Westville Village Historic District

About this property

Westville Village Historic District is a historic district representing most of the commercial center of the Westville neighborhood of New Haven, Connecticut. This center developed in the 19th century as an industrial mill village distinct from the city center, and retains many architectural features of that period. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003, and its boundaries were increased slightly in 2006. When the New Haven Colony was established in the 17th century, the Westville area was mainly agricultural, with Whalley Avenue providing the principal means of access from homes in the town center to those lands. Its village beginnings date roughly to 1797, when a bridge was built over the West River, turning Whalley Avenue into a more important transportation link. Some early settlers had harnessed the power of the local waterways for saw and gristmills, and there were gunpowder mills in the area that were targeted by British raids in the American Revolutionary War. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, larger mills devoted to textile and paper production were established. This led to further industrialization later in the 19th century, and the village gained further significance when a horse trolley line was extended to it in 1861. Westville was annexed to New Haven in 1872. The village as it developed includes number of buildings that were originally built at residences, but have mostly been converted to commercial uses, as well as purpose-built commercial and mixed commercial-residential buildings. In 2003, the listed area was 22 acres (8.9 ha) and there were 30 contributing buildings in the district. The listing was amended in 2006 to add the former Westville Theater building at 827 Whalley Avenue, an Early Commercial style building that was built in 1912. The theater building is now occupied by an antiques store. 512 Blake Street, c. 1840 (See photo #13 in accompanying photo set) 903-911 Whalley Avenue, a Masonic hall built for the Olive Branch Temple Corporation 949 Whalley Avenue, the Westville Masonic Temple, from 1926 (see photo #6 in photos accompanying NRHP nomination) National Register of Historic Places listings in New Haven, Connecticut Westville Village Historic District, New Haven Preservation Trust website (text excerpt from NRHP nomination)

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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