Historian's Corner

The Three Judges Everyone who has lived in the New Haven area has eventually heard of the Three Judges who hid on West Rock.  But who were they?  And what were they hiding from? In 1639, England’s King Charles I had a major falling out with his … [Read more...] about Historian’s corner

School Clothes, Play Clothes, and Sunday Best: The Fedora Story School bells ring and children sing it’s back to Robert Hall again Mother knows for better clothes It’s back to Robert Hall again You’ll save more on clothes for … [Read more...] about Historian’s corner

The Dog Days of Summer As Nature follows her annual rhythms, we reach that part of the year when the cicadas buzz, the katydids (or August bugs) pass the sultry evenings endlessly singing, “skritch-skritch-skritch—skritch skritch,”  and lawns turn … [Read more...] about Historian’s corner

The Hubbard Family in West Haven   The first Hubbard ancestor settled in West Haven in 1810: he was John Hubbard  Jr.  He bought the farm and farmhouse at the corner of Jones Hill Road and Hubbard Road from the Merwin family, tanners who … [Read more...] about Historian’s corner

The Hubbard Family To know the whole story of the Hubbard family, one must take a trip backward through time to the Ninth Century A.D.  It is there that the first recorded history of the family appears, in the persons of Ragnar Lodbrog, a Viking … [Read more...] about Historian’s corner

July 5, 1779 July 3, 1779 was a Saturday. For Adjutant William Campbell and more than 3,000 other British and Hessian soldiers based in New York City, July 3 proved to be one terribly uncomfortable night.  Soldiers, horses, cannon, and gear were … [Read more...] about Historian’s corner

If only the West Haven Green could talk about the July Fourths in its past. Without doubt, the most memorable was 239 years ago. Being a Sunday, the Green was filled with West Haveners on their way to services at the First Congregational Church. … [Read more...] about Historian’s corner