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New Haven’s Hotel Heyday
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Business New Haven
8/10/98
By:
Priscilla Searles
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For almost three centuries, the corner of College and Chapel streets in downtown New Haven could have been called Hotel Corner, with five taverns or hotels occupying the famous location.
The first was an early 17th century “ordinary” owned by John Harriman and located near the present College and Chapel intersection. Ordinaries provided a complete meal for one price and sleeping accommodations, if somewhat crowded and primitive. Little is known about this early business or its exact location.
The second business on the famous corner was Miles Tavern, built in 1690 by John Miles. When New Haven became co-capital with Hartford of the colony in 1701, Miles Tavern became the meeting place of the council, or upper branch, of the assembly. The council continued to meet at the tavern until 1719, when New Haven's state house was built. The tavern closed in 1750.
Beers' Tavern, built by Isaac Beers, appeared in 1751. A combination inn and bookstore, the public house was often referred to as Washington Tavern because George Washington stayed there in July 1775 shortly after the Battle of Bunker Hill. On his way to Cambridge, the now well-known 43-year-old Virginian was the Continental Congress' choice to command its armies. Washington's first visit to New Haven in 1756 as a militia colonel attached to the British army had gone unnoticed.
Beers' Tavern was razed in 1850 to make way for a new facility, the New Haven House, which opened in 1851. The new hotel had 100 rooms. Built by Augustus Street for $70,000, it was then sold to Yale University, which in turn sold it to Seth Mosely. The one-time proprietor of New York's famous Brevoort made the New Haven Hotel one of the best known in New England. Mosely died in 1908.
In 1912 the New Haven Hotel closed to make was for the fifth and final hotel to occupy the spot, the Hotel Taft. The new hotel was an ultra-modern 12-story building with 450 rooms. A large lobby, stores, restaurants and bars occupied the first two floors. A large ballroom took up the upper two floors.
One of its earliest guests was Woodrow Wilson, who visited there on a September 12, 1912 campaign stop. In the heyday of Broadway plays being tried out at New Haven's Shubert Theatre, the hotel was the temporary home of many famous stars.
Adjacent to Yale University and overlooking the picturesque New Haven Green, the Taft's location was considered ideal, in spite of the fact that it was some distance from the railroad station. It was built by a group of entrepreneurs who came together to form the New Haven Hotel Co.
The hotel thrived until 1945 when an increase in automobile travel and new interstate highways spurred the building of new hotels in surrounding areas. The Wilbur Cross Parkway, opened in 1950, and the Connecticut Turnpike, opened in 1959, struck a devastating blow to the Taft.
Adding to the problem was the decline in train travel, something the Taft relied on heavily for guests. Lack of parking near the Taft forced lodgers to seek more convenient locations.
Mayor Richard C. Lee's redevelopment of downtown New Haven brought another hotel to New Haven in 1970, the Sheraton Park Plaza, located just one block from the Taft. With only enough business to support one large downtown hotel, the Taft was forced to close its doors in 1973. The Taft Annex, known as the Hotel Adams, was closed in 1970 when the Culinary Institute of America stopped using the facility to house students. Vacant for many years, the Taft was converted into apartments - the form it assumes today still.
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