Farnum Courts

Grand Avenue between I-91 and Wallace Street (demolished, rebuilt as Mill River Crossing)

Farnam Courts opens in 1942. Photo courtesy Elm City Communities archives.

Neighborhood housing on the site in 1940 before demolition for the construction of Farnam Courts. Photo courtesy Elm City Communities archives.

The origin of Farnam Courts can be traced to the Wagner-Steagall National Housing Act of 1937 which created a system of federal subsidies for local housing authorities and ushered in the first wave of public housing in the United States. With the support of New Deal-era Mayor John Murphy, a Democrat elected in 1931, who championed housing reform and infrastructure projects that would provide construction jobs, the Housing Authority of New Haven was formed in 1938 and seeded with $5.5 million from the federal government. Farnam Courts was the Housing Authority’s third development, after the 487-unit Elm Haven complex in Dixwell (completed in 1941) and the 318-unit Quinnipiac Terrace in Fair Haven (completed in 1942).

Designed by versatile local architects Douglass Orr and R.W. Foote, Farnam Courts was completed in 1942 with 300 units spread across 7.7 acres. It was named after Yale economist and philanthropist Henry Walcott Farnam (1853-1933), who was the son of prominent New Haven railroad tycoon Henry Farnam. With its patios, courtyards, and ample play areas, Farnam Courts was primarily geared toward young families. In contrast to the older cold-water tenements in the area, some of which were so crowded they were referred to disparagingly as “beehives,” the new affordable apartments at Farnam offered modern conveniences, reliable heat, hot water, indoor plumbing, and playgrounds. There was also a community hall and on-site health clinic.

On paper Farnam was racially integrated: the majority of residents were white but approximately one-third were African-American. Farnam renters worked in local industries such as the clock, rubber, and hardware factories, the English Station power plant, or small businesses along Grand Avenue. The complex offered residents a village-like atmosphere with its own newspaper and sports teams.

By the 1960s, the decline of the clock factory and other local industry, combined with urban renewal and the construction of Interstate 91 just steps from residents’ homes, destabilized the neighborhood and left Farnam Courts both physically isolated and, increasingly, racially segregated. Exposure to pollution from the interstate highway, English Station, and other environmental hazards left residents suffering from some of the highest rates of asthma and respiratory illness in the state. Meanwhile, deferred maintenance mounted as local budgets tightened and the federal government withdrew political and financial support for public housing.

Beginning in 2012, the original buildings were demolished in a $30 million redevelopment of the site by the Housing Authority (now Elm City Communities) that also resulted in the renaming of the complex, now known as Mill River Crossing.

Text sources: Rae, Douglas. City: Urbanism and Its End, Yale University Press, 2003; Link; Archives and Annual Reports of Housing Authority of New Haven (now Elm City Communities).