A photojournal of the Wooster Square neighborhood in New Haven, Connecticut. And, occasionally a photo of New Haven, of course, of course.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

So Long, Wooster Square

I've been lax in posting because of starting my new position and getting ready to move to the parsonage.  I've loved living in New Haven and I am quite sad to leave.  Perhaps I'll be able to return some day.  This is a shot from the Green of several of the buildings downtown. 

I'm moving to Wilton, Connecticut which is a lovely suburban community in lower Fairfield County.  I'm thinking that after I'm settled I'll begin a Wilton Daily Photo for you all to see Wilton.  It's a town with lots of colonial history, Weir Farm, and artists community, farms and lots of open space. 

Until we meet again!

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

No Sunday Services..

I found this sign at the side door of St. Paul and St. James on the corner of Chapel Street and Olive Street in Wooster Square.  Most churches, as was mine, canceled services on Sunday for the lady of the waterway, Irene.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Party Time

These lanterns outline an outdoor patio for 'The Jokers Wild' Comedy Club in Wooster Square. 

Monday, August 29, 2011

A Fresh Opportunity

In between the leaves of the fallen tree I saw a fresh opportunity for the very tame squirrels of Wooster Square.  Lots of acorns on the ground also.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Irene!

The center of Hurricane Irene hit the Connecticut coast about 8 am this morning.  The winds were pretty boisterous at around 70 miles per hour.  Lots of coastal flooding and downed trees.  I didn't lose power nor did my neighborhood but apparently around 700,000 folks are without in CT.  Wooster Square park lost a lot of limbs from the trees and one that couldn't withstand the gusts of wind. 
I hope that Jack from Hartford Daily Photo and Bruce from The Quiet Corner of Connecticut are ok.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Lighthouse Point Park

Last Sunday afternoon some kids were having fun under the big sprinklers at Lighthouse Point Park in New Haven.  It's a great park with a carousel, sandy beaches, views of New Haven Harbor and Long Island Sound and of course, a lighthouse. 

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

A Few Days Off....

Hi Everyone!  I'm taking a few days off because I just started a new position as Interim Senior Pastor at Wilton Congregational Church.  I'll be back with updates for Wooster Square.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Milo the Therapy Dog

Everyone should be so lucky to live with a furry therapist.  This is Milo, I've shown him before but today is special.  He received his special Pet Therapy vest from Bridgeport Hospital today.  So proud and ready to go.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Hibiscus

These photos don't quite show the beauty of this perennial favorite of mine.  The blooms are so large and catch my every time I see one.  They are in bloom right now all over the neighborhood.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Heirlooms

From last week's City Seed Farmer's Market in Wooster Square. 

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Well OK then....

Somehow I lost a day and didn't post yesterday.  Oh well.   Here's an interesting political ad.  I don't know who the car belonged to but they had something to say.  The sign on the top of the car says, "Democrats=Medicare, Social Security, etc. etc.  Republicans=nothing but BS like vouchers, etc."
Maybe it's all in the etc.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Still the Carnival in Guilford


This ride is called Pirat.  Hence the Pirate ship swinging like a pendulum in the night air.  Looks like it could be fun if you're 13 or say, 15 years old. 
 The next two are a little out of focus but I LOVE the look of the three girls in the back row on the following shot.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Carnival in Guilford - the Cliff Hanger

So you have to get in one of these green contraptions and lay flat on your stomach as they whisk you up into the air and go round and round.  There is a reason why carnival rides are best suited for the young.

Friday, August 12, 2011

Carnival in Guilford

This ride was called SCAT.  I liked it the best because of the colors!  Over the next few days I'll post more rides.  It was a beautiful night for a carnival and the moon was almost full.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

The Gazing Ball

Self portrait at the Mercy Center in Madison, Connecticut.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

One Clawfoot on Another

I'm cat sitting for friends this week outside of New Haven.  This is Cougar, one of three Maine Coon cats who are as sweet as can be.  As you can see, Maine Coon's are very large cats.  Cougar is especially playful and enticing. 

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Alderwoman Luisa DeLauro

Last Saturday there was a big event for Wooster Square's former beloved Alderwoman Luisa DeLauro.  Rosa today is 97 years old and served the neighborhood for 35 years where she still lives today.  The corner of Chapel and Academy Streets was named 'Alderwoman Luisa DeLauro Corner' in her honor.  It brought the neighborhood out and many of the political figures from the area including Luisa's daughter Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro,Third District.

Pirelli Building

Several years ago IKEA came to New Haven and bought land on Long Wharf.  Part of the land included the Pirelli building.  Below is text from an article in 2002 about the transaction and the architect, Marcel Breuer.

"Commissioned as headquarters for the Armstrong Rubber Co. in the late 1960s, the building was part of the New Haven Redevelopment Agency's Long Wharf Project, a major component of New Haven's Model City Program. Then-Mayor Richard C. Lee followed Yale University's lead in hiring prominent architects to design new buildings.

According to Robert F. Gatje, a partner of Breuer's who was co-architect for the Armstrong project, Lee rejected company chairman Joseph Stewart's original plan for a modest two-story building and recommended Breuer.

What made the building significant then - and now - is a "combination of its unique design and location, which is one of the busiest points on I-95," DeStefano says. "Hundreds of thousands of people see that building every day and it sort of defines the image of the city."

Breuer had exactly those thoughts in mind when he created a building in which the executive office space was situated over a two-story void separating the three-story base from a four-story tower. Using cantilever trusses, the tower is suspended from above.

"This building is kind of a weird thing to see, a box with a space in the middle, but in terms of the site it's appropriate," says Yale architectural historian Vincent Scully. "Everything about it says, 'I am not just a building; I am a piece of sculpture.' That kind of architecture was riding high at the time."

The exterior of the Pirelli building is covered with buff-colored and etched pre-cast concrete panels, an element Breuer used in other buildings.

Another unusual feature is a separate structure containing the building sign. This was conceived, Gatje says, because of Breuer's refusal to allow Armstrong to put the sign on the building. Because a city ordinance prohibited free-standing signs, Breuer designed a structure with a small room in which "to put the garden tools."

During a recent visit to the building, when local artists displayed their work for the public the last weekend in October, Alliance member Peter Swanson pointed out its four stairwells are constructed of the same type of material - half bush-hammered concrete and granite - as those in the Whitney Museum. Two of the stairwells in the rear of the building are currently slated for demolition.

Born in Hungary in 1902, Breuer studied and taught at Germany's famed Bauhaus School, where he specialized in furniture design and created his much-imitated continuous bent steel tube cantilever chair.

Breuer came to the U.S. the late 1930s to teach at Harvard at the invitation of former Bauhaus leader Walter Gropius, with whom Breuer later worked. He lived in New Canaan from the late 1940s until his death in 1981.

Coincidentally, Smith acknowledges that IKEA's Scandinavian furniture was "very influenced" by the Bauhaus School in the 1950s, and that its furniture still shows elements of the style.

In 1988 Italy's Pirelli Tire company acquired Armstrong Rubber for $197 million and took over the Long Wharf site as its base of U.S, operations. But within a few years the company relocated its American headquarters, leaving Breuer's once-proud building empty.

Several years later, mall developers began an unsuccessful attempt to make use of the now-dormant property. Their plan, according to Karyn Gilvarg, executive director of the City Plan Department, was to preserve the Pirelli building for office space.

Preservationists concerned about the building's fate, however, moved quickly to secure it a place on the state Registry of Historic Buildings in 1997. The designation is no guarantee of staving off the wrecking ball, but may deter developers or encourage them to incorporate an existing structure into their plans.

Ikea submitted its first formal request for rezoning to accommodate a new retail facility in September. Heeding the mayor's advice, the paperwork showed the company would not disturb the front part of the Pirelli building, but would raze the first two floors, leaving only the tower's bare stilts."

The above quote came from
http://www.conntact.com/archive_index/archive_pages/3872_Business_New_Haven.html
Photos are mine!

Monday, August 8, 2011

Long Wharf

Heading toward the Long Wharf Nature Preserve.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Low Tide

New Haven Harbor!

Check out today's sermon, Fear and Faith at An Itinerant Preacher, my other blog.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Friday, August 5, 2011

Walk Along Long Wharf

Early morning walk on Long Wharf at New Haven Harbor.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Monk Parrots


This morning I took a walk down through the Long Wharf Nature Preserve by New Haven Harbor.  I heard the unmistakable chatter of  Monk Parrots, they are LOUD.  I looked up and they were in the tree.  When they heard noise they took off quickly.
Last photo is a cropped and enlarged version of the first.  Bawk, bawk!

Monday, August 1, 2011

Monarch

The butterfly drifted by this butterfly bush just at the right time.  I was in Manchester Connecticut visiting a friend.  It was a beautiful day.