New Haven, city (1990 pop. 130,474), New Haven co., S Conn., a port of entry where the Quinnipiac and other small rivers enter Long Island Sound; inc. 1784. Firearms and ammunition, clocks and watches, tools, rubber and paper products, and textiles are among the many manufactures, and the city serves as a major port for petroleum products. The city is an educational center, being the seat of Yale Univ. Yale University, at New Haven, Conn.; coeducational. Chartered as a collegiate school for men in 1701 largely as a result of the efforts of James Pierpont, it opened at Killingworth (now Clinton) in 1702, moved (1707) to Saybrook (now Old Saybrook), and in 1716 was
..... Click the link for more information. and its allied institutions and of Albertus Magnus College and Southern Connecticut State Univ.

New Haven was founded in 1637–38 by Puritans led by Theophilus Eaton and John Davenport. It was one of the first planned communities in America and was the chief town of a colony that later included Milford, Guilford, Stamford, Branford, and Southold (on Long Island). Its government was theocratic; religion was a test for citizenship, and life was regulated by strict rules (see blue laws blue laws, legislation regulating public and private conduct, especially laws relating to Sabbath observance. The term was originally applied to the 17th-century laws of the theocratic New Haven colony, and appears to originate in
..... Click the link for more information. ). In 1665 the colony was reluctantly united with Connecticut; it was joint capital with Hartford from 1701 to 1875.

In the late 18th and early 19th cent., New Haven was a thriving port. Manufacturing grew, and New Haven firearms, hardware, coaches, and carriages became famous products. New Haven was raided by a British and Tory force in the American Revolution American Revolution, 1775–83, struggle by which the Thirteen Colonies on the Atlantic seaboard of North America won independence from Great Britain and became the United States. It is also called the American War of Independence.
..... Click the link for more information. , and the port was blockaded during the War of 1812. The world's first commercial telephone exchange was established there in 1879.

Since the 1950s, New Haven has received national attention for its pioneering urban renewal projects. The nation's first antipoverty program began there in 1962. Despite these improvements, the city suffered a serious race riot in 1967. New Haven's manufacturing-based economy has since declined, and by 1990 manufacturing employed less than 20% of city's workforce.

The city centers upon a large public green, dating from 1680, on which stand three churches built between 1812 and 1816—Center and United churches (both Congregational) and Trinity Church (Episcopal). Many old buildings have been preserved, and there is a historic district. Landmarks in the city are two traprock cliffs—West Rock, with the Judges' Cave, and East Rock. Noah Webster Webster, Noah, 1758–1843, American lexicographer and philologist, b. West Hartford, Conn., grad. Yale, 1778. After serving in the American Revolution, Webster practiced law in Hartford.
..... Click the link for more information. and Eli Whitney Whitney, Eli, 1765–1825, American inventor of the cotton gin , b. Westboro, Mass., grad. Yale, 1792. When he was staying as tutor at Mulberry Grove, the plantation of Mrs. Nathanael Greene, Whitney was encouraged by Mrs.
..... Click the link for more information. lived and are buried in the city.

Bibliography

See R. G. Osterweis, Three Centuries of New Haven, 1638–1938 (1953); N. W. Polsby, Community, Power, and Political Theory (1980).

New Haven

City (pop., 2000: 123,626), south-central Connecticut, U.S. A port of entry on Long Island Sound, it was originally settled in 1638 and became part of the colony of Connecticut in 1665. It was the co-capital with Hartford until 1875. New Haven was sacked by loyalist forces during the American Revolution (1779), and during the American Civil War it was a centre of abolitionist activity (see abolitionism). A number of famous inventors made the city a centre of industrial technology, including Charles Goodyear, Eli Whitney, and Samuel F.B. Morse. It is the home of Yale University and several other educational and cultural institutions.

New Haven

an industrial city and port in S Connecticut, on Long Island Sound: settled in 1638 by English Puritans, who established it as a colony in 1643; seat of Yale University (1701). Pop.: 124 512 (2003 est.)