The handsome row houses at 405–415 Orange Street were built c. 1864. The unit at number 405 (unit on extreme right) was the home for many years of Dr. Stephen J. Maher, a leading expert on tuberculosis. Dr. Maher’s paternal grandparents immigrated to America in 1825 and his mother and her family came to this country in 1844. Dr. Maher was born in New Haven in 1860. The oldest of 8 sons, Dr. Maher was an 1887 honors graduate of Yale Medical School and did post-graduate work in hospitals in Ireland and England. Much of his career was devoted to the treatment of tuberculosis, particularly to isolating drugs effective in arresting complications of the disease. Dr. Maher oversaw construction of five state sanatoriums. Appointed to the state’s Tuberculosis Commission in 1911, he was the only American physician to attend an international congress on TB, held in Germany in 1913. In 1906 Dr. Maher was one of the organizers of New Haven’s Catholic Hospital Association (though not all members were Catholic) for the purpose of establishing the Hospital of St. Raphael (1908), a faith-based hospital where any doctor could offer care–and any person could be cared for–regardless of race, religion, culture or financial status.

Text source courtesy Connecticut Irish American Historical Society.

ON THE DOWNTOWN NORTH TOUR

0 | Lucretia’s Corner

1 | William Pinto House

2 | New Haven Arena

3 | Maier Zunder House

4 | Congregation Mishkan Israel

5 | Stephen J. Maher Residence

6 | Lafayette Mendel House

7 | Leopold Waterman House/Jewish Home for Children

8 | St. Mary’s Church

9 | Yale Collection of Musical Instruments