EHC Receives CT Cultural Fund Operating Support Grant from CT Humanities
New Haven, CT (July 4, 2022) — Connecticut Humanities, the statewide, nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), has awarded the Ethnic Heritage Center a $5,400 CT Cultural Fund Operating Support Grant (CTCFOSG).
This grant, awarded earlier this year, has helped the EHC complete its fifth Walk New Haven: Cultural Heritage Tour, with a new book, brochure and website. It will also help the EHC societies to share their materials to a broader audience through its website and social media. This has been particularly important because of limitations imposed by the Covid epidemic over the last two years. The next step will involve securing additional funding to restore the position of Archivist to the EHC to enhance the availability of our important archives.
The recently completed tour is Grand Avenue, State to East Streets, 1830–1970.
The EHC selected this part of Grand Avenue closest to Downtown for a fifth Walk New Haven tour because of its rich cultural heritage. The tour includes the Artizan School for African-American children in the home of Sarah (Sally) Wilson, a meeting room for the first synagogue in CT, Congregation Mishkan Israel, and factories such as the New Haven Clock Company which employed many immigrant workers. Neighborhood institutions also included St. Patrick’s Church, and The Boys Club. Brick and wooden tenements lined the streets to provide worker housing. Many of the street’s clothing and furniture stores and theaters for entertainment had immigrant roots. Two businesses were owned by women in the 1940s: Lillian’s Paradise, a restaurant and jazz club started by African-American Lillian Benford Lumpkin, and The Terese Furniture Store, owned by Teresa DelPreto Falcigno. The stories of Urban Renewal, highway construction and movement to the suburbs in the 1960s are also part of this history.
Free brochures of all five self-guided tours are available from the EHC and throughout the area at hotels, transportation hubs, libraries, and visitor centers. The Walk New Haven website
(walknewhaven.org) contains additional information about each site, including videos of tour guides discussing some of the sites. Interested groups are welcome to pick up the brochures at the EHC, 270 Fitch Street by appointment. Books can be purchased through the Walk New Haven website or at Amazon.com and are for sale at the New Haven Museum and Atticus Books in New Haven. For more information, email walknewhaven@ethnicheritagecenter.org.
The Ethnic Heritage Center was one of 632 organizations in Connecticut that was awarded CT Cultural Fund support totaling more than $16.1M from CT Humanities. The CTCFOSG are part of $30.7M of support allocated to arts, humanities, and cultural nonprofits through CTH over the next two years by the CT General Assembly and approved by Governor Ned Lamont. The CTCFOSG will assist organizations as they recover from the pandemic and maintain and grow their ability to serve their community and the public.
About the Ethnic Heritage Center
The Ethnic Heritage Center (EHC) was founded in 1988 and has five member societies: the Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven, the Italian-American Historical Society of CT, the CT Ukrainian-American Historical Society, the CT Irish-American Historical Society and the Greater New Haven African-American Historical Society. The EHC has been located on the campus of Southern Connecticut State University since 1992. The EHC’s mission is to preserve and share the histories of the ethnic groups that have contributed to the vitality of the Greater New Haven community, promoting the values of human dignity and social justice.