Hamden Historical Society

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Archived Website Posts
2017

This page contains the website posts made during 2017.  Some of
them are also included in the topics covered in the top menu.

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2017 Newsletters
Winter 2017
Spring 2017
Fall 2017

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February 25, 2017

PETITION SIGNATURES STILL NEEDED!

The situation regarding the demolition of historic homes on Whitney Avenue by Quinnipiac University has not come to a conclusion yet.  Two respected historical organizations have taken an interest in our plight and are working with us to reach a positive resolution with QU.  They are the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation and the State Historic Preservation Office.  Your signature on our petition can be an effective tool in showing these groups that the local community stands behind us in our endeavor to Save Mount Carmel.

SIGN THE PETITION

https://www.gopetition.com/petitions/saving-mount-carmel.html

January 21, 2017

Quinnipiac demolishes historic homes on Whitney Avenue

December 29, 2016

Quinnipiac criticized for demolishing historic houses in Hamden

December 29, 2016

Historic Dickerman house demolished in Hamden

December 29, 2016

Historic Hamden home demolished

December 28, 2016

Quinnipiac University demolishes historic Hamden home

December 26, 2016

Another historic house to come tumbling down

December 11, 2016

Quinnipiac University moves forward with demolition of houses on Whitney Avenue

December 9, 2016

Quinnipiac University moves forward with demolition of houses on Whitney Avenue

December 8, 2016

Historic homes spared from demolition

November 17, 2016

Historic homes may get reprieve from wrecking ball

October 12, 2016

Quinnipiac University may rethink demolishing homes on Whitney Avenue in Hamden

September 7, 2016

Quinnipiac University's Plan to tear down historic homes in Hamden courts controversy

SIGN THE PETITION!

Saving Mount Carmel Petition

September 30, 2016 - We at the Hamden Historical Society (HHS) know that many of you are concerned about the homes along Whitney Avenue being demolished by Quinnipiac University.  We share that concern.  The HHS board and the Hamden Historic Properties Commission have met with a representative of the university, who agreed to extend the demolition date for the most historically significant structures while we write and submit a proposal to preserve them.  Towards that end, we will be engaging an architectural historian to evaluate the condition of some of the buildings.

But there is still something concerned citizens can do.  The Historical Society encourages you to continue to send letters of objection to local newspapers and to Hamden’s Building Official Robert Labulis, at Hamden Government Center, 2750 Dixwell Avenue, 06518.  Also, HHS will soon be publishing an online petition for you to sign; we’ll keep you updated on that.

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August 26, 2016 - The Historical Society had a meeting last night to discuss the impending demolition of 13 houses along Whitney Ave by QU. Three are gone already. HHS is working with the Historic Properties Commission to preserve those with historic designation. We will be posting updates here and on our Facebook page. If anyone would like to become actively involved please email us directly at hhs@hamdenlibrary.org

 

historic homes whitney ave

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Aug. 29, 2016

Mr. Bob Labulis
Building Department
Hamden Government Center
2750 Dixwell Avenue
Hamden, CT 06518

Dear Mr. Labulis:

On behalf of the Hamden Historical Society and other organizations, I am writing to object to the demolition of several structures on Whitney Avenue by Quinnipiac University, as given in Legal Notices in the New Haven Register of Aug. 26, 2016. These structures include nos. 3217, 3235, 3341, and 3367-69. Nos. 3217 and 3341 are listed in Historic Buildings of Connecticut, and no. 3369 is on both the Historic Buildings of Connecticut list and on the National Register of Historic Places.

All of these structures have great local historical import. No. 3217, one of Hamden’s few surviving pre-Revolutionary homes, was built by Ezra Dickerman, who served on the New Haven Committee of Inspection during the Revolution; this was also the home of a famed Civil War hero. No. 3235 was built in 1875, in the Italianate style, by Elam Dickerman, train stationmaster and general store owner. No. 3369, built by carpenter and joiner Orin Todd c. 1815, has been called the “finest surviving Federal home” in Hamden by former municipal historian Martha Becker, though the details have been largely concealed behind later applications. And no. 3367, the old Cheshire Toll House (which formerly stood on the other side of the street), is an extremely rare example of a utilitarian structure dating from c. 1800.

I and representatives of other concerned organizations, including the Hamden Historic Properties Commission and the West Woods Neighborhood Association, would welcome an opportunity to meet with representatives of Quinnipiac University to discuss the rehabilitation rather than destruction of these residences. My contact information is below.

Yours sincerely,
Kenneth P. Minkema, Ph.D.
President, Hamden Historical Society
Member, Hamden Historic Properties Commission
Member, West Woods Neighborhood Association

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August 29, 2016

Save Our Historic Homes
By the Hamden Historical Society

Quinnipiac University plans to knock down historic homes along Whitney Avenue. Brought to our attention by concerned and vigilant citizens, this decision was made without any input from our society or from the Hamden Historic Properties Commission. Although the university plans to knock down at least twelve buildings, we urgently request that four of these treasures be saved.

The first is the ornate 1815 Orrin Todd House at 3369 Whitney Avenue, called the “finest surviving Federal home” in Hamden, listed in Historic Buildings of Connecticut and the National Register of Historic Places. Todd was a carpenter, and the architecture of the house shows it, from dentals embellishing the cornice to a Palladian attic-story window with star carvings. Next door at 3367 is a Cheshire Turnpike Toll Gate House from 1800, a rare survival of these early features of the American landscape. The third house of note is at 3341 Whitney, another Historic Building of Connecticut, built by Joseph Miller, an Ives Axle Works employee. An 1875 Italianate, it keeps its old sash and clapboard exterior and round-arched attic windows.

Lastly and perhaps most importantly, at 3217 Whitney Avenue, the nine-window colonial house built in 1770 and owned by Ezra Dickerman is one of the only Pre-Revolutionary houses in Hamden, listed in the Historic Buildings of Connecticut. Dickerman was one of the town’s leading lights, and helped build the Mount Carmel Congregational Church. In 3217 he and his wife Sarah brought up one of Hamden’s greatest families. Two sons left Hamden to pioneer Illinois, becoming early supporters of Abraham Lincoln. Another son became a New York writer and chronicler of Mount Carmel’s past, while three daughters, Elizabeth, Abbie, and Fannie, became models for the neighborhood. Built by local industrialist James Ives, the Mount Carmel Female Seminary (which still stands, for now, on Murlyn Road) was where Abbie and Elizabeth taught local girls grammar, mathematics, and morality.

The most amazing of 3217’s children might have been Ezra Day. He became a carpenter and Sunday-school instructor, but when Abraham Lincoln called for volunteers for the Civil War, he answered, fighting with distinction and becoming captain of the “Whitney Rifles.” With a wounded hip he walked twenty miles from a train depot to serve at Gettysburg. Shot in the temple in Georgia, he came home to Connecticut to start a family, but succumbed to the effects of the head wound a few years later.

We understand the need for Quinnipiac to expand, and plans for an “academic village” in Mount Carmel have been proceeding for some time. However, the destruction of these historic properties without public debate seems a grave error. We hope that they will instead incorporate these treasures into their plans. After all, what better way to greet visitors and students than the beautiful architecture of a New England village? What better lesson for students than to demonstrate how conservation can coexist with progress in the 21st century?


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The Hamden Historical Society has copies of the new book

by Municipal Historian David G. Johnson.


 Price: $19

All profits from this sale of Hamden Firefighting will benefit 
the Hamden Historical Society

The 128-page pictorial history of the Hamden Fire Department was written by
Town Historian Dave Johnson, a retired Hamden Fire Department captain. 
With over 200 photographs of historic fires as well as images of numerous volunteer and career professionals from all eras, Hamden Firefighting chronicles the department from 1896 to the present day.

Hamden Firefighting will be available at Barnes & Noble, Amazon 
and other retail outlets starting November 20th, 2017, for $21.00.

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Saturday, June 10 
Jonathan Dickerman House
Mt.Carmel Avenue, Hamden, CT
1:00-4:00 p.m.

Schedule of Special Activities
1:00-4:00 House Tours
1:00-4:00 Old Fashioned Games
1:30 and 2:30 p.m. Punch and Judy puppet show
Enjoy the antics of Punch and Judy; performed by Richard Smith
2:00 and 3:00 Puppet craft
Make your own Punch or Judy


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April 6, 2017

Today marks the centennial of our involvement in World War I.  In Hamden, we are proud to honor one of our own doughboys, A. Frederick Oberlin. The link below will take you to an excellent article just published by Dr. Laura A. Macaluso, a researcher and writer currently living in Virginia.

Oberlin Memorial Windows


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From HHS President Ken Minkema's dedication at the naming of the
Al Gorman Hamden History Room

Al Gorman served the town of Hamden for many years and in many capacities - as a civic leader, as a politician, and as a preservationist.  He was the driving force behind the creation of the Hamden Historic Properties Commission, and was involved with the Hamden Historical Society as a member and as its president for decades.  He, with his wife Betsy, were also great recruiters for the cause of history - I am evidence of that, as I'm sure are many people here today.

One of the main activites of the Historical Society is this History Room, where we make our manuscript, printed, visual, and other resources available for researchers, students, and town members.  It is entirely right and proper, therefore, as a tribute to the memory of Al Gorman, to the service that he rendered to our community and to its cultural and historical legacy, to the love that he had for this town and the love we have for him, that we give his name to this space.


Image: 
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Upcoming events

Please join us on Saturday, March 25, 2017 from 3-4:30 for the dedication of The Al Gorman Hamden History Room.  Al served for 20 years as the President of the Historical Society.  The History Room has recently been renovated and it is fitting that it will now be named in his honor.  The History Room is located on the Third Floor of the Miller Memorial Library.

On Tuesday April 11, 2017 Tim Chaucer, a retired history teacher from Hamden High School will portray Joseph Plumb Martin, considered a hero at Yorktown during the American Revolution. Martin grew up in Connecticut and is sometimes referred to as the most famous private in the American Continental Army. He witnessed General Washington on several occasions. Martin’s description of constant hunger at Valley Forge earned him a modern trail named for him at Valley Forge, PA. He wrote his memoirs later in life to remind Americans of the suffering that privates such as himself went through in order to win the war to guarantee our independence.  The event will take place at Mount Carmel Congregational Church in Hamden from 7:00-8:30 p.m.”

As part of a special series exploring Connecticut’s towns, Eric Lehman, published author and member of Hamden Historical Society, will lead a walking tour on Saturday, April 22, 2017 from 11 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The tour for adults and children 8 years old or above, begins at Eli Whitney Museum. A limited number of participants is necessary, so advance registration is required with a $20 fee towards the Connecticut Museum of Natural History. Sign-up on their webpage,  http://www.cac.uconn.edu/mnhcurrentcalendar.html


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February 25, 2017


PETITION SIGNATURES STILL NEEDED!

The situation regarding the demolition of historic homes on Whitney Avenue by Quinnipiac University has not come to a conclusion yet.  Two respected historical organizations have taken an interest in our plight and are working with us to reach a positive resolution with QU.  They are the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation and the State Historic Preservation Office.  Your signature on our petition can be an effective tool in showing these groups that the local community stands behind us in our endeavor to Save Mount Carmel.

SIGN THE PETITION


https://www.gopetition.com/petitions/saving-mount-carmel.html


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Official Website of the Hamden Historical Society

Unless otherwise cited or in the Public Domain, all material on this website, including photos, essays, articles and commentary published herein, are © Copyright 2016-2024 by the Hamden Historical Society, and may not be copied or republished in whole or in part without prior written  permission of the
Hamden Historical Society
P.O. Box 5512
Hamden, CT  06518-0512
hhs@hamdenlibrary.org