Current Photo of William Ives New Haven Property in 1640s

Richard Ives has again provided a great service to the readers of this blog. See - Record of William Ives Departure to New England in 1635 for an earlier contribution. What follows is his comments to go with the picture only slightly edited by me. He was in New Haven over the holidays and after some serious consultation of old maps was able to pinpoint the precise location of William Ives's home lot, as it appears on the 1641 Brockett map, drawn the year before William and Goodwife Ives' first child, Phebe, was born. Although the site today is, part of the parking lot of a medical building, he found it interesting nevertheless.

The photo seen on the left was taken at the west end of William's house lot - the first property that William was granted after his arrival at Quinnipiac in 1638.

(The photo was taken looking roughly due east.) William's lot was about 50 feet wide by 100 feet long and is pretty much contained by the area shown in the photograph. The hedge and chain link fence on the left side of the photo mark the northern boundary of his property. The snow piled up at the far end of the parking lot marks its eastern boundary. The southern boundary, parallel to the northern, was just about where the right side of the photo ends. The place where Richard was standing when he took the photo is just a few feet inside the western boundary of his house lot.

These days the area between the far end of the property, as seen in the photo, and the cubical white building in the distance is occupied by a busy highway, known as the "New Haven Connector." (You can't see any cars in the photo because the Connector, built in the 1960's on an old creek bed, is on a somewhat lower elevation than the parking lot.) In the 1630's the place now occupied by the Connector was West Creek, which flowed, left to right (roughly north to south) as seen in the photo.

By the time the creek reached the area below William's house it had widened into a salt marsh that extended to the Long Island Sound, which in those days was not more than two hundred yards off to the right (roughly south) as seen in the photo. From the eastern edge of his property (at the present-day far end of the parking lot in the photo) William would have been able to look out out over the marsh to the wooden bridge that in all likelihood he had helped to build across West Creek, probably in the summer of 1638.

Looking off to the right, he would have been able to see the Sound itself, a couple of hundred yards away. He would have had a splendid, unimpeded view of the rising sun.

William did not live in an area adjacent to the New Haven Green, site of the meeting house and market, but rather in the western "suburbs," along with thirteen other families, whose lots were lined up, side by side, on a gentle bluff, the higher reaches of which, somewhat to the west, would later come to be known as "Sodom Hill," and eventually just, "The Hill."

To reach the New Haven Green in those days, William walked along a path that led down into the marsh (in the direction of the cubicle white building in the photo) to the wooden bridge that was probably just wide enough for an oxcart to pass. Having crossed the bridge, he headed up the path to the top of the slope on the far side and headed east (just to the left of the wavy brownish parking lot in the photo) past other farms belonging to the settlement. The walk from his house to the Green on all but the snowiest days would have taken him fifteen to twenty minutes.

Directions- If you drive (or walk) to the junction of College Street and Congress Avenue in the area of New Haven just west of the Connector, then walk (roughly) east on Congress, you will come to Lafayette Street on the right. If you continue walking a few more steps, you will come to a place where Congress veers sharply right to connect with the "S. Frontage Road." (This little dog leg in the road is clearly visible on the Brockett map and later maps.)

At this point the northern portion of the medical building parking lot will be just ahead. A chain link fence, running along the right side of the Congress Street dog leg is the boundary of the parking lot of a rather imposing medical building. It also marks the boundary of William Ives' property in 1641.

If you visit the site, you will notice that the Long Island Sound is nowhere visible from anywhere on, or near the property. That is because over the last 350 years New Haven town has expanded into the old harbor, which means that the Sound, these days, is one half a mile to the south. 

I really Richard’s photo and comments. I have long wanted to go to New Haven and do exactly what he did. Now I will have his photo to further guide me.

 

 

Comments

[Theresa Casteel]

Our family ancestral land was located on what is now Andrews Air Force Base - not really available for pictures :-)
Regards,
Theresa

[Sheila McCreven]

Hi, Bill. I stumbled upon your blog today while doing some research on a mutual ancestor of ours. Now I see that we have several. But then I had to laugh out loud to see this photo! Strangely enough, I have been following you on Twitter (can't remember how we connected, but it was probably over genealogy and/or technology) since 2008 -- when I worked in this exact medical building!

[bill Ives]

Theresa and Sheila - thanks for your comments. The Twitter connection is likely over technology. Did you know about william Ives when you worked at the building.

[SheilaMc7]

No, didn't know at the time about William Ives. I've not (yet) found a direct connection to him. But we'll have to see about that!