New Haven is the second- or third-largest municipality^[2] in Connecticut, after Bridgeport and possibly Hartford, with a core population of about 124,000.^[1] "New Haven" also often refers to the wider New Haven metropolitan area, which has nearly 600,000 inhabitants in the immediate area (and is also considered part of the New York metropolitan area, which has about 18 million).^[3]^[4] It is in New Haven County, on New Haven Harbor, on the northern shore of Long Island Sound.

Founded in 1638, New Haven was laid out in a grid of four streets by four streets creating what is now commonly known as the "Nine Squares,"^[5]^[6] now the center of Downtown New Haven. The city instituted the first public tree planting program in America, eventually producing a canopy of mature trees (including some large elms) that gave New Haven the nickname "The Elm City."

The city is best known as the home of Yale University and the National Historic Landmark New Haven Green. Along with Yale, healthcare (hospitals, biotechnology), professional services (legal, architectural, marketing, engineering), financial services and retail trade form the base of the economy. Since the mid-1990s, the city's downtown area has seen extensive revitalization^[7]

History

Pre-colonial and colonial history

Before European arrival, the New Haven area was the home of the Quinnipiac tribe of Native Americans, who lived in villages around the harbor and subsisted off local fisheries and the farming of maize. The area was briefly visited by Dutch explorer Adriaen Block in 1614. Dutch traders set up a small trading system of beaver pelts with the local inhabitants, but trade was sporadic and the Dutch did not settle permanently in the area.

In April 1638, five hundred Puritans who left the Massachusetts Bay Colony under the leadership of the Reverend John Davenport and the London merchant Theophilus Eaton sailed into the harbor. These settlers were hoping to establish a better theological community than the one they left in Massachusetts and sought to take advantage of the excellent port capabilities of the harbor. The Quinnipiacs, who were under attack by neighboring Pequots, sold their land to the settlers in return for protection.

A statue in front of the old court house, on Elm Street, in New Haven.

By 1640, the town's theocratic government and nine square grid plan were in place, and the town was renamed Newhaven from Quinnipiac. However, the area north of New Haven remained Quinnipiac until 1678, when it was renamed Hamden. The settlement became the headquarters of the New Haven Colony. At the time, the New Haven Colony was separate from the Connecticut Colony which had been established to the north focusing on Hartford. Economic disaster struck the colony in 1646, however, when the town sent its first fully loaded ship of local goods back to England. This ship never reached the Old World, and its disappearance stymied New Haven's development in the face of the rising trade power of Boston and New Amsterdam. In 1660, founder John Davenport's wishes were fulfilled and Hopkins School was founded in New Haven with money from the estate of Edward Hopkins.

In 1661, the judges who had signed the death warrant of Charles I of England were pursued by Charles II. Two judges, Colonel Edward Whalley and Colonel William Goffe, fled to New Haven to seek refuge from the king's forces. John Davenport arranged for these "Regicides" to hide in the West Rock hills northwest of the town. A third judge, John Dixwell, joined the other regicides at a later time.

New Haven became part of the Connecticut Colony in 1664, when the two colonies were merged under political pressure from England, according to folklore as punishment for harboring the three judges (in reality, done in order to strengthen the case for the takeover of nearby New Amsterdam, which was rapidly losing territory to migrants from Connecticut). It was made co-capital of Connecticut in 1701, a status it retained until 1873. In 1716, the Collegiate School relocated from Old Saybrook to New Haven and established New Haven as a center of learning. In 1718, the name of the Collegiate School was changed to Yale College in response to a large donation from Welsh merchant Elihu Yale.

For over a century, New Haven citizens had fought alongside British forces, as in the French and Indian War. As the American Revolution approached, General David Wooster and other influential residents hoped that the conflict with Britain could be resolved short of rebellion. But on April 23, 1775 (still celebrated in New Haven as Powder House Day), the Second Company, Governor's Foot Guard, of New Haven entered the struggle against the British. Under Captain Benedict Arnold, they broke into the powder house to arm themselves and began a three-day march to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Other New Haven militia members were on hand to escort George Washington from his overnight stay in New Haven on his way to Cambridge. Contemporary reports, from both sides, remark on the New Haven volunteers' professional military bearing, including uniforms.

British forces under General William Tryon raided the 3,500-person town in July of 1779 , but did not torch it as they had with Danbury in 1777 , or Fairfield and Norwalk a week after the New Haven raid, leaving many of the town's colonial features preserved.

Towns created from New Haven

Towns in the New Haven area

New Haven was the original settlement in New Haven Colony; over time other new towns separated from its territory and incorporated. The following is a complete list of towns established from parts of the original New Haven settlement. Connecticut Register and Manual

Wallingford in 1670
- Cheshire created from Wallingford in 1780
- Meriden created from Wallingford in 1806
Branford in 1685
- North Branford created from Branford in 1831
Woodbridge in 1784 (also partly from Milford)
- Bethany created from Woodbridge in 1832
East Haven in 1785
Hamden in 1786
North Haven in 1786
Orange in 1822 (also partly from Milford)
- West Haven created from Orange in 1921

Post-colonial history

New Haven was incorporated as a city in 1784 , and Roger Sherman, one of the signers of the Constitution and author of the "Connecticut Compromise," became the new city's first mayor.

The city struck fortune in the late 18th-century with the inventions and industrial activity of Eli Whitney, a Yale graduate who remained in New Haven to develop the cotton gin and establish a gun-manufacturing factory in the northern part of the city near the Hamden town line. That area is still known as Whitneyville, and the main road through both towns is known as Whitney Avenue. The factory is now the Eli Whitney Museum which has a particular emphasis on activities for children, and exhibits pertaining to the A. C. Gilbert Company. Whitney pioneered the replacement of hand-shaped piecework with industrial mass-production and interchangeable parts and was the first defense contractor. His methods made early Connecticut a powerful manufacturing economy; so many arms manufacturers sprang up that the state became known as 'The Arsenal of America'. It was in Whitney's gun-manufacturing plant that Samuel Colt invented the automatic revolver in 1836.

The Farmington Canal, created in the early 1800s, was a short-lived transporter of goods into the interior regions of Connecticut and Massachusetts, and ran from New Haven to Northampton, Massachusetts.

New Haven was home to one of the important early events in the burgeoning anti-slavery movement when, in 1839, the trial of mutineering Mendi tribesmen being transported as slaves on the Spanish slaveship Amistad was held in New Haven's United States District Court. There is a statue of Joseph Cinqué, the informal leader of the slaves, beside City Hall. See "Museums" below for more information.

The Civil War boosted the local economy with wartime purchases of industrial goods. After the war, New Haven's population grew and doubled by the start of the 20th century, most notably due to the influx of immigrants from southern Europe, particularly Italy. Today, roughly half the populations of East Haven, West Haven, and Hamden are Italian-American.^{[citation needed]}

Modern history

New Haven's growth continued during the two World Wars, with most new inhabitants being African Americans from the South and Puerto Ricans. The city reached its peak population after World War II. The area of New Haven is only square miles ( km²), encouraging further development of new housing after 1950 in adjacent, suburban towns. Moreover, as in other US cities in 1950s, New Haven began to suffer from an exodus of middle-class workers.

In 1954, then-mayor Richard C. Lee began some of the earliest major urban renewal projects in the United States. Certain sections of Downtown New Haven were destroyed and rebuilt with new office towers, a hotel, and large shopping complexes. Other parts of the city were affected by the construction of Interstate 95 along the Long Wharf section, Interstate 91 and the Oak Street Connector. The Oak Street Connector (Route 34), running between Interstate 95, downtown and The Hill neighborhood, was originally intended as a highway to the city's western suburbs but, due to neighborhood opposition, was only completed as a highway to the downtown area, with the area to the west becoming a boulevard.

From the 1960s through the early 1990s, central areas of New Haven continued to decline both economically and in terms of population despite attempts to resurrect certain neighborhoods through renewal projects. In the mid-1990s New Haven began to stabilize and grow, though poverty in some central neighborhoods remains a problem.

1970 trial

New Haven in 1970 witnessed the largest trial in Connecticut history. Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale and ten other Party members were tried for murdering an alleged informant. May Day, 1970 saw the beginning of the pretrial proceedings for the first of the two New Haven Black Panther trials; it was met with a demonstration by twelve thousand Black Panther supporters, including a large number of college students, who had come to New Haven individually and in organized groups and were housed and fed by community organizations and by Yale students in their dorms.

The demonstrations continued through the Spring. By day protesters assembled on the New Haven Green across the street from the Courthouse to hear speakers including Jean Genet, Benjamin Spock, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and John Froines; afterwards, many taunted the New Haven police, and in return were tear gassed and retreated to their temporary quarters. The police behind them half-heartedly assaulted the dormitories, as was customary for such demonstrations at the time, but on the whole it was peaceful, with very little injury or property damage and only two minor bombings. The National Guard were kept ready on the highways into the city, but police chief Jim Ahern determined that the city police were controlling the situation adequately, and that the presence of the Guard would only inflame the situation; the events at Kent State University a few days later were to prove him prescient.

This coincided with the beginning of the national student strike of May 1970. Yale (and many other colleges) went "on strike" from just before May Day until the end of the term; as at many colleges it was not actually "shut down", but classes were made "voluntarily optional" for the time and students were graded pass/fail for work done up to then.

New Haven in modern political history

New Haven is the birthplace of U.S. President George W. Bush,^[8] who was born when his father, former president George H. W. Bush, was living in New Haven while a student at Yale. A predominantly Democratic city, New Haven voters overwhelmingly supported Al Gore in the 2000 election and Yale graduate John Kerry in 2004. In addition to being the site of the college educations of both Presidents Bush, New Haven was also a temporary home to former president Bill Clinton and U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who met while they were students at Yale Law School. New Haven was also the residence of conservative thinker William F. Buckley, Jr. in 1951 , when he wrote his influential God and Man at Yale. In July 2007, New Haven became the first city in the United States to offer municipal identification cards to residents regardless of immigration status.^[9] They are designed to facilitate residents' access to certain city services, such as the library, to function as local debit cards and parking meter cards, and to allow all to open bank accounts, thus eliminating the need for immigrants in particular to carry around large sums of cash, a situation which, it is said by city officials and activists, made them a target of street crime.

Since the mid-1950s and spearheaded by its former long-serving mayor, Richard C. Lee, New Haven has undertaken numerous urban redevelopment projects, but with overall mixed results. The downtown area in particular has been the site of sometimes dubious experiments in urban redesign, with new hotels, retail complexes, parking structures, a sports colliseum, and office towers built under a labyrinth of city, state, federal and private efforts. Of recent note, as each of these pieces of the redevelopment puzzle transform, become obsolete or again redeveloped, New Haven tends to bear the brunt of a fair share of painful analysis in regard to its ongoing rebuilding efforts, mostly in response to the overhyped claims of success that many similar projects touted over a generation ago.

During the 1950s and 60s, New Haven received more urban renewal funding per capita than any city in the U.S. New Haven became the de facto showcase of the new modern redeveloped ^{[original research?]} city and plans for its downtown development were featured on the cover of Time Magazine in the early 1960s. Some projects, such as the brutalist-styled New Haven Coliseum (demolished in 2007), drew major crowds but were ultimately considered to be victims of modernist over-design and rapid obsolescence. In 2004, the central structure of the mall was converted to luxury apartments, joining a renovated 4-star Omni hotel and new street-level retail. Other numerous smaller projects have in-fill design qualities and are mixed-use.

Current plans for downtown include developing the sites of the Colliseum and Macy's and Malley's department stores and relocating Gateway Community College, Long Wharf Theatre and a mixed-use development there. A major focus has been the "Ninth Square," named from the original nine square layout of New Haven center. This area has experienced an influx of hundreds of new and renovated apartment and condominium units, plus a significant number of upscale restaurants and nightclubs have opened.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 52.4 km² (20.2 mi²). 48.8 km² (18.9 mi²) of it is land and 3.6 km² (1.4 mi²) of it (6.91%) is water.

New Haven's best-known geographic features are its large deep harbor, and two reddish basalt "trap rocks" which rise to the northeast and northwest of the city core. These trap rocks are known respectively as East Rock and West Rock, and both serve as extensive parks. West Rock has been tunneled through to make way for the east-west passage of the Wilbur Cross Parkway (the only highway tunnel through a natural obstacle in Connecticut), and once served as the hideout of the "Regicides" (see: Regicides Trail). Most New Haveners refer to these men as "The Three Judges." East Rock features the prominent Soldiers and Sailors war monument on its peak as well as the "Great/Giant Steps" which run up the rock's cliffside.

The city is drained by three rivers, the West, Mill, and Quinnipiac, named in order from west to east. The West River discharges into the West Haven Harbor, while the Mill and Quinnipiac Rivers discharge into the New Haven Harbor. Both harbors are embayments of Long Island Sound. In addition, several smaller streams flow through the city's neighborhoods, including Wintergreen Brook, the Beaver Ponds Outlet, Wilmot Brook, Belden Brook, and Prospect Creek. Not all of these small streams have continuous flow year-round.

Streetscape

New Haven has a long tradition of urban planning and a purposeful design of the city's layout. Upon founding, New Haven was laid out in a grid plan of nine square blocks; the central square was left open, in the tradition of many New England towns, as the city green (a commons area). The city instituted the first public tree planting program in America. Most of the elms that gave New Haven the nickname "Elm City" perished in the mid-20th century due to Dutch Elm disease. The New Haven Green is currently home to three separate historic churches which speak to the original theocratic nature of the city.^[5] The Green remains the social center of the city today. It was named a National Historic Landmark in 1970.

Downtown New Haven, occupied by nearly 7,000 residents, has a more residential character than most downtowns.^[10] The downtown area provides about half of the city's jobs and half of its tax base^[10] and in recent years has become filled with dozens of new upscale restaurants, several of which have garnered national praise (such as Ibiza, recognized by Esquire (magazine) and Wine Spectator magazines as well as the New York Times as the best Spanish food in the country), in addition to shops and thousands of apartments and condominium units.^{[citation needed]}

Neighborhoods

The city has many distinct neighborhoods. In addition to Downtown, centered on the central business district and the Green, are the following neighborhoods: the west central neighborhoods of Dixwell and Dwight; the southern neighborhoods of The Hill, historic water-front City Point (or Oyster Point), and the harborside district of Long Wharf; the western neighborhoods of Edgewood, West River, Westville, Amity, and West Rock-Westhills; East Rock, Cedar Hill, Prospect Hill, and Newhallville in the northern side of town; the east central neighborhoods of Mill River and Wooster Square, an Italian-American neighborhood; Fair Haven, a neighborhood that is with majority Puerto Rican families and other Latino groups, located between the Mill and Quinnipiac rivers; Quinnipiac Meadows and Fair Haven Heights across the Quinnipiac River; and facing the eastern side of the harbor, The Annex and East Shore (or Morris Cove).^[11]^[12]

Economy

Data from City-Data.com^[13]

Though New Haven's economy originally was based in manufacturing, Yale University has caused a large shift in the city's economic support. Over half (56%) of the city's economy is now made up of services, in particular education and healthcare, with Yale as the city's largest employer, followed by Yale New Haven Hospital.^[14] Yale and Yale-New Haven are not only the city's largest employers, but also among of the state's largest, providing more $100,000+-salaried positions than any other employer in Connecticut.^{[citation needed]}

Demographics

Historical population of New Haven^[15]^[16]
1790	4,487
1800	4,049
1810	5,772
1820	7,147
1830	10,180
1840	12,960
1850	20,345
1860	39,267
1870	50,840
1880	62,882
1890	86,045
1900	108,027
1910	133,605
1920	162,537
1930	162,665
1940	160,605
1950	164,443
1960	152,048
1970	137,707
1980	126,021
1990	130,474
2000	123,626
2005	124,001 (estimate)

As of the census² of 2000, there were 123,626 people, 47,094 households, and 25,854 families residing in the central municipality, the City of New Haven. The population density was 2,532.2/km² (6,558.4/mi²). There were 52,941 housing units at an average density of 1,084.4/km² (2,808.5/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 43.46% White, 37.36% African American, 0.43% Native American, 3.90% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 10.89% from other races, and 3.91% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 21.39% of the population.

There were 47,094 households out of which 29.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 27.5% were married couples living together, 22.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 45.1% were non-families. 36.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.40 and the average family size was 3.19.

The ages of New Haven's residents are as follows: 25.4% under the age of 18, 16.4% from 18 to 24, 31.2% from 25 to 44, 16.7% from 45 to 64, and 10.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 29 years. For every 100 females there were 91.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.6 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $29,604, and the median income for a family was $35,950. Males had a median income of $33,605 versus $28,424 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,393. About 20.5% of families and 24.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 32.2% of those under age 18 and 17.9% of those age 65 or over.

In 2001, the New Haven metropolitan area had the third-highest per capita income in the country, after San Francisco and Silicon Valley, California.^[17] In 2006, analyzing a slightly differently-defined urban area, it had the 32nd highest, which also placed it among the top 10% highest per-capita income metropolitan areas in the country.^[18]

Education

Colleges and universities

Yale University, at the heart of downtown, is one of the city's best known features and its largest employer [1]. New Haven is also home to other centers of higher education, including Southern Connecticut State University and Albertus Magnus College. The University of New Haven is located not in New Haven but in neighboring West Haven. Quinnipiac University is located north of New Haven, in the towns of Hamden and North Haven. Gateway Community College has a campus in New Haven, located in the Long Wharf district.

Primary and secondary schools

Wilbur Cross High School and Hillhouse High School are New Haven's two largest public secondary schools. Hopkins School, a private school, was founded in 1660 and is the fifth oldest educational institution in the United States.^[19] New Haven is home to a number of other private schools as well as public magnet schools including High School in the Community, Hill Regional Career High School, Co-op High School and the Sound School, all of which draw students from New Haven and suburban towns. New Haven is also home to Amistad Charter school and Elm City Prep.

The school district is called New Haven Public Schools.

Newspapers and media

New Haven is served by the daily New Haven Register, the weekly "alternative" (which is corporate run by Tribune, the company owning The Hartford Courant) New Haven Advocate and the online daily New Haven Independent. The city's Spanish-speaking community is served by Registro, a Spanish-language twice-weekly operated by The New Haven Register's parent company. The Register also backs PLAY magazine, a weekly entertainment publication. It is also served by several student-run papers, including the Yale Daily News, the weekly Yale Herald and a humor tabloid, Rumpus Magazine. WTNH Channel 8, the ABC affiliate for Connecticut, WNHX-LP Channel 51, WCTX Channel 59, the MyNetworkTV affiliate for the state, and Connecticut Public Television station WEDY channel 65, a PBS affiliate, broadcast from New Haven.

Culture and notable features

Architecture

New Haven has many architectural landmarks dating from every important time period and architectural style in American history. The city has been home to a number of architects and architectural firms that have also left their mark on the city including Ithiel Town and Henry Austin in the 19th century and Cesar Pelli, Warren Platner, Kevin Roche, Herbert Newman and Barry Svigals in the 20th. The Yale School of Architecture has fostered this important component of the city's economy. Cass Gilbert, of the Beaux-Arts school, designed New Haven's Union Station and the New Haven Free Public Library and was also commissioned for a City Beautiful plan in 1919. Marcel Breuer, Alexander Jackson Davis, Philip C. Johnson, Gordon Bunshaft, Louis Kahn, James Gamble Rogers, Paul Rudolph, Eero Saarinen and Robert Venturi all have designed buildings in New Haven.

Many of the city's neighborhoods are well-preserved as walkable "museums" of 19th and 20th century American architecture, particularly by the New Haven Green, Hillhouse Avenue and other residential sections close to Downtown New Haven. Overall, a large proportion of the city's land area is comprised of National (NRHP) historic districts. One of the best sources on local architecture is "New Haven: Architecture and Urban Design", by Elizabeth Mills Brown.

The five tallest buildings in New Haven are:^[20]

Connecticut Financial Center 383 ft (117 m) 26 Floors
Knights of Columbus Building 321 ft (98 m) 23 Floors
Kline Biology Tower 250 ft (76 m) 16 Floors
Crown Towers 233 ft (71 m) 22 Floors
Harkness Tower 217 ft (66 m)

Cuisine

Credit for creation of the hamburger sandwich is disputed, but some say that it was first served in the United States in 1895 by Louis Lassen, operator of Louis' Lunch. The restaurant is one of eight featured in "Hamburger America",^[21] a documentary film that premiered on Sundance cable television network on 4 July 2005.

A major destination for Italian immigrants in the early 20th century, New Haven also claims to be the birthplace of pizza in the United States (see Gennaro Lombardi for a rival American claim, or the pizzerie Da Michele or Brandi of Naples, Italy, which claim to have invented the margherita in 1889). New-Haven-style pizza, called apizza (pronounced ah-BEETS in the local Italian dialect), is made in a coal- or wood-fired brick oven, and is notable for its thin crust. Apizza may be Red (with a tomato-based sauce) or White (garlic and olive oil), and pies ordered "plain" are made without the otherwise customary mozzarella cheese (pronounced sca-MOTZ, as it was originally smoked mozzarella, known as "scamorza" in Italian). White clam pie is a local specialty.

The tradition of immigration in New Haven has continued to a significant extent, particularly in the late 1990s and 2000s, and as a result there are now literally hundreds of ethnic restaurants and small markets (as well as even a few supermarkets) specializing in various foreign foods, including noted Eritrean, Malaysian, Ethiopian, Spanish, Mexican, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Indian, Jamaican, Cuban, Peruvian, Syrian/Lebanese, and Turkish restaurants. Many of these establishments are supported by the large immigrant populations in the area.

The city also has more top Zagat-rated restaurants than any other town or city in Connecticut, including many new additions such as upmarket downtown restaurants Bentara, Foster's, Pacifico, and Ibiza. Over 120 restaurants are located within two blocks of the New Haven Green. Claire's Corner Copia at Chapel and College Streets claims to be the oldest vegetarian restaurant in the country. Also of note are "The Carts," about 20 lunch carts from neighborhood restaurants that cater to the Yale-New Haven Hospital pedestrian traffic in the center of the Hospital Green (Cedar and York Sts.) during weekday lunchtimes.

Popular culture

A view of the buildings around Yale University in New Haven, with its distinctive architecture.

On March 20, 1914, the first United States figure skating championship was held here.

New Haven was also the location in 1967 of one of Jim Morrison's infamous arrests while he fronted the rock group The Doors. The resultant near-riotous concert and arrest was commemorated by Morrison in the lyrics to "Peace Frog" which include the missive "...blood in the streets in the town of New Haven..." This was also the first time a rock star had ever been arrested in concert. ^{[citation needed]}

New Haven serves as the home city of the annual International Festival of Arts and Ideas, and is home to the famous concert and dance hall Toad's Place.

Doonesbury comic-strip creator Garry Trudeau attended Yale University. There he met fellow student and later Green Party candidate for senator Charlie Pillsbury, a long-time New Haven resident for whom Trudeau's comic strip is named: During his college years Pillsbury was known by the nickname "The Doones".

Scenes in the film All About Eve (1950) are set at the Taft Hotel on the corner of College and Chapel Streets. The hotel was since converted into apartments.

New Haven was fictionalized in the movie The Skulls, which focused on conspiracy theories surrounding the real-life Skull and Bones secret society which is located in New Haven. The city was also fictionally portrayed in the movie Amistad concerning the events around the mutiny trial of that ship's rebelling captives.

Several recent movies have been filmed in New Haven, including In Bloom, with Uma Thurman, Mona Lisa Smile, with Julia Roberts, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Harrison Ford and Cate Blanchett.^[22]

New Haven has been featured as a setting in the TV show Gilmore Girls. One of the show's protagonists, Rory Gilmore, graduated from Yale, and wrote for the Yale Daily News.

Sports and athletics

Much like other mid-sized Northeastern industrial cities, New Haven has historically supported its minor league hockey teams enthusiastically, having had a hockey team for 76 years. The New Haven Eagles were founding members of the American Hockey League in 1936, playing at the old New Haven Arena on Grove Street. The New Haven Blades of the Eastern Hockey League played from 1954 to 1972 before being succeeded by the New Haven Nighthawks of the AHL, which played at the then-new New Haven Coliseum, a sports and entertainment facility that hosted such performers and others as the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team, Aerosmith, Grateful Dead, Bruce Springsteen, Van Halen, Yes, and the Steve Miller Band before closing in 2003, when the state-funded Arena at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport later became the preferred venue.

The Nighthawks were replaced by the short-lived Senators in 1993. After a hiatus, hockey returned in 1997, with the Beast of New Haven, a team famous for its ugly logo. Playing in a newly refurbished Coliseum, this team lasted only two seasons, ending AHL hockey in New Haven.

The New Haven Knights of the <a href="/topic/international-hockey-league-2007" class="ilnk" target="_top" onclick="assignParam('navinfo','method|4'+getLinkText