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Ninth Square Historic
District
 The
Ninth Square Historic District is located in the middle of New Haven’s
Downtown business districts and is comprised of 78 structures, almost all
of them richly detailed and well-preserved 19th and early 20th century
commercial buildings. Centered around the intersection of Chapel and
Orange Streets, two major arteries the district includes three entire
blocks and portions of five others, with Church, Court, State, and Crown
Streets forming the district’s edges. Throughout most of the district,
buildings of various ages and styles are joined together to form
continuous facades along both sides of the street. Part of the oldest
section of the city, the district adjoins the southeast edge of New
haven’s historic Green and encompasses almost all of one of the original
nine squares set out at the time of New Haven’s founding.
Nearly all the structures in the district are three to five stories high,
and there is little or no setback from the sidewalk. Brick is the
predominant building material, though some facades are finished with
brownstone (Palladium Building, 141 Orange Street, Photograph 21),
pressed-metal (Franklin Building, 53-57 Orange Street, Photograph 19) and
cast-stone (Simons Building, 81-83 Church Street, Photograph 10). Many of
the structures feature decorative treatments in terra cotta, such as the
Bromley Buildings have cornice details and other ornament of wood.
Architectural elaboration is confined to the stylish facades; rear
elevations are utilitarian, with loading docks and freight doors
(Photograph 5).
Examples of almost major architectural styles from 1820 to 1940 are found
among the district’s buildings. The largest single group, about a fifth of
the total, date from the last quarter of the 19th century and have the
bracketed cornice, round and segmental-arched window shapes, and elaborate
hoodmolds which indicate an Italianate derivation (Photographs 15, 19, 20,
25). Another large group of buildings, comprising another fifth of the
total, were built around 1900 in one of several revival styles inspired by
classical, Renaissance and colonial precedents; of these, the Georgian
Revival designs are the most numerous (Photographs 7, 9, 10, and 12). The
remainder includes a scattering of Greek Revival, Romanesque, Queen Anne,
Beaux-Arts, Neo-Gothic and Art-Deco/Modernistic designs, producing a rich
diversity of style and architectural ornamentation within a compact area.
Interspersed are a number of buildings, most put up after 1920, whose
facades feature the wide window openings and restrained decorative
treatment characteristics of the commercial architecture of that period.
The visual effect of the close juxtaposition of styles is best seen on
Chapel Street, where large corner blocks from the Greek Revival period
define the east and west ends of the district (Photographs 2 and 11). In
between (Photographs 4, 6, and 25) the pedestrian encounters arcades of
round-arched windows, elaborate bracketed Italianate cornices, Romanesque
corbelling, the polychrome stone and terra cotta decoration on the Queen
Anne style Institute Building, the Carrara glass of the 1940s, and many
other details. The southern end of Orange Street (Photograph 19) presents
a similarly diverse streetscape, while the northern end counts among its
numerous historic buildings on Church Street, running at the western edge
along the Green, are generally larger and more stylish than others in the
district and date almost entirely from the first decade of the 20th
century (Photographs 7 through 10). The Court, Crown, and State Street
streetscapes are less complete, with more vacant lots and noncontributing
buildings, but there are nevertheless numerous clusters of historic
buildings and on Crown Street, the New Haven Water Company headquarters, a
richly detailed and visually arresting brownstone building (Photographs
12, 14, 15, 16, 22, 23 and 17).
The district forms a coherent and distinct part of New Haven’s downtown.
To the northwest, across Church Street, stands the mid 1960s Chapel Square
Mall, its large and contemporary buildings effectively isolating this
district from the chapel Street Historic District, an area of 19th century
commercial and residential development listed on the National register. To
the southwest is the modern New Haven Coliseum, as well as vacant lots now
serving as parking lots. To the southeast State Street is paralleled by
the wide right-of-way that accommodates the multi-track railroad. Recently
constructed large office buildings on State and Orange Streets mark the
northeast extent of the older commercial area, and on Church Street, the
numerous governmental buildings (City Hall, Post Office, Courthouses, and
Public Library) form a complex of historic structures with its own
identity.
The district possesses a high degree of architectural integrity.
Alterations have generally been limited to street-level storefronts and
signs, and a few storefronts retain their historic appearance (Photograph
24). The district has suffered some losses through demolition, notably
along State Street. The entire north side of Chapel Street between State
and Orange Streets has also been demolished, but the district boundary has
been drawn so as to exclude most of these now-vacant lots. There are a few
new or totally remodeled structures, which form a strong contrast with the
character of their older neighbors, such as the black-glass annex to the
Connecticut Savings Bank on Church Street. However, only six buildings in
the district were judged noncontributing because of their recent
construction or apparently irreversible alteration.
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