The Elm City — America's first planned city, nine perfect squares laid out around a green in 1638. New Haven sits on Long Island Sound between the twin traprock ridges of East and West Rock — the Elm City of Connecticut. English Puritans laid it out in 1638 as the first planned city in America, nine squares around the New Haven Green, and within a generation it was hiding the men who had signed a king's death warrant in a cave on West Rock. Co-capital of Connecticut for the better part of two centuries, a Sound port lit by an 1847 brownstone lighthouse, and the birthplace of New Haven-style apizza. This page tells the story of the Elm City.
The Elm City carried its history out loud. The Green and its three churches still mark the center square of Brockett's 1638 plan; the ridges of East and West Rock still rise over the rooftops; and the 1847 Five Mile Point Light still stands at the harbor mouth in Lighthouse Point Park, with its old carousel and its migrating birds. Somewhere along the way the city perfected the coal-fired, charred-crust pizza it calls apizza, argued over more passionately here than almost anywhere. Through four centuries, New Haven kept its colonial bones and its salt-water edge.
Why People Visit New Haven Connecticut
- Walk the New Haven Green, the 1638 central common of the nine-square plan, framed by its three historic churches.
- Hike West Rock to Judges' Cave, the regicides' hideout, along the Regicides Trail.
- Climb East Rock Park for the classic view over the city and the harbor.
- Visit Lighthouse Point Park for the 1847 Five Mile Point Light, the historic carousel, and Atlantic-flyway birding.
- Stroll Wooster Square for spring cherry blossoms and brownstones.
- See the free downtown museums — the Yale University Art Gallery and the Peabody Museum.
- Try a New Haven-style apizza, the city's signature charred, coal-fired pizza.
