SAT | Wooster Square: Urban Renewal Meets Historic Preservation

Wooster Square is one of New Haven’s most fascinating neighborhoods, a maritime area that became a fashionable upper-class enclave then a gritty industrial/immigrant neighborhood. In the 1960s, Wooster Square’s urban renewal program was one of the first to renovate, rather than replace, deteriorated buildings on a wide scale. This tour will explore how renewal changed the neighborhood, demolishing some structures and scattering their inhabitants while renovating other buildings and adding new ones designed by leading Modernist architects or local practitioners. Sites include the New Haven Central Fire Headquarters, the Conte Community School, and Court Street streetscape.

Guide: The tour will be led by Christopher Wigren, Deputy Director of Preservation Connecticut and a volunteer for the New Haven Preservation Trust.