Long Wharf: A Maritime History

By Zoey Reidy

Imagine, for a moment, you are walking down Long Wharf Drive today. You would be right next to the highway watching cars breeze by on the interstate. In the present day, one would not find much along the Wharf, but that was not always the case. Historically, Long Wharf was the very heart of the city, a living, breathing place that had the lifeblood of New Haven pumping through it.

Throughout the history of the city, many things have come and gone on Long Wharf. One of the buildings still present in the current day is Long Wharf Theatre, a critically acclaimed Theatre that has been a place for all sorts of performers to gather and perform since 1965. The Theatre was not around since the beginning of the city’s founding and is a rather recent addition to the Wharf, but it is still an important part of its history. The Theatre itself was built in an old warehouse that was no longer in use. The warehouse was transformed into a Theatre for a one time showing of a play. The showing was so successful that the Theatre remains open to this day and is now a go-to place in the city.

Looking back into a less recent history gives another view of Long Wharf. Long Wharf was built to fit the needs of New Haven’s commercial economy. The wharf was not a success from day one and was, in fact, unsuccessful at first. However, the people of New Haven needed a port they could rely on, and so they continued investing in the Wharf. Over time, Long Wharf eventually became the success they were looking for. It was finally completed in 1811 after years of construction. The construction of the Wharf was so intense that it took all male inhabitants of New Haven aged sixteen through sixty to pitch in four days of work.

Once the Wharf was completed, it became the chief reason that New Haven gained and maintained its status as a major port city in the early nineteenth century. Over the next forty years the Wharf would be extended to its maximum length of 3/4ths of a mile in 1855, making it the longest such structure of its kind in North America, thanks in large part of William Lanson, one of New Haven’s prominent African American leaders and engineers.

As mentioned above, Long Wharf in its prime was the heart of New Haven’s commercial society and was the reason that New Haven grew to be as large as it had. Yet, to say that it was only a commercial location would be to leave out a substantial chunk of its history. The College Courant was a newspaper written by students at Yale College during the nineteenth century that detailed the goings on in the city and college itself. Long Wharf would often make an appearance in the paper as the location for a multitude of events. One such event in 1867 was an annual race that began at Long Wharf and wrapped around the Wharf itself. As a college newspaper, it is not surprising that they wrote about the academic issues and Long Wharf was often a location that students frequented for academic maritime studies. One of these studies related to oystering in New Haven.

The history of Long Wharf was not without its issues. On October 27th 1820, a fire broke out on the Wharf, which historian John Rockey called "a great calamity to the city." The fire burnt down about half of the Wharf, leaving it in a state of disrepair. Thirty buildings containing molasses, rum, and other good from the West Indies trade and four lumber yards were destroyed, an estimated $70,000 in damage. Those who saw the fire said it shone so bright that they could see as if it were noon. It took two years to repair and add on to the Wharf after the disaster. Reconstruction and the one hundred ten foot expansion ended in 1822.

Unfortunately, Long Wharf would not be at the forefront of New Haven’s economy forever, and it eventually began to lose its importance as the emerging railroad made it easier to transport goods across the country.The railroad made it so Long Wharf could be circumvented for more convenient shipping locations such as New York or Boston’s own Long Wharf. Shippers no longer needed to worry about shipping into New Haven, a location that was somewhat hard to reach due to how far into the Long Island Sound it is. It did not take long for the emerging railroad to strangle Long Wharf, being sold to the railroad itself in 1890. Long Wharf would remain as a structure, slowly being whittled away until, in 1960 it had been almost entirely filled in in order to make room for more railroad connections and the I-95 interstate highway.

Today the city of New Haven has plans for the Long Wharf area, envisioning what it calls the “Long Wharf Responsible Growth Plan.” The city of New Haven seeks to revitalize Long Wharf into a place that people will once again frequent. Only time will tell if these plans prove to bear fruit. Regardless, it will be yet another piece of Long Wharf’s long and storied history.

 

Figure 1: Plan of the City of New Haven, showing Long Wharf at bottom right, 1831 (Courtesy of ConnecticutHistory.org)

Bibliography

City of New Haven. "Long Wharf and Coastal Resiliency."                                                                              https://www.newhavenct.gov/gov/depts/city_plan/plans_n_projects/long_wharf.htm                               (Accessed November 23, 2021).

The College Courant, October 16, 1867.

The College Courant, November 22, 1873.

Howe, Edward T. "New Haven's Long Wharf." ConnecticutHistory.org.                                                            https://connecticuthistory.org/new-havens-long-wharf/ (Accessed November 23, 2021).

Long Wharf Theatre. "About." https://longwharf.org/about (Accessed November 17, 2021)

Rockey, J. L., ed. History of New Haven County, Connecticut. Volume 1. New York: W.W. Preston &            Co., 1892.

Trowbridge, T. R. "History of Long Wharf." Papers of the New Haven Colony Historical Society.                     New Haven: New Haven Colony Historical Society, 1865.

^[1] “THE FIRE On the Long-Wharf New Haven, October 27, 1820.” (1820).