A storied street

Take a walk up or down Hillhouse Avenue and be transported to the Victorian-era past embodied in these six former homes.

Was it Charles Dickens or Mark Twain who said Hillhouse Avenue is the most beautiful street in America? While the true source remains debated, the beauty of the street is certain, no matter the season. The street’s namesake, James Hillhouse, Class of 1773, was a lawyer and politician and the planter of New Haven’s original elm trees.

The grand mansions lining this bucolic thoroughfare were constructed as private residences during the early to mid-nineteenth century. Today, they house Yale departments and administrative offices, including Undergraduate Admissions, Linguistics, and the Jackson School of Global Affairs.

28 Hillhouse

Home to the Department of Economics, the Charles H. Farnam House was built for its namesake in 1884. Its stately red brick exterior and gray slate roof stands out against the green front lawn and amid tall shade trees. Some striking features include a south-facing octagonal tower and recessed, arched front doorway decorated with terra-cotta-style foliate scrollwork and a Queen Anne style gable set just above it at the roofline. Yale purchased it in 1920 to house its fledgling graduate school education department. Alterations were made in 1995 to connect it to 30 Hillhouse via a below-street level common room, and again in 2022 to link it to the new economics building at 87 Trumbull Street.

31 Hillhouse

Yale has owned 31 Hillhouse Avenue for 107 years, and its current occupant is the Program on Ethics, Politics and Economics. The clapboard, five-bay, two-story Federal-style house was built in 1826 for Abigail Fitch Davenport Whelpley and is considered the oldest on the street. Whelpley was a direct descendent of John Davenport, founder of the New Haven Colony in 1638, and namesake of Davenport College. Whelpley was also James Hillhouse’s cousin, and when her husband passed away, she and her sons were invited to New Haven by Hillhouse with this abode in mind. In 1848, the second owner was the Rev. Noah Porter, Class of 1831. Porter served as president of Yale from 1871 to 1881. He hired architect Henry Austin to modernize the house in the Second Empire style, which included a mansard roof with dormers and two side porches. His daughters inherited the house upon Porter’s death, and when Yale became its final owner, the porches were removed, returning it to a more Federal-style appearance.

37 Hillhouse Avenue

The Graves-Gilman House at 37 Hillhouse Avenue is home to the Data-Intensive Social Science Center, the Center for Geospatial Solutions, and the Department of Linguistics. It was built in the Italianate-villa style in 1866 for John S. Graves, secretary and treasurer of the New Haven Gas Company. The original house was clad in brick with stucco on its street façade. Today, all four sides are coated in mocha-brown plaster with a terracotta-clad addition on the back. Graves never lived in the house, selling it to Tredwell Ketcham of New York, who gifted it to his daughter Mary Van Winker Ketcham. She was married to Daniel Coit Gilman, a professor with three Yale degrees, who later became the first president of Johns Hopkins University. Gilman sold the house to George Farnum, M.D. (1869-1870), who in turn sold it to Yale in 1921. It was converted into 10 two-room apartments for married students, one of whom was President George H.W. Bush, who lived there with his wife Barbara and young son George W. Bush. The Economics Department took residence in 1957, and in 2025, a renovation and addition were completed.

38 Hillhouse

This grand Neoclassical style home, the last private residence constructed on Hillhouse Avenue, was built for Henry F. English in 1895. English demolished the Nathan Whiting house that had been on the property since 1833. A graduate of Yale Law School, English was a successful banker and businessman, having served as vice president of the Connecticut Saving Bank and co-owner of the New Haven Journal Courier. Notable exterior features include the repeated floral pattern used in the balcony railings and at the roofline, now a weathered green, open side porches, and projecting bays embellished with Greek touches such as Ionic columns. After a major renovation in 1995, it houses the Yale Undergraduate Admissions office.

51 Hillhouse

Home to staff offices of the Council on Archaeological Studies, 51 Hillhouse Avenue is a colorful Italianate-style (1860-1880) house with Greek Revival (1840-1860) influences. It’s been described as the “most exuberant and picturesque” dwelling in the Hillhouse Historic District, with its “bold classically inspired detailing and varied roof silhouette.”¹ Like 37 Hillhouse, the residence was built for New Haven Gas Company’s John S. Graves. This time, though, he lived in the house, from 1862 to 1866 when he sold it to James M.B. Dwight, Class of 1846, grandson of Timothy Dwight IV, Class of 1769. His widow inherited the house when he died in 1897. Three years later, she sold it to Thomas Hooker, Class of 1869, New Haven banker and descendent of the Reverend Thomas Hooker. When Yale purchased the house in 1924, it became the Peabody Museum’s children’s department; was then divided into married students’ apartments (1946-56); and later became home to the Department of Anthropology.

Year built: 1862; interior restoration in 2011
Architect: Sidney Mason Stone
Yale property: 1924

Sitting stoically at the base of Science Hill is the mocha-brown Horchow Hall. Built in the Tuscan style for New York merchant Pelatiah Perit, Class of 1802, it contains three floors and a cupola. Its trim color and somber stucco façade tone down its decorative features such as the carved window frames trimmed with acanthus leaves. The one-story front portico and double Corinthian columns frame the arched doorway. Among other uses including as a Yale Peabody Museum annex, it served as a residence for senior university administrators until its 1984 renovation, after which it was used by the Yale School of Management. Today, it houses the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs dean, faculty, and staff offices, a student lounge, and event spaces.