New Haven

The Quinnipiac settlement later named New Haven began on April 25, 1638, when a large group from London arrived by way of Boston under merchant Theophilus Eaton and the Reverend John Davenport. Later that year, the present downtown area was laid out in nine squares around a central common now called the New Haven Green, the first example of a planned community in the United States. British forces invaded the town in 1779 during the Revolutionary War, but although there was extensive plundering, serious damage was avoided. New Haven was incorporated as a city in 1784, and its first mayor was Roger Sherman, the only person to sign the Articles of Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution of the United States. New Haven Harbor, the largest port on Long Island Sound, supported an active fishing and sailing trade in the 19th century. In 1840, New Haven was the setting for the Amistad trial, in which fifty-two black slaves who had mutinied aboard a Spanish slave ship after being kidnapped in Africa in defiance of law were cleared of all civil charges brought against them. The city later became noted for manufacturing, is the site of several institutions of higher learning including Yale University, founded in 1701, South Central Community, Southern Connecticut State, and Albertus Magnus colleges, and Berkeley Divinity School, and its homes and institutional buildings reflect the work of noted architects from the 18th century to the present. Since the 1950s, New Haven has received national acclaim for efforts to renew and preserve its downtown and distinctive neighborhoods.

New Haven, Connecticut · United States