Step into 1776 without leaving New Haven. YourYale maps a walking tour of sites, stories, and artifacts that connect Yale to the nation’s founding 250 years ago.
Walk back in time
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Photo by Robert DeSanto.
America celebrates its 250th anniversary on July 4, 2026 — the day the Declaration of Independence was signed. For a local look back at that period, several Yale landmarks offer a glimpse into Colonial-era New Haven. Each of the campus buildings, artwork, statues, and memorials tells a Revolutionary War story.
YourYale has put together a walking tour to commemorate America’s 250th anniversary and Yale’s place in it.
Yale Visitor Center
Photo by Robert DeSanto.
Ice cream or coffee break
After completing the tour — or even before — stop by one of these eight downtown New Haven eateries for a snack, sweet, or sip.
The two-story, white clapboard structure at 149 Elm St. was originally built in 1767 for John Pierpont and his bride. It is the oldest surviving house in New Haven and stayed in the Pierpont family until 1900. On July 5, 1779, New Haven was invaded and pillaged by several thousand British soldiers. The local militia, which included a volunteer force of New Haveners and Yale students, helped defend the city. The Pierpont House served as a temporary hospital for the wounded. It’s had various uses since Yale purchased it over a century ago, and for the past 30 years has been the home of the Yale Visitor Center. Today, about 85,000 people pass through its doors each year.
Location: 149 Elm Street
Access: the Yale Visitor Center is open daily 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Grove Street Cemetery
Photo by Jude Breidenbach.
About four blocks from the Visitor Center, surrounded by tall brownstone walls, is Grove Street Cemetery. Established in 1796, it is the final resting place for more than 14,500 prominent and ordinary citizens. This includes individuals who served in the Revolutionary War or lived locally during that era. Amid the noise of the city, it is a peaceful spot where visitors can spend hours walking through its 18 acres. This provides a shortcut to two grave markers worth tracking down.
- Colonel David Humphreys, B.A. 1771, M.A. 1774 (1752–1818): aide-de-camp to Gen. George Washington. His grave is at the corner of Hawthorne and Cedar.
- Roger Sherman (1721–1793): signer of the Articles of Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution. His headstone is on Maple Avenue, halfway up on the left.
Location: 227 Grove Street
Access: Open daily from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Memorial Hall
Photo by Jude Breidenbach.
Located in the entryway to Yale’s Schwarzman Center, Memorial Hall, with its domed rotunda, was constructed in 1901 to mark the university’s bicentennial, along with Commons and Woolsey Hall. On its interior marble walls are inscribed the names of over 1,000 Yale students and alumni who died in conflicts spanning the American Revolution through the Vietnam War. Along with each name are the class year, military title, and the date and location of death.
One wall features 25 students who fought during the Revolutionary War, including Naphtali Daggett and John Hotchkiss, both Class of 1748. These classmates volunteered during the British invasion of New Haven on July 5, 1779. Hotchkiss was killed that day; Daggett was wounded and died the following year.
Location: 165 Grove Street
Access: Badge access Monday – Friday, 8:30 a.m.–6 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday: 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
Declaration of Independence
Photo by Robert DeSanto.
After touring Memorial Hall and reflecting on the sacrifices it commemorates, cross Hewitt Quadrangle for a short walk to Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. There, visitors can see an original printed copy of the Declaration of Independence. It is one of just 26 surviving copies of the approximately 200 printed in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, and distributed by horseback or coach to all 13 new states, where it was read in town squares, pubs, and newspapers. Part of a larger exhibit “Unfurling the Flag: Reflections on American Patriotism,” it is on view through September 27, 2026. For a closer read of America’s first document, try to find the missing word in the second-to-last paragraph.*
Location: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, 121 Wall Street
Access: Open daily, hours vary
Nathan Hale Statue
Photo by Kyle Hurley.
A bronze statue of Nathan Hale, Class of 1773 and a captain in the 19th Continental Infantry, stands tall outside of Connecticut Hall on Old Campus. Hale and several other volunteers helped gather intelligence for George Washington during the Revolutionary War. In the fall of 1776, after only a few weeks in this service, he was caught over enemy lines and hanged as a spy by the British in New York. He was 21 years old. His last words, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country,” are engraved around the statue’s base.
No contemporary paintings or drawings of Hale exist; his likeness was taken from the written description of an acquaintance and a photograph of his great-grandnephew, Robert B. Hale.
Location: Old Campus, College Street
Sculptor: Bela Lyon Pratt (1867–1917)
Access: Phelps Gate is badge accessible 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. during the academic year and daily during the summer.
Connecticut Hall
Photo by Lee Faulkner.
Connecticut Hall is the oldest building on Yale’s campus, constructed between 1750 and 1752. It was one of five identical student halls built in the mid-18th to early 19th century. Dubbed the Old Brick Row, these dormitories included a shared sleeping space and small study and prayer booths. Connecticut Hall, then called South Middle College, is all that remains. The other buildings were torn down by 1901. Connecticut Hall was later transformed into a meeting hall and office space. It and other Yale buildings were spared from destruction during the 1779 British invasion thanks to the intervention of Colonel Edmund Fanning, Class of 1757, a member of the invading army.
Also of note: Nathan Hale, per a plaque on the building’s side, lived there during his college years.
Location: Old Campus, College Street
Architect: Rev. Thomas Clap (president of Yale, 1740-1766)
Access: Phelps Gate is badge accessible 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. during the academic year and daily during the summer.
American Revolutionary War Paintings by John Trumbull
Photo by Rob DeSanto.
From Old Campus, make your way to the Yale University Art Gallery. Head straight to the second floor, where several paintings by John Trumbull (1756–1843) depict scenes from the American Revolution.
These include “The Battle of Bunker’s Hill, June 17, 1775,” which Trumbull witnessed; “The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776”; and “The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, October 19, 1781,” which marked the end of the war. An awe-inspiring full-length portrait of Gen. George Washington at Trenton is also on display at the Gallery. Trumbull served briefly as George Washington’s second aide-de-camp.
Upon seeing his Battle of Bunker’s Hill painting for the first time, Abigail Adams said, “[Trumbull] is the first painter who has undertaken to immortalize by his pencil those great actions, that gave birth to our nation.” 1
Location: Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel Street
Access: Tuesday through Sunday: check for hours of operation
Quilt
Photo by Jude Breidenbach.
Before leaving the gallery, be sure to visit the newest Revolutionary War installation entitled “Keeping Alive the Remembrance: Commemorating America’s Founding, 1776-1876.” While it includes artifacts such as a Continental one-third dollar bill and miniatures of George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette, its centerpiece is a handmade quilt with a handkerchief depicting the Declaration of Independence at its core. In remarkable condition, the quilt was stitched together in the early 1860s by members of the Hudson and Gartley families, who were Quakers living in Pennsylvania and New York. On calico, cotton, and silk, it tells the story of this family woven together with the nation’s history, featuring the names of their family members set among stars and flags.
Location: Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel Street
Access: Tuesday through Sunday: check for hours of operation
*The word “our” is missing from line 62 in the second-to-last paragraph.
1 Abigail Adams, 4 March 1786 (quoted in Helen Cooper, “John Trumbull”, 1982, p. 50).
