Shabtai-Owned Brownstone

No. 279 may blend in to Crown Street to someone walking by, overshadowed by the new restaurants or bustling businesses. However, 279 is a piece of history: it symbolizes the once mainly residential, family-oriented street that is crowned as one of New Haven’s oldest.

279 Crown Street is one of two identical masonry townhouses, each 3 stories high and ‘3 bays wide.’¹ The building is constructed in ‘smooth-face ashlar blocks’² with wood cut-stone details at the front of the house, which is easily visible from the road. A four bed, four-bathroom house that was once used as a family home, has now transformed into a society house. 279 Crown Street perfectly symbolizes the progression of Crown Street as a whole since the mid-19th century, from residential to mainly commercial and service orientated.