NXTHVN

169 – 181 Henry Street

NXTHVN today.

The history of the building complex at 169-181 Henry Street exemplifies the variety of industrial activities and employment opportunities that existed in Dixwell and Newhallville throughout much of the twentieth century, drawing immigrants from overseas as well as African American migrants from the southern United States. Some of these industries were attracted to the area because they supplied auxiliary parts or services to Winchester Repeating Arms, the area's dominant employer, while others were attracted to New Haven simply for its abundant labor pool and quality transportation infrastructure.

Macalaster-Bicknell. Photo by Lucas A. Karmazinas.

Designed by architect Charles E. Hubble and constructed in 1920, at the height of New Haven's industrial might and interwar economic prosperity, the brick structure at 169 Henry served a variety of commercial and industrial functions over the decades.

Initially it was a factory and glazing shop for H. Puddicombe & Company, a manufacturer of art and leaded glass founded on Orange Street in 1898.

The building then briefly passed to the Rathgeber Engineering Laboratories and Rathgeber Chemical Laboratories, which since the 1930s had occupied several buildings on County Street located just to the northwest of H. Puddicombe and Co.

In the mid-1940s part of the factory complex became a production and distribution facility for H.P. Hood, a dairy and ice cream company founded in Boston in 1846 that still operates today. 

In 1948 the factory was again in use for glass production after being acquired by Macalester Bicknell, a manufacturer of laboratory glassware founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the early 1900s. Products made on Henry Street included glass tubing, rods, flasks, pipettes, and blanks. The family-owned Macalester Bicknell was bought by a private equity firm and relocated to a suburban location in 2012.

After a period of disuse, 169 Henry was converted from industrial to post-industrial (in this case educational and cultural) use in a pattern replicated widely across New Haven. Yale-trained visual artist Titus Kaphar and private equity investor Jason Price — both longtime residents of New Haven — established an arts nonproft called NXTHVN that opened at the site in 2018. The expansive adaptive-reuse campus houses galleries, studios, offices, performance and living spaces. Renowned architect and Yale School of Architecture Dean Deborah Berke designed the facility, which retains much of the original industrial character, and won a merit award from the New Haven Preservation Trust in 2023. NXTHVN serves the local community while also attracting an international audience for its exhibitions and fellowship programs.

Adjacent to NXTHVN at the intersection of Henry and County Street is Ida Ruth Wells Corner, named after an African-American community leader who became, after moving to New Haven in the 1980s, a widely respected housing and tenants' rights activist and vice chair of New Haven’s housing authority from 1991 to 2001. Wells died in 2016 at age 95. The corner was officially named to honor Wells, who lived nearby at Prescott Bush Houses, in 2019.

Text sources courtesy "Connecticut Mills" database, a project of Preservation CT. Entry for H. Puddicombe & Co; New Haven Preservation Trust, 2023 Awards [Accessed January 22, 2024]; and NXTHVN staff, via email.