Slineyville Area

Corner Chapel and Chestnut Street (former Irish neighborhood)

Slineyville, Corner of Chapel and Chestnut Streets, c. early 1900s. Courtesy Joe Taylor.

Repressive conditions in Ireland in the early 1820s resulted in large-scale Irish emigration, providing a major source of labor for building America’s canals, railroads and infrastructure. Named for John Sliney, one of the early residents, Slineyville was established near Wooster Square by a group of Irish immigrants who came to New Haven to dig the Farmington Canal (now the Farmington Canal Trail that travels north from State and Wall Streets) and these immigrants stayed to build and work on the railroad. The community grew substantially as new immigrants fleeing the Irish famine arrived. They found work in the maritime and carriage trades, at the local factories, and they opened small businesses throughout the neighborhood.

Text source courtesy Gardner Morse, New Haven Colony Historical Papers, Vol. 5, 1894.