About New Haven

A Brief History of New Haven: The City of Firsts 

by Te’Yah Wright 

Before the settlement of English Puritans in 1637, the land now known as New Haven was, and had been, the land of Quinnipiac.¹ Upon signing the 1638 Treaty, settlers began designing the city’s layout by 1641, dubbing New Haven the “first planned city in America,” ² marking the beginning of many firsts within the city’s rich history. Innovation in New Haven led to years of new ideas, concepts, and gimmicks that forever changed many disciplines and practices. In 1784, Roger Sherman, the first mayor of New Haven, set the record as the only man to sign all four of America’s founding documents: the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, the U.S. Constitution, and the Articles of Association.³  

James Hillhouse, in 1790, led the city to be the first to adopt a public tree planting and city beautification program in the nation. Four years later, Eli Whitney, a Yale alumnus, invented the first cotton gin. Known to all, Yale graduate Noah Webster wrote the first American dictionary of the English language in 1828. The first anesthesia in dentistry came from Joseph H. Smith, who administered nitrous oxide or laughing gas to a patient for the first time in 1863. By 1876, Emmaline Jones, the first woman to practice dentistry, set up an office on Chapel Street. The medical field in New Haven continued to make great strides with the first course in pediatric medicine (1942), the first use of chemotherapy as a cancer treatment (1942), the first clinical use of penicillin (1942), the first heart-lung machine (1949), the first transplantations of many organs (1957-1992) and much more all in the city of New Haven.⁴  

The trend of many firsts also extends to the delectable food originating from New Haven that people worldwide appreciate today with four notable contributions. In 1892, George C. Smith made the first lollipop from a stick put in candy. Louis Lassen served the first hamburger in 1900 at Louis Lunch on Meadow Street, which is still present today. Frank Pepe cultivated the pizza we all know from his Italian family recipe in the same year.⁵ The first sustainable sushi restaurant in 1982, Miya’s, featured the first plant-based and invasive species menu in the world and was established in New Haven.⁶ The city has become a boom for other ethnic restaurants and small markets in over 20 foreign foods, with the most Zagat-rated restaurants in Connecticut and named the “Cultural City of Connecticut.”⁷ While not a historical first, Yale University, in the heart of the city, was established in 1701 and is the third oldest institution in the United States. Yale University is among the most distinguished universities in the world and has many notable alums, including Meryl Steep, Lupita Nyong’o, Hillary Clinton, Nathan Chen, and Johnathan Majors.⁸  

Importantly, alongside the city’s many accomplishments, New Haven also has a long history of racism and segregation, including restrictive covenants and the 1783 Home Owners’ Loan Corporation’s redlining of neighborhoods. The city, including Yale University, has vastly benefited from the profits of West Indian slavery, the labor of enslaved and free Africans, and lands from dispossessed Native Americans.⁹ The city’s racism would later result in the rejection of a proposal in 1837 by Black minister Peter Williams and white abolitionist Simeon Jocelyn to create the nation’s first black college (today known as Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or HBCUs). Then-mayor Kimberly refused, claiming a Black college would harm the reputation of Yale University and New Haven. Twenty-two years after the “Negro college” proposal, Lincoln University was established in Pennsylvania as the first official African-American Institute of Higher Education.¹⁰ Despite this painful past, New Haven has grown to be the largest city in Connecticut¹¹, with citizens and travelers from around the world participating in exceptional cuisines, arts, music, architecture, colleges, and universities. 

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^[1] Richard Carlson, “The Quinnipiac Reservation,” Rooted Like the Ash Trees, Eagle Wing Press. (1987).

^[2] Anthony Garvan, Architecture and Town Planning in Coastal Connecticut. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. (1951). p. 41.

^[3] “History of New Haven.” Info New Haven. (2019). Retrieved January 6, 2022.

^[4] “Greater New Haven Firsts.” Visit New Haven. Rex Developments. (2019). Retrieved  January 7. 2022.

^[5] “New Haven Pizza Wars.” Wayback Machine. Real American Stories. (2010). Retrieved January 7, 2022.

^[6] “Sustainable Sushi” Gets A Toehold”. New Haven Independent. (2010). Retrieved January 8, 2022.

^[7] “New Haven restaurants by cuisine @ Zagat Survey”. Zagat.com. (2014). Retrieved January 7, 2022.

^[8] Judith Schiff, “A Brief History of Yale.” Yale University Library. Yale University. (2022). Retrieved January 8, 2022.

^[9] Reid, T. (n.d.). The Slave Trade Economy & Yale. The Yale & Slavery Research Project. Retrieved February 13, 2023, from https://yaleandslavery.yale.edu/slave-trade-economy-yale 

^[10] Why it failed & why it mattered. Yale, Slavery & Abolition. (n.d.). Retrieved February 13, 2023, from http://www.yaleslavery.org/TownGown/why.html 

^[11] Profile of General Population and Housing Characteristics: 2021 Demographic Profile Data (DP-1): New Haven-Milford, CT Metro Area”. United States Census Bureau.(2021). Retrieved January 6, 2022.