Westville's Whalley Avenue

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By Jenahn Dawson

Whalley Avenue in New Haven, which connects Downtown to the Town of Woodbridge through six city neighborhoods, is one of the most important roads in the city.  Named after the celebrated regicide Edward Whalley, the Westville section of this vital route was home to many commercial businesses, halls, taverns, shops and the location of the infamous raid by the British Army.

Whalley Avenue was first laid out in 1797 to connect Broadway and Downtown with the Litchfield Turnpike. Much of the Avenue went undeveloped until the late-19th century when the horse-drawn streetcar made residential development possible beyond the city core.  One notable early resident was Sherriff Joshua Hotchkiss, who along with his prominent family moved to the area of present day Whalley and Blake streets in 1677. (Caplan 9) With a large family, the small hamlet was titled Hotchkisstown.

Prior to the construction of the Westville Bridge on Whalley Avenue, which occurred soon after the Litchfield Turnpike was chartered, Westville was accessed from New Haven by way of Goffe and Blake Streets. In March of 1843, a catastrophic storm of snow and rain covered then weakened Westville bridge, sending a man along with his two horses to their deaths (New Haven Palladium).  It would take more than two decades and various attempts until any tangible progress was made on the creation of a new bridge over the West River.

Bogged down by slow and muddy lanes, inventor Eli Whitney Blake introduced the first paving method for Whalley Avenue using stones from nearby West Rock in 1852 (Caplan 47). When Whalley Avenue finally became the primary route to Westville in the early 19th century, the portion that winds through the center village was referred to as Main Street until 1897. Soon, the Town of Westville was consolidated with the City of New Haven (New Haven Register 1929).  Having just a single lane traveling in each direction, this segment of Whalley Avenue is the narrowest stretch of the road.

Soon after, the horse-drawn trolley system connected Westville Village with the central city in 1861, allowing it to grow to a greater degree. During the late 1860s, Whalley Avenue began to make a transition from a predominantly residential area to a more commercial core. Operated by the Fair Haven and Westville Horse Railroad, tracks from Grand Avenue to Whalley Avenue were laid, connecting smaller branches that led through downtown to the main railroad station and elsewhere. (Caplan The Daily Nutmeg)

A cornerstone of the Whalley Avenue streetscape is the narrow frame Queen Anne house. By mid-19th century, as was happening in other places of New Haven, these houses began appearing on Whalley Avenue as commercial blocks. These were houses built specifically to combine ground-floor money-making space with living lodgings in the upper levels. For example, 904-06 Whalley Avenue was built for Frederick Roth in 1880 specifically as a shoe store and as his residence.  (New Haven Preservation Trust).

Currently the Westville Village Historic District encompasses a small, but densely developed commercial area that reflects the area’s history as the commercial center of Westville, which directly served the mills on the West River.  This quaint, charming community is a well-preserved neighborhood that endures to present the story of the area’s development as a commercial and manufacturing center. The scale and concentration of the commercial and residential architecture is symbolic of the original layout of the community. The sound of church bells, factory whistles, and horse shoes was common and familiar, now replaced by pedestrians,  galleries and fine restaurants.  

The Westville Village is historically significant for its contribution to New Haven’s growth as a major industrial center from the second half of the 19th through the mid-20th century. In contrast to the light manufacturing and commercial concerns located in downtown New Haven during this time, Westville was home to larger industrial factories which took advantage of the open space and waterpower from the West River.

There are churches of many faiths within Westville. The first church on Whalley Avenue in Westville was the St. James Church belonging to parishioners of the Episcopal Parish. Stanton Pendleton, an ardent Episcopalian, helped purchase the prospected lot near Edgewood Park for the church. Construction for the church began in June of 1837, and was fully completed two years later. The first serving Reverend was Henry McGlory, who served from 1853 through 1855.   After nearly eight decades of use, signs of deterioration were evident and the church was rebuilt. (Caplan 64)

Past the Village, Whalley widens again to 48-feet to accommodate two travel lanes in either direction. Originally passing fields and farms on the way to Woodbridge along the Litchfield Turnpike, this segment of Whalley now travels through the Amity section of Westville, which developed small commercial strip malls during the 20th century. Sidewalks here are narrow, not shaded, and are exposed to the hustle and bustle of everyday life. 
           
 
Connecticut Historical Society
Barber, John Warner, 1798-1885
http://hdl.handle.net/11134/40002:9641

   
"Local Views of New Haven and Vicinity"
Photo Taken by H.S Peck New Haven 1865
Courtesy of The New Haven Museum

 Bibliography
 Caplan, Colin. Westville: Tales from a Connecticut Hamlet. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2009
Caplan, Colin. Time Travel, “The Daily Nutmeg”, August 5, 2015
              http://dailynutmeg.com/2015/08/05/trolley-history-time-travel/ 
“Churches of New Haven St. James”: New Haven Register, December 15, 1929
“Storm and Freshet”: New Haven Palladium, 1843
“Westville Forty-Five years ago, Recalled by a Former Resident”: 
          New Haven Register, February,6   1915
“Westville Village Historic District”: New Haven Preservation Trust
           http://nhpt.org/index.php/site/district/westville_village_historic_district/

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