![]() |
New Haven, Connecticut Travel Guide | |
New Haven is a town of spires and steeples, of Gothic towers and steel-and-glass towers, very much of the present and very much of the past. | ||
|
|
Although New Haven, 81 miles (130 km) northeast of New York City, was founded in 1638, the crucial year in its history was 1718, when Connecticut's "Collegiate School" for the training of young men for the ministry—later to become Yale University—decided to make its permanent and perpetual home in New Haven, ignoring the suits and blandishments of the other notable Connecticut towns of Hartford and Saybrook. Yale UniversityPerhaps the college came to New Haven because a local man offered a good deal of financial assistance, and in fact it was for this assistance that the school's name was changed to honor Elihu Yale. New Haven has never been the same. Although today it is a town of business and industry—small arms, the telephone company, the county government—it is still more than anything the city where Yale is, and the presence of the great university dominates New Haven's social and cultural life. Unless you have a special interest in one of New Haven's attractions, you can see the high points in a day's visit, or even a half day. What to See & DoStart your explorations on New Haven Green, the spacious park at the city center. The Yale University campus is north and west of the green. You can join a campus tour at the Visitor Center. More... Allocate time for Yale's world-class museums: the Yale University Art Gallery, the Center for British Art, and the Peabody Musum of Natural History. More... A short walk from the New Haven Green is Grove Street Cemetery with its Egyptian Revival gateway and the graves of such New Haven greats as Eli Whitney, Noah Webster and rubber-vulcanizer Charles Goodyear. More... In the evening, theater! The Yale Rep is world-renowned. More... Where to StayA few hotels are right in the center, within walking distance of New Haven Green and Yale University. More are at intersections on the highways passing north and south of the city. More... Transportation—by Tom Brosnahan
|
|
New Haven City Hall, on New Haven Green. |