By Sam Jensen In the year of 1837, at the young age of fifteen, Donald Grant Mitchell’s romance with New Haven began with his arrival at Yale College. Mitchell was, from the beginning, enthralled by the architectural beauty of the city, and the nature which surrounded and complemented it as a whole. In Waldo Dunn’s biography of Mitchell, the scene of his arrival to New Haven is depicted in detail. Dunn writes, “We of the present need, perhaps, to be reminded of the New Haven and the Yale of 1837… New Haven was then an isolated town of some 13,000 inhabitants—a kind of backwoods Athens. Not until two years later was railway connection with the outside world established… Even prior to 1837, however, the beauty-loving zeal of James Hillhouse had been instrumental in transforming New Haven into the ‘City of Elms,’ ” (Dunn, 43). Having arrived before heavy industrialization, Mitchell’s Yale days were set in a more quiet and quaint City of Elms than it had become by the end of his life....

By Michael Capozzi Edgewood Park is located on the western border of Westville, and occupies over 120 acres. In 1889, the City of New Haven seized over sixty acres of land and gave it to the Park Commission.  Prominent citizens of the area also donated additional land. This included the famed literary figure Donald Grant Mitchell. Also know by his pen name, Ik Marvel, he had authored two prominent works titled  The Reveries of a Bachelor  and  My Farm on Edgewood.  Edgewood Park gains its name from Mitchell’s farm estate titled the same name, Edgewood. Mitchell praised Edgewood as a place away from the urban life and a retreat to nature. It was but two miles from the New Haven Green, however, so Mitchell would be surrounded by nature while still being close to the city.  Being heavily invested in the design of the park, among others in New Haven, he drew a map in 1888 titled “Suggestions for Edgewood Park”.   Mitchell propo...

By Joseph Skiffington “One cannot contemplate these eminences without admiring them, as forming bold and beautiful features in the scenery around New Haven …. They are composed of precipitous cliffs of naked frowning rock, hoary with time, moss-grown and tarnished by a superficial decomposition, looking like an immense work of art.” (Boer, Wareham, 5) This was a description of New Haven, East Rock, and West Rock by the acclaimed Yale scientist Benjamin Silliman. (Boer, 5) The natural of beauty of New Haven and its towering rocky guardians has been something that has captivated the mind and inspiration of many painters especially from about 1825-1880 when landscape painting emerged as an influential artistic movement. West Rock Ridge stands seven hundred feet tall at its highest point made of volcanic rock known as dolerite which when in contact with oxygen gives it its characteristic red color. With a sheered face and its twin East Rock guarding New Haven at the opposite side, We...

By Mitchel Bertini Early manufacturing in New Haven, Connecticut was greatly aided by the West River. From 1776 to 1896, over fifty mills were constructed in Westville and produced a wide range of goods. Another important feature of the West River's industrial history was created in the late 1790s, the Pond Lily Dam. Levi Sperry, son of Richard Sperry, a prominent Westville resident, was given the land and decided to erect a grist mill in 1794.  (Welch,6) Grist mills were used at the time to grind corn and grain, so farmers could transport their crops more easily to market. Before building the mill, Sperry dammed the West River in order to create a manageable water flow that could be used to power the facility’s machinery . Early manufacturing in Westville utilized water power from large water wheels that were powered by the West River’s manageable flow of water. The grist mill was shut down in the early 1840s and soon became a carriage facility where springs and axles were f...