Grand Avenue Sites
Featured
Congregation Mishkan Israel, Heller and Mandelbaum Dry Goods
5 Grand St
Around 1840 Jacob Heller and Louis Mandelbaum, first cousins who had emigrated together in 1837 from Bavaria, started a dry goods store here. Congregation Mishkan Israel, the first Jewish religious society in CT and the oldest continuous synagogue congregation in New England, was established in a meeting room above the store.
Rafael Melendez Corner
Grand and Artizan
In 2012 this corner was named to honor Rafael A. Melendez, Sr., one of New Haven’s Puerto Rican community leaders, who lived nearby for decades. He relocated to CT from P.R. in 1953, moved to New Haven in 1955 to work at the Winchester gun factory, and later helped to found Junta For Progressive Action.
DelMonico Hatter
950 Grand
Established in 1908 by Ernest DelMonico, Sr. as “DelMonico The Hatter,” the venerable New Haven headwear store was originally located on the ground floor of 950 Grand. Ernest’s son Joseph ran the store for seven decades, from the 1920s until 2001. Ben DelMonico currently operates the business, now at 47 Elm St.
Perelmutter’s Department Store
765 Grand
Born in Ukraine in 1883, Jewish immigrant Benjamin Perelmutter moved to Canada at age 21, then to New Haven. After working as a peddler for two years, he saved enough to open a small department store, which was one of the few Grand Avenue businesses to survive urban renewal in the 1960s.
Lenzi Park
Grand & Jefferson
Lenzi Park was named after a local Italian-American war hero, who was born across the street in 1922 and died on Iwo Jima. The site had been a chicken market in the early 1900 run by butcher Arcangelo Pacelli, who immigrated in 1898 at age 13 from southern Italy and served a multi-ethnic clientele on Grand Ave.
The Boys Club
31 Jefferson
The Boys Club was founded in 1871 by philanthropist Eliza Maria Blake (wife of inventor Eli Whitney Blake) in her home across from the Green. It moved to Jefferson St. in 1915 and served generations of neighborhood children of all backgrounds. The Boys & Girls Club now operates on Columbus Ave.
Congregation Mogen David (Bradley Street Shul)
16 Bradley
This Orthodox synagogue served the “Grand Avenue Jews” from 1903 until its demolition in 1966 for the construction of I-91.
Miller’s Clothes
751 Grand
Miller’s Clothes was opened initially as a tailor shop in 1914 by Isadore Miller, who came to New Haven in 1908 from a small town on the Poland-Russia border. He was a scholar of Jewish texts and a founder of Congregation Keser Israel. The store closed in 1961 when the property was acquired to build I-91.
Lender’s Bagel Factory
724 Grand
Born in Poland in 1895, Harry Lender immigrated first to NYC and later to New Haven, where he opened a bagel bakery in a garage on Baldwin St. in 1927. His sons Marvin and Murray grew the business exponentially and in 1975 expanded production to include a highly automated 25,000 sq. ft. factory at this site.
St. Patrick’s Church
624 Grand
Built in 1851, St. Patrick’s served the neighborhood for over 100 years and was widely considered the “glue” of the community. Originally catering to the growing Irish Catholic population, it later served a diversified neighborhood of Italian-Americans and other immigrant groups until its demolition in 1966.
Farnam Court
Grand (between I-91& Wallace)
Opened in 1942 to much fanfare, Farnam Court was the third large-scale project completed by the New Haven Housing Authority. It provided affordable housing to generations of working families. After years of physical decline, Farnam Court was demolished in 2012 and redeveloped by the Housing Authority called Mill River Crossing.
Rosner’s Grocery Store
686 Grand
Rosner’s was a popular neighborhood grocery store, opened in the 1930s by Eli Rosner, a Jewish immigrant from Austria who would eventually open eight grocery stores across greater New Haven. Rosner’s was known for allowing customers to buy on credit and supplied Sally’s Apizza when the famed pizzeria was in its infancy.
Marzullo’s Bakery
654-6 Grand
Marzullo’s was founded by Italian immigrant Giuseppe Marzullo in 1907 and operated in the neighborhood for 75 years. It moved to 654-6 Grand in the 1960s. Giuseppe believed in “producing a product that is colorful and pleasing to the eye.” Marzullo’s was famous on both sides of the Atlantic for artistically created French and Italian cakes, cookies, and pastries.
Lillian’s Paradise
137-9 Wallace
Lillian’s Paradise opened 1946 by Lillian Benford Lumpkin, an African American entrepreneur who came to New Haven from Alabama during the “Great Migration.” Her popular restaurant and nightclub featured top-notch food and entertainment with seating for 200 patrons, and packed every weekend. Many jazz greats from the 1940s and 1950s performed there.
New Haven Clock Company
133 Hamilton
Originally built in the 1840s, re-built after a fire in 1868 and expanded over subsequent decades, the New Haven Clock Company occupied a massive industrial complex that employed up to 2000 workers at its peak and sent clocks and timepieces all over the world. It was the dominant employer and economic engine in the neighborhood for over a century. The factory closed in 1956 in the first wave of de-industrialization in New Haven and was partially demolished for the construction of I-91.