ABSTRACT
Established in 1683 as a fur-trading commercial venture and Puritan utopia, New Haven’s plan was a large nine-square grid while a tenth, oblong block extended eccentrically from the lower corner toward the harbor. The founders reserved the entire center square of the ninesquare plan, nearly 10 percent, for the town’s Green. Like other New England greens, it was set aside for public buildings, markets and other civic activities. As John Reps notes in The Making of Urban America (1965), New Haven was unparalled in the amount of space dedicated to public use (Reps 1965: 130). Until the late eighteenth century the area was known as the Market Place, but with subsequent improvements, it was renamed the Green and planted with elm trees and well-tended lawns. By the early nineteenth century, New Haven had become known as the “City of Elms”, maturing into the distinct early American idea of urban life merged with a sylvan landscape.
