NewHavenBIZ

46 n e w h a v e n B I Z | O c t o b e r 2 0 1 8 n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m SALES / LEASING • Retail • Office • Industrial • Investments PROPERTY MANAGEMENT • Apartments • Condominiums • Office • Shopping Centers • Industrial Parks • Residential Rentals 1768 Litchfield Turnpike, Woodbridge CT | www.LMMRE.com | (203) 389-5377 When We Were Kings H ardly a man is now alive — none, actually — who can recall when the Elm City ruled supreme among Connecticut municipalities. Well, halfsies. From the earliest days of the Republic, New Haven and Hartford were the state's co-capital cities, each with its own state capitol building. e Gener- al Assembly conducted business in both burgs on an alternating schedule (Hartford in May; New Haven in October), an arrange- ment that endured until 1873. at's when the Hartford faction carried the day in a public refer- endum that dethroned the Elm City as co-capital and established Hartford as the sole sovereign city. In addition, a growing number of state legislators regarded the practice of alternating legislative sessions in two cities as not only 'Yale College and State House, New Haven, Connecticut,' 1829, lithograph by Alexander Jackson Davis. YALE UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY (PUBLIC DOMAIN) A R C H I V E awkward and ineffective — but also time-consuming and expensive in those pre-automotive days. e last official meeting in the New Haven State House took place in 1874. e Greek Revival structure pic- tured here was actually New Haven's third State House, erected in 1831 on the upper Green. It was designed by architect Ithiel Town, creator of the cantilever bridge and architect of the neighboring 1816 Goth- ic Trinity Church facing east on Temple Street. For most of the 19th century the stately Doric temple had served as the focal point of the "Common and Undivided Ground" (a/k/a the Green), but by the 1880s had fallen into disuse and disrepair. Following a vote by the New Hav- en City Council in 1885, a crowd of roughly 3,000 spectators witnessed the building's sad demolition (inset). Decades later a 1933 report in the Hartford Courant reflected, "New Haven did not realize the value of its structure and while it permitted three churches to retain their places on its common it caused the State House to be razed. [Y]ears aer- ward, New Haven residents realize that it is impossible to call back again the day that is past." n

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