History
The Green is a traditional town green (commons) and was originally known as "the marketplace". It was completed in 1638. The Puritans were said to have designed the green large enough to hold the number of people who they believed would be spared in the Second Coming of Christ: 144,000.
In its early years, the Green held a watch house, a prison and a school. The upper Green also once held the First Methodist Church. The church was removed from the Green in 1848 with a new church built across Elm Street (designed by Henry Austin). The Green also held a succession of statehouses, dating from the time when New Haven was joint capital of Connecticut with Hartford. The most recent state house was erected in 1837, designed by Ithiel Town in a Greek Revival style. Ultimately, Hartford was declared the sole capital and the building was demolished in 1889.
The Green served as the parade grounds for the New Haven militia, who, under the leadership of Benedict Arnold, rushed to Massachusetts after hearing of the Battle of Lexington and Concord and participated in the Battle of Bunker Hill in the American Revolution. This indirectly led to the burning of most of the city by the British when they landed in New Haven in 1779.
The Green was used as the main burial grounds for the residents of New Haven during its first 150 years, but by 1821 the practice was abolished and many of the headstones were moved to the Grove Street Cemetery. However, the remains of the dead were not moved, and thus still remain below the soil of the Green. It is estimated that between 5,000 and 10,000 people remain buried there, including Benedict Arnold's first wife, members of President Rutherford B. Hayes' family, Reverend James Pierpont (founder of Yale University), and Theophilus Eaton, one of the founders of New Haven and the church and governor of the New Haven Colony for 19 years.
On the evening of October 29, 2012, winds from Hurricane Sandy knocked over an oak tree on the Upper Green. Intertwined in the dirt and roots was a human skeleton. The police and medical examiner were called to the scene. The bones likely date back to colonial times, when the Green was used as a cemetery. The Grove Street cemetery that replaced it was chartered in 1797. A small portion of the burial ground is now preserved in the The Center Church Crypt.
Read more about this topic: New Haven Green
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