorporates a dominant number of Georgian Revival designs typical of the New England region and a scattering of Greek Revival, Romanesque, Queen Anne, Beaux-Arts, Art-Deco/Modernistic designs. But a common feature of this compact area is the use of bricks that build up from three to five stories high and reveal cornice details and ornate adornments confined to facades. The rear and backside elevations are mostly utilitarian and industrial, with loading docks and empty spaces available for parking in the center of the blocks. The restricted embellishing to the front mostly relates to the high density of buildings that cluster storefronts together, leaving no or tapered spaces in between for pedestrians to take notice of their other facets. The facades fulfill the basic aesthetic need to attract customers and pedestrians from the exterior, and therefore, decorating the rear becomes redundant and costly.



Besides this pervading logic in design and diversity of styles being encompassed within 210 State Street, its surrounding facilities make it a desirable location for housing in the densely populated Downtown East neighborhood. Besides proximity to City Hall that is near New Haven Green and being on the original grid of New Haven, the current Liberty Safe Haven sits beside a busy pedestrian commercial strip that runs alongside Orange Street. It includes a handful of restaurants, cafés, salons, the Ninth Square Market, and the Artspace gallery, which unfortunately have moved out in June 2023. This compact layout fulfills nearly all desires of entertainment — being within walking distance of cinemas, music venues, churches and Buddhist temples. Apart from walking, transportation choices are also abundant: the Union and the State Street train station are within a mile distance, while Proper public parking lot a street away offers ample space for automobiles. It’s also worth noting that the Knights of Columbus Tower and Veteran Memorial Coliseum— once the city’s largest venue of social gatherings. As citizens gather and disperse from George Street, large numbers of pedestrians would flood onto State Street shuttle bus station or drive their own cars from the parking lot. And along this route, the F. D. Grave and Son storefront has a golden opportunity to attract customers. Hence, the location is both suitable for housing and for commercial use.



However, as the building now stands to be a homeless shelter, it becomes a piece of the Downtown Crossing redevelopment project for more affordable housing. The Coliseum is imploded and envisioned to become “Square 10,” a site that provides commercial, residential, office, and educational spaces. The urban setting around 210 State Street is veiled under the Downtown Crossing initiative, which reconnects neighborhoods long cut off by failed, so-called ‘urban renewal’ efforts of the past and creates a new neighborhood within walking distance of Union Station and the Medical District. Liberty Safe Haven is a predecessor of this large citywide effort.



The immediate surrounding of 210 State Street reflects this urban reform. Large empty lots on the southern side of the construction, temporarily used as parking surfaces, are available for new infrastructures. The previous commercial buildings for Wilson’s Sea Grill and Greyhound bus station have been demolished and are now part of the parking space for the Hertz car rental service. Among the empty space and adjacent to the rear wall is a skateboard pit elevated above the ground. The exterior fence surrounding the pit with metal nets gives the impression of provisionality, which aligns with the overarching initiative in erecting new houses.



More importantly, graffiti are ever-present: from the graffiti on the fringe of the wall to the inner and outer surface of the pit to the doors and backside of Hertz’s small hut. Most words are in almost indecipherable typography, such as “skate haven” and “finding a line” sprayed onto the ramp, “skate or die” and other stickers rendered onto the brim of the pit (Image #9). Prints of “Artspace” between the graffiti indicate that some designs may be commissioned by the adjacent art gallery for the Straight Up Art Project that hopes to overturn the lack of public art in the Ninth Square community. Similar but more refined murals could be found at 44 Orange Street, a block away (Image #12), on a private building. Being a public/non-profit-owned building after its acquisition in 1999, it is more friendly towards art than landlords, who consistently refuse cultural and artistic projects downtown. Accordingly, 210 State Street not only becomes an exemplifier in creative urban renovation of old buildings into affordable housing, but also a leading catalyst in promoting a more beautiful and inclusive neighborhood through public art.

1901-1911

Frederick D. Grave (F. D. Grave factory)

1911-1924

Frederick D. Grave & Frederick D. Grave Jr. (F. D. Grave & Son), graduate of Yale

1924-1950

Frederick D. Grave Jr. (F. D. Grave & Son), also chairman of the execute committee of The First National Bank & Trust Co. of New Haven, and his wife, Elizabeth M (student)

1950-1962

Frederick D. Grave Jr., Frederick D. Grave III, Richard M. Grave (F. D. Grave & Son), all proprietors are graduates of Yale

1963-1985

Frederick D. Grave III & Richard M. Grave (F. D. Grave & Son)

1985

Frederick III's daughter, Dorothy Grave Hoyt joins them. The building no longer serves as a factory for producing tobacco, as production has been outsourced to facility in Pennsylvania.

1993

F. D. Grave & Son moves out of the building but retains ownership. Jan Cunningham (local artist) moves in as a tenant.

Early-1990s

Dick Grave, a relative of the F. D. Grave family, unsuccessfully attempted to sell the building to the artists who worked there.

1997

Stuart Lathers Associates LLC rents space as a commercial office.

1999

John Hilts move in as tenant, and other spaces become rented studios for artists, including Steve DiGiovanni. The building is approved by Fire Marshal to be used as an Art Center.

1999

Liberty Community Services purchased the building to renovate it into low-cost housing units. Ownership change from previous proprietor Dorothy Grave Hoyt (F. D. Grave & Son) to Liberty Community Services (Connecticut Aids Residence). Renovations are to be done.

2003-2006

Renovations begin to take place with $7 million in funding. Ownership change to direct management dubbed 210 State Street Limited Partnership. Divided into an office for Area Cooperative Educational Services and new listing apartments for homeless tenants: L D Adams, Latasha Gallman, Connie Hall, D Riley, Wanda Soto, all below average income and under 35 of age.

2023

Current Tenants: Brian Hilliker, Debra Veiga, Connie Hall, Lamont Green, Wanda Soto, Darren Rufus, David Riley Julia, Mcknight, Linda Adams, Bruce Hankins, Shannon M Farrell, Daniel John White, Patrick Farrell, Herman Arrington, Latasha Gallman, Dorothy G Hoyt.

Prior to the F. D. Graves building, 204-210 State Street was the original site of Mechanics National Bank, which moved to a new building at 74 Church Street in September 1886. With eleven documented employees in 18922 the bank is one of the only two commercial state banks in New Haven since 1869, and its failure in 1932 was the biggest blow to the city's financial history since the Eagle Bank's failure of 1825.



There is no direct evidence to indicate whether the F. D. Grave factory used the previous infrastructure of the Mechanics National Bank. Nevertheless, the bank itself is not aligned to State Street but indented within, and a driveway separates both rears from other buildings. If the Grave construction was incorporated from an older building, an extension would have been visible between the new street-side facade and the older structures sunk into the block.



A comparison between the Sanborn Maps of 1886 and 1901 (Image #13, #14) would elucidate the incoherence in the two buildings regarding of size and layout: the new one is longer and more intricate to facilitate multiple uses. Moreover, its surrounding buildings, such as the Iron and Tin Plates Warehouse, stove repair, and plumbing services have all been or about to be liquidated at the time of its construction. It is thus more likely that the 210 State Street we see nowadays has been built anew at the turn of the Century.

On December 13, 1897, Frederick D. Grave acquired the State Street lot from Caroline Trowbridge to construct a factory for his F. D. Grave cigar company10. As a German immigrant who arrived in the United States in 1861, Grave learned the cigar trade in Ohio and New York before deciding to settle in New Haven to exploit the availability of Connecticut broad-leaf tobacco for the outer layers of cigars. He began making his own line of cigars under the Judges Cave trademark in 1884 with some ten or so employees. After purchasing the land, Grave built what is now known as 210 State Street to manufacture cigars and be a commercial storefront.



In its initial stage following construction, the company only used the right-hand side of the building— the left completely vacant except for storage on the top floor. On the other hand, the left side is used for tobacco storage on the second floor, tobacco stripping on the third and cigar making on the fourth. The difference in style of the building’s facade denotes this transition of function that accommodates the Renaissance domestic differentiation of various floors into an industrial context. It reverts the pattern of having a rusticated wall beneath the piano nobile, as a ground- level commercial space is crucial to the company. The second floor, being more utilitarian and service-oriented like the typical ground floor in Classical Architecture, incorporates rusticated walls to signify a transition from public to private use. The manufacturing levels above installed an electric motor on the third floor for the unpacking and humidifying of tobacco leaves, which need higher ceilings for circulation and maintaining humidity. More chimneys were initially installed on the rooftop and hidden from view by parapets on the rear walls (Image #1).



The factory produced some 100,000 hand-rolled cigars each week in 1905. Before the adoption of automatic machinery in the factory In 1938, cigar makers wielded knives to cut out the curious shapes for binders and wrappers and formed the cigars by hand in wooden forms. After the mechanization that allowed the forming of cigars themselves from broad-leaf and shredded tobacco, the manufacturing line rolled out cigars at an average pace of 4,000 to 6,000 cigars per day. By 1956, the last hand rollers had retired. It should be noted that between 1938 and 1964, the machines were long filler machines and afterwards, they were converted to short filler machines.



Frederick Grave, the founder, died in May 1924, when the business passed into the hands of his son, who had been associated a member of the firm with him since

1911. In 1911, the name of the company was changed to F. D. Grave & Son. Frederick D. Grave, Jr. was the sole proprietor until 1950. In 1950, after both men served in the Marine Corps and Army respectively in World War II and graduated from Yale University, Frederick D. Grave III and Richard Moran Grave joined their father as partners in the firm. The firm was incorporated in 1962. Frederick D. Grave Jr. passed away in 1963, leaving the business to Frederick III and Richard. In 1983, after graduating from Boston University, Frederick III's daughter, Dorothy Grave Hoyt joined them in the firm. At the time of her joining, the sales of F. D. Grave & Son's cigars had held steady at the 7 million mark for more than a decade, an impressive number despite being down from the company's mid-1960s peak of about 10 million. Their production, however, has gradually moved out of the building and to Connecticut. F. X. Smith Co., a long- established, family-owned cigar maker in McSherrystown, Pennsylvania has become their subcontractor. In 1985, neither the beginning (preparing tobacco) nor the end (labeling and packaging) of cigar making took place in the factory. A year later, the forming of cigars also stopped their action as the rolling machines were switched off for the last time. Reasons behind this change comprise technological advancement that prompts the workforce to orient towards high-tech industries instead of manufacturing and the lucrative 20% excise sales tax on cigars.



The vacancy in the two top floors brought space apt for studio space for artists, who bring their innovative and creative energies and fix the decrepit space up. Tenants during the mid-1990s included local artists such as Jan Cunningham, Steve DiGiovanni, John Hilts and Matthew Feiner. At one point, the Grave family attempted to sell the entire building to the artists after their move to North Haven, but they could not afford it. The property was then purchased by Liberty Community Services to renovate it into low-cost housing units. After half a decade of seeking funds, the multimillion–dollar project finally became a reality in 2003 by successfully securing federal and state dollars. The first chronically homeless residents to move into the new housing project include LD Adams, Latasha Gallman, Connie Hall, D Riley, Wanda Soto (still living in the building to this day), and Area Cooperative Educational24, a local education agency. Currently, Liberty Safe Haven houses 33 residents previously suffering from lengthy homelessness due to disabilities.

Located at the very edge of Ninth Square History District, 210 State Street is packed in a very urban part of New Haven with richly detailed and well-preserved 19th and early 20th-century commercial buildings. In the area, most buildings of different ages and styles conjoin together to form a continuous but cofounding facade with little or no set-back from the sidewalk. The diversity of the constructions incorporates a dominant number of Georgian Revival designs typical of the New England region and a scattering of Greek Revival, Romanesque, Queen Anne, Beaux-Arts, Art-Deco/Modernistic designs. But a common feature of this compact area is the use of bricks that build up from three to five stories high and reveal cornice details and ornate adornments confined to facades. The rear and backside elevations are mostly utilitarian and industrial, with loading docks and empty spaces available for parking in the center of the blocks. The restricted embellishing to the front mostly relates to the high density of buildings that cluster storefronts together, leaving no or tapered spaces in between for pedestrians to take notice of their other facets. The facades fulfill the basic aesthetic need to attract customers and pedestrians from the exterior, and therefore, decorating the rear becomes redundant and costly.



Besides this pervading logic in design and diversity of styles being encompassed within 210 State Street, its surrounding facilities make it a desirable location for housing in the densely populated Downtown East neighborhood. Besides proximity to City Hall that is near New Haven Green and being on the original grid of New Haven, the current Liberty Safe Haven sits beside a busy pedestrian commercial strip that runs alongside Orange Street. It includes a handful of restaurants, cafés, salons, the Ninth Square Market, and the Artspace gallery, which unfortunately have moved out in June 2023. This compact layout fulfills nearly all desires of entertainment — being within walking distance of cinemas, music venues, churches and Buddhist temples. Apart from walking, transportation choices are also abundant: the Union and the State Street train station are within a mile distance, while Proper public parking lot a street away offers ample space for automobiles. It’s also worth noting that the Knights of Columbus Tower and Veteran Memorial Coliseum— once the city’s largest venue of social gatherings. As citizens gather and disperse from George Street, large numbers of pedestrians would flood onto State Street shuttle bus station or drive their own cars from the parking lot. And along this route, the F. D. Grave and Son storefront has a golden opportunity to attract customers. Hence, the location is both suitable for housing and for commercial use.



However, as the building now stands to be a homeless shelter, it becomes a piece of the Downtown Crossing redevelopment project for more affordable housing. The Coliseum is imploded and envisioned to become “Square 10,” a site that provides commercial, residential, office, and educational spaces. The urban setting around 210 State Street is veiled under the Downtown Crossing initiative, which reconnects neighborhoods long cut off by failed, so-called ‘urban renewal’ efforts of the past and creates a new neighborhood within walking distance of Union Station and the Medical District. Liberty Safe Haven is a predecessor of this large citywide effort.



The immediate surrounding of 210 State Street reflects this urban reform. Large empty lots on the southern side of the construction, temporarily used as parking surfaces, are available for new infrastructures. The previous commercial buildings for Wilson’s Sea Grill and Greyhound bus station have been demolished and are now part of the parking space for the Hertz car rental service. Among the empty space and adjacent to the rear wall is a skateboard pit elevated above the ground. The exterior fence surrounding the pit with metal nets gives the impression of provisionality, which aligns with the overarching initiative in erecting new houses.



More importantly, graffiti are ever-present: from the graffiti on the fringe of the wall to the inner and outer surface of the pit to the doors and backside of Hertz’s small hut. Most words are in almost indecipherable typography, such as “skate haven” and “finding a line” sprayed onto the ramp, “skate or die” and other stickers rendered onto the brim of the pit (Image #9). Prints of “Artspace” between the graffiti indicate that some designs may be commissioned by the adjacent art gallery for the Straight Up Art Project that hopes to overturn the lack of public art in the Ninth Square community. Similar but more refined murals could be found at 44 Orange Street, a block away (Image #12), on a private building. Being a public/non-profit-owned building after its acquisition in 1999, it is more friendly towards art than landlords, who consistently refuse cultural and artistic projects downtown. Accordingly, 210 State Street not only becomes an exemplifier in creative urban renovation of old buildings into affordable housing, but also a leading catalyst in promoting a more beautiful and inclusive neighborhood through public art.