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Public view A few notes on viewing the maps
Some of the maps below are photos [JPEG files] and have no "functional" features. Simply click the image to enlarge & view it [just as you would to enlarge & view other photos on this website].
Maps which are viewed by clicking a link to "Connecticut History Online" do have "functional" features: zoom, pan up, pan down, etc. When you click these links, it already should be centered on Oyster Point/City Point, but you can move the map to other parts of New Haven from there.
The links to maps at Historic Mapworks also are funtional ONLY if you open a "free" account--and then deposit $10 into your account [on their secure site] via credit/debit card. This allows you to use "Enhanced Zoom" 250 times with no additional charge per view. With this feature, you actually can zoom in close enough to read the name of a house's owner. [You also will have 250 "Enhanced Zoom" views of their entire collection of thousands of maps at no additional charge: a very worthwhile investment of $10 if you enjoy this sort of thing as much as your editor does!] After you open an account, you still can use the links below to view the specific map with enhanced zoom by typing in your user name & password in the upper right corner. [Your editor often finds it necessary to click the map title, then the back button on his web browser to get these maps to load.] Be sure to log out of your account before clicking back to the City Point website.
LINK PROBLEMS: Links, such as those below [or elsewhere on this City Point website] often become obsolete as editors of linked sites make changes. If you have trouble with any of the links below [or elsewhere on this website] please report it on the "Contact the editor of this website" page, so it can be reset.
1824 Amos Doolittle "Plan of New Haven"
To view this map click the following link:
The unnamed street marking the Northern boundary of the Oyster Point Quarter is Columbus Street [later called Columbus Avenue].
The part of the bed of the unnamed creek just North of Columbus Street will become the Derby Rail Road in 1870.
This creek merges with West Creek, the location of which is now covered by Route 34. Notice the distinct elevations separating The Oyster Point Quarter and Sodom Hill [later called Mount Pleasant and finally The Hill].
1838 Harbour Survey
Click the following link:
Compare with the 1846 Harbor survey below:
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01846 Harbor Survey
Click the following link:
Being intended primarily as a nautical map, this has one of the best drawings of the West River salt marsh, clearly
showing the West boundary of the "point" i.e. Oyster Point [although the term Oyster Point Quarter referred to a much
larger area, extending Northward to Columbus Ave.: i.e. all of that portion of New Haven bordering the harbor's western shore]. The small
farm house owned by Hallock [which he rented to a tenant-farmer] is clearly shown,
as is the outcropping upon which his home rested [although his "Castle" is not depicted].
Most of the point appears to be under cultivation. There are no houses on the Southern tip [future site of South Water
Street], but these will begin to appear shortly. The dark line left of Hallock's Castle is a ropewalk [long building
for manufacturing rope]. Most homes shown are on "New Streets in the Oyster point quarter" surrounding Spireworth Sq.
[later called Trowbridge Square]: Carlisle, Port-see (Portsea), Salem & Cedar Sts., which, along with nearby Putnum
& Liberty Sts., were approved by the Court of Common Council [predecessor of Board of Aldermen] on Sept. 3, 1830.
The homes just North of Spireworth Square are in Sodom Hill [later called "Mount Pleasant" and finally "The Hill"],
separated from the Oyster Point Quarter by a small creek [although, adding to the "neighborhood identity" confusion,
some 1830s deeds of properties South of Spireworth Sq describe them as being in "Mount Pleasant".
See http://nhpt.org/index.php/site/district/trowbridge_square_historic_district/.]
Notice that the "point" is part of a much larger peninsula, bounded by the West River on the West, and West Creek &
New Haven Harbor on the East. This peninsula incorporates both Sodom Hill [aka Mount Pleasant aka The Hill] and The
Oyster Point Quarter. This--plus significant infilling of waterways from the 1860s to 1950s--will account for over a century
of on-going disagreement over what constitutes the Hill neighborhood and the City Point neighborhood.
1849 Harbor View From Ferry Hill
Click the following link:
This link should bring you to a view of "Hallock's Castle". West Water Street can be seen along the shore, with Hallock's 2,000 foot-long stone wall bordering it. Cedar St. is behind the house. [Cassius St., which was constructed in the 1880s--c. 20 years after Hallock's house was moved from its original site--today begins at Cedar St., just behind where the house is pictured.] From the above link you can manipulate the image and view the rest of this artist's version of New Haven Harbor. [Note: a one-block fragment of W. Water st. still exists behind the present Police Headquarters on Union Ave.--an obscure reminder of how far North the harbor once extended!]
1851 Map
Click the following link:
Just above the intersection of Lamberton & Cedar Streets one can see the semicircular outcropping in front of Gerard
Hallock's mansion ["Hallock's Castle"]. Scroll down to the end of Oyster Point and note that the only road is Howard Ave.
The only buildings visible are a house owned by Hallock [which he rented to a tenant-farmer] and buildings on the shore
owned by R. Law [109 S. Water St.] and W. Barnes [103 S. Water St.] & a house at the end of Howard Ave. [19 Howard Ave., Eber Kelsey].
The raised cellars of these 3 houses have direct beach access, so oyster shucking & packing takes place here.
This malodorous use of residences soon will change, as the oyster industry experiences tremendous growth throughout the
second half of the 19th century. [Cf. 1868 wall map below]
Early advertisements of R.W. Law claim that the company was founded in 1847. However, land records [v.123,p.404] show that
William S. Barnes was the first oysterman at the Point, purchasing c. 2 acres of harborfront between the West River and Howard Ave.
from Gerard Hallock in 1847. Barnes then sold some of this land to Denison Hall the following year. Richard W. Law purchased the parcel
depicted on this map from Hall in 1850 [although it's possible that Law initially worked from leased property, beginning in 1847 as the
advertisements claimed]. Eber Kelsey is found in the 1852 city directory as "shipmaster" living at 20 Wallace St. However, directory information
was gathered the preceding year, so his house likely was built the year this map was published: 1851.
He is not found in the directory again until 1855, as a partner in [Frederick]Lane, Kelsey & Co., along with Charles Lane "mariner".
(Other Lanes were living on Wallace St. when Eber Kelsey lived there, so perhaps that is where the partnership was formed.)
Richard W. Law & William S. Barnes of Oyster Point are listed in the city directory for the first time in 1852, again
based on information gathered the preceding year. So, even though they owned land before that, perhaps their homes also
were not built until 1851. By 1854 Alexander Foote "oyster dealer" also was working on the Point, and by 1857 a new partnership "Kelsey &
Foote" had been formed.
By the time this map was created, Hallock owned not only most of the land from Spring St. southward, but also had
invested in lots around Spireworth [Trowbridge] Square and paid for the 1851 construction of South Congregational Church on
Columbus Ave., which you can see by scrolling up. [Due to the massive influx of Irish Catholic rail road workers,
in 1875 this became the Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart, which closed in 2009.] Also, scroll to the right and follow West Water Street
from Hallock's mansion over to the intersection of Fleet Street [which today is the last southbound block of State St.,
alongside the Knights of Columbus Museum] , where the Long Wharf begins and extends 3/4 mile out into the harbor.
One block of West Water St. [where it intersected Fleet] survives behind the present Police Headquarters on Union
Ave.--an obscure reminder of just how far North New Haven Harbor once reached.
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From 1868 New Haven County Atlas
If you want to see this map clearly after you click the link, scroll down & follow the instructions below the map to open an account with Historic Mapworks and aquire "Enhanced Zoom":
http://www.historicmapworks.com/Map/US/4247/New+Haven+City+Map/New+Haven+County+1868/Connecticut/
Not much detail in this map, but note that the Kimberly Avenue bridge crosses two islands.
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1879 "bird's eye" view of New Haven
Click the following link:
Only a small portion of City Point is visible on this map: Lamberton to Second St. Note that "Hallock's Castle" now has
been moved across the street to the corner of Lamberton & Cedar Sts.[and is now owned by the New York, New Haven
& Hartford Rail Road], and the portion of New Haven Harbor that the "Castle" once overlooked is now filled in.
Note that the harbor still extends to approx. Second St. & Hallock Ave.
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From the 1893 State Atlas
To view this map clearly, you'll need an account with Historic Mapworks, as explained above:
This is the first accurate map of City Point to use this name in place of the name Oyster Point [although the 1840 map depicting the "projected" development does likewise]. The name of Bay View Park had not yet been settled upon, so the cartographer simply calls it Waterside Park, or more likely confused it with another New Haven park called Waterside Park, which was located off Water Street and extended into the harbor. [That park is now the site of the I-95,I-91, & Rt 34 interchange.] The Boulevard is [like in the 1888 Atlas] still shown as a "planned" road, but has not yet been constructed.
1911 Atlas, plate 32
Another Historic Mapworks map [see explanation above to view clearly]: very detailed map that includes the upper half of City Point.
http://www.historicmapworks.com/Map/US/12723/Plate+032/New+Haven+1911/Connecticut/
This map shows the Boulevard crossing the railroad tracks, but when this Atlas was drawn in 1911 this portion of the Boulevard stopped at Lamberton St. The nearest automobile bridge across the tracks was on Lamberton St., at the intersection of Plymouth St. In 1907 a footbridge [not shown on this map]--the Grant Street Bridge--was built so pedestrians could cross the rail road tracks between Grant St. and Morris St. [The first Boulevard Bridge crossing the tracks was not constructed until 1978. The Grant St. footbridge was demolished c. 1990.]
1911 Atlas, plate 33
And the lower half of City Point, likewise very detailed:
http://www.historicmapworks.com/Map/US/12724/Plate+033/New+Haven+1911/Connecticut/
Notice that the Kimberly Ave. Bridges now cross only one island. This map shows the Boulevard continuing to Sea St., but in 1911 when this Atlas was drawn, this segment of the Boulevard only went from the Howard [Brick] Co., just South of the Railroad tracks, to Kimberly Ave. The remainder was a planned future extension of the Boulevard. [In 1929 the mouth of the West River was dredged, and the island which connected the two Kimberly Ave. bridges was eliminated so that only one bridge would be needed. The dredged material was used to fill the remainder of the West River salt marsh between Kimberly Ave. & Greenwich Ave.--thereby eliminating the "point" from which "City Point" had derived its name--and a dirt road was built between Kimberly Ave. & Sea St. Although officially considered a part of the Boulevard, residents referred to this dirt road as Dump Road due to the dump that developed along the shore here. By the mid 1930s the filled area between Kimberly & Greenwich Aves. had drained sufficiently to create the athletic field that exists there today.]
1911 Atlas, sewage system
Unlike plate No. 33 above, this appendix in the back of the 1911 New Haven Atlas gives a more accurate depiction of what the area between Sea St. & Kimberly Ave. looked like until 1929: a sewer pipe [installed in 1895] crossing the West River salt marsh, which residents used as a footbridge to cross the marsh. Notice that the water extends northward past Third St., between Greenwich & Kimberly Aves. [Also note that the Boulevard sewer pipe crosses the rail road tracks--even though there was no bridge here until 1978.]
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