Edward Rowland House

The Edward Rowland House is a 2 and ½ storey home situated on the corner of Academy and Greene Streets, across from Wooster Square Park. It features Italianate architecture dating to the mid-19th century, including a double bow front in green with gold detailing. Once the home of a prominent New Haven grocer, real estate developer, and Assistant U.S. Assessor, the Edward Rowland house has since been separated into six units and still serves the area as a residential home. The history of this house is particularly engaging as it has changed hands so many times, and is one of the many homes in Wooster Square that holds the stories of Italian-Americans moving to the area in the early 20th century. The house blends in wonderfully with the rest of Wooster Square’s historic architecture, though it stands out in its own way due to its eye-catching color choice and unique facade.

Few specifics are known about what the site used to be prior to the construction of the house in 1865. Little is known about how or if the site was used by the first settlers of the New Haven Colony, or about how the indigenous peoples of the area interacted with the site. Before 1825, some records reveal that Wooster Square was a field used for local ploughing contests. It is unclear whether the exact site of the Edward Rowland House was a part of this, though it might have been.

Before the house was built, there were other smaller houses on the site and along Academy Street, about which very little is known. Edward Rowland–the very man who had the house in question built and resided in it until his death–was a small-scale real estate developer who demolished these original houses, along with investment from the Home Insurance Company, to put in nicer, more modern, and fashionable homes, including that at 42 Academy, although his main investor ended in bankruptcy before an entire overhaul of Academy Street could be realized, leaving some older homes intact. Before the current house was constructed, Rowland sold the plot to the Second Baptist Church, which used the site for a decade before relocation. After this, Rowland had the current house constructed and lived within it, as he seemed to have done with the other buildings he developed. After the Edward Rowland House was built in 1865, little else has been altered about the site, other than minor changes to the structure.

The social history of the Edward Rowland House and Wooster Square is particularly interesting and relevant to the history of New Haven throughout the past two centuries. With the construction of residential homes in the area beginning in the mid-19th century, Wooster Square became a stylish and desirable neighborhood for many wealthy families and notable locals, such as James English, who resided at 592 Chapel Street and would later go on to be the Governor of Connecticut, and Willis Bristol, a prominent businessman who founded Bristol and Hall: Boot and Shoe Manufacturers and resided at 584 Chapel Street.

However, it quickly fell out of fashion after industry was introduced to the area, such as The New Haven Clock Company, C. Cowles & Co. Carriages, and Strouse, Adler Corsets, and these prominent homeowners began to move out of the area after the start of the 20th century. So, then began a shift in demographics as Italian American families moved into the neighborhood and began to run businesses out of the houses.

An example of this can be seen by looking at the New Haven Directories from 1900 on and taking note of the surnames of the tenants, as well as any business operated out of the addresses. For the Edward Rowland House, it can be seen that after Emily Rowland, the widow of Edward Rowland, died in 1908, the house became occupied by Harry A. Conte, Julius Banco, and Luigi Conte before 1922–three tenants with typical Italian surnames. Additionally, by looking at other surnames on the same page of the 1922 directory, it can be noted that other Italian-Americans had begun to reside in the area as well. In the 1924-1925 directory, Jules Bango and Luigi Conte are designated as 42 Academy’s residents. In the 1940 directory, a change in tenants can be seen as John A. Iannotti, Anthony T. Iannotti, Lorenzo Iannotti, and John M. Pascarella are listed–all still with surnames typical of Italian heritage–alongside “Universal Stone Works”, which was likely a business operated by some or all of the tenants of the home. Similarly, in 1960, the directory lists three Iannottis and one Pascarella as the residents of the house, along with “Elm City Door Closer Repair Service”, potentially reflecting a change in in-demand trades in the area. Still today, some Italian businesses make their homes in Wooster Square, such as the well-known Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana and Lucibello’s Italian Pastry Shop.

Around 1960, the Wooster Square neighborhood began to be recognized as an important part of New Haven’s architectural and social histories, and the buildings of this area received new life as they were restored to their former glory in an effort to revitalize the neighborhood. Eventually, Wooster Square would go on to be listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. The last directory that helps to tell the story of this house is from 1980, which lists John A. Iannotti, D. H. Pond, Edward A. Mcminn Jr, along with a vacancy. The house is no longer also a place of business, and is back to its original purpose of being solely a residence, although it seems that it had been subdivided and was no longer single-family as it was when Edward Rowland resided there.

The Edward Rowland House has served Wooster Square and New Haven as a single-family residence, multi-family housing, stone work and door closer service businesses, and potentially even some sort of club, though little could be found about the latter. It is a great representation of the city’s history through its unique architecture and connection to Italian-American families and businesses. Still today, the house serves as a home for six separate units, and still faces Wooster Square Park, as it did 160 years ago.

The Edward Rowland House is part of the Wooster Square Historic District, which features other grand and beautiful homes built in the 19th and 20th centuries. There are other Italianate homes on Academy Street, as well as many in Georgian or Greek Revival styles, calling upon a tradition of European-inspired classical architecture built in 19th-century New England. The Edward Rowland House stands out with its double bow front, but still fits cohesively in with its unique and diverse neighbors. With limited space between the houses, very little yard space exists, and the area relies on Wooster Square Park for recreation. The house faces this park, which is a site of public green space and is home to events such as the annual Cherry Blossom Festival. The Wooster Square neighborhood is not at the heart of New Haven, but it is just a walk away from Yale’s campus and the downtown area.

The 1865 Italianate building features a double-bow front with a hipped roof and is constructed of brick with stucco and utilizes load-bearing masonry for the structural integrity of its 2 and ½ storeys. It has many decorative elements of the Greek Revival style, which add to its eclectic elegance, including a cupola on top and a front porch. Its playful green and gold coloring complements its unique facade and trim details on its porch and front door. While the exact alterations that this building has undergone and the times at which these occurred are unknown, it is known that it has been subdivided, which likely required some construction alterations, and also has been connected to its neighbor, 40 Academy, although the details of this are also unknown.

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