New Haven has nine National Historic Landmarks: “historic properties that illustrate the heritage of the United States,” according to the National Park Service. Nationwide, there are about 2,600 of them—far fewer than the nearly 100,000 properties on the National Register of Historic Places, and roughly one for every 131,000 American citizens. Which means New Haven, with its population of about 135,000, boasts a density of NHLs almost nine times the national average.
One winter morning, with a layer of snow on the ground and the temperature fighting to reach 40 degrees, I laced up my boots and headed outside, resolved to walk to all nine landmarks in a single shot. I had no idea how much history I was about to learn or the surprising connections I was about to uncover.
Heading north on Whitney Avenue, I said “good morning” to the Peabody Museum’s roaring torosaurus statue on the way to my first destination: the Connecticut Agriculture Experiment Station at 123 Huntington Street. After passing a massive Science Hill construction project at Whitney and Humphrey—construction on Yale properties would become a frequent sight on my walk, making me wish I owned stock in whatever company manufactures the trademark blue fence wrap that currently envelops several blocks around the city—I made a left onto Edwards Street, then a right onto St. Ronan, taking in the sights of the many stately homes there. I stood for a few minutes in front of the Yale Divinity School lawn, remembering the joy of sledding there as a child.
From St. Ronan to Edgehill, then across on Huntington, I finally arrived at the CAES. Several buildings anchor this six-acre campus, which serves as the state’s locus of research and public outreach for agriculture and related fields. Departments include Analytical Chemistry, Entomology, Environmental Science & Forestry and Plant Pathology & Ecology, all tasked with “put[ting] science to work for society,” as a sign there says.
The CAES was the first state-run agricultural experiment station in the country. It started in 1875 at Wesleyan University, then moved to Yale before landing at its current spot in 1882. The first building erected there would come to be called the Osborne Library, a single-story brick building named for early CAES scientist Thomas B. Osborne, whose work with his colleague Lafayette B. Mendel yielded new insights into plant proteins, novel analytical techniques still in use today and the discovery of Vitamin A. While circling the campus, I made a “discovery” of my own: a plaque outside the Slate Laboratory, built in 1959, commemorating the CAES’s 1964 designation as a National Historic Landmark.
But with eight more destinations, it was time to move on. Starting the downhill trek back toward city center, I turned left on Prospect Street and, after 15 minutes, arrived at my next stop: the Othniel C. Marsh House at 360 Prospect.
O.C. Marsh, active in the latter half of the 19th century, is a foundational figure in American paleontology. He secured the funding and was a founding curator for the Peabody Museum, and he was the country’s first—and world’s second—professor of paleontology. He’s responsible for the names “Stegosaurus” and “Triceratops” and was an early adopter of Darwin’s theory of evolution. His so-called “Bone Wars” with rival paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope captivated the country in the late 1800s and helped ignite national interest in dinosaurs.
The rivalry was several years old in 1875, when Marsh hired renowned New Haven architect J. Cleaveland Cady to design and build what became his asymmetrical, fortress-like house just north of what we now call Science Hill. Construction was completed in 1880, and Marsh lived there until his death in 1899, leaving his home to Yale. The structure received National Historic Landmark status in 1965 and is now part of the Yale School of the Environment, under the name Marsh Hall.
With the “Bone Wars” still swirling in my mind, I resumed my trip down Prospect, passing more Yale construction projects as well as Ingalls Rink, whose architect, Eero Saarinen, once called it a “huge dinosaur-like skeleton.” Many future NHL players have skated there, but, sadly, the rink itself is not an NHL.
My destination, instead, was the Russell Henry Chittenden House. Built in the 1880s, the American Queen Anne-style mansion at 83 Trumbull Street is, like the Marsh House, an unusually opulent residential structure. Chittenden is considered one of the founders of biochemistry (then called physiological chemistry), and, like the CAES biochemist Thomas B. Osborne, was born in New Haven. He was educated and worked here, too, as a student and later professor at Yale. In 1887, he moved into this house, which is now undergoing an extensive restoration project. It received its National Historic Landmark status in 1967 and, according to a sign outside the structure, is owned by Marshall S. Ruben of Wallingford.
From there, I walked east to the Lafayette B. Mendel House at 18 Trumbull. Designed by prominent New Haven architect Henry Austin, the red brick structure was likely constructed in the 1880s, according to the New Haven Preservation Trust’s online NHL catalog (an inspiration and key resource for this story). Mendel, as we know, conducted important research with his colleague, Thomas Osborne, at the CAES. Known for his early discoveries in the field of nutrition, he was one of the first Jewish tenured professors at Yale and the first to be named a Sterling Professor, Yale’s highest academic rank. He and his wife lived at 18 Trumbull from approximately 1900 to 1920, and the house, now home to the accounting firm of Novaro, Cappella & Johnstone, received its NHL designation in 1976.
Doubling back along Trumbull, I hung a left on Hillhouse Avenue and arrived at number 24: the James Dwight Dana House. Another Henry Austin creation, this one dates to 1849, when Dana, an internationally renowned geologist, mineralogist and naturalist moved in, and remained in the Dana family until it was deeded to Yale in 1962. Three years later, it was named a National Historic Landmark. Now it houses Yale’s Department of Statistics.
At this point, my stomach was starting to grumble, and I began to fantasize about a cheeseburger, fries and a chocolate milkshake at Clark’s Dairy on Whitney Avenue. As that is no longer a possibility (Clark’s closed in 2010), I soldiered on, with an even more historic lunch spot in mind.
But first, I had more NHLs to visit—which we’ll digest, soon, in tomorrow’s edition.
Written by Daniel Fleschner. Images 1, 3 and 4, featuring the Marsh House, the Chittenden House and the Dana House, respectively, photographed by Daniel Fleschner. Image 2, featuring the Osborne Library at the CAES, sourced from the New Haven Preservation Trust.
