The Boys Club

31 Jefferson Street (former) 

Photo courtesy Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven.

1909 photo of boys at pool table. Library of Congress, Lewis Hine photo for the National Child Labor Committee. 

The Boys Club of New Haven was founded in 1871 by philanthropist Eliza Maria Blake (wife of inventor Eli Whitney Blake) in her home across the street from the New Haven Green, at a time when city leaders began to recognize that the growing immigrant population needed recreational facilities as well as social services. It was only the third Boys Club in the country. (Today there are more than 4,600.) In 1891, the club moved to 200 Orange Street, a hub for social service organizations known as the United Workers building (which was demolished in the 1920s to build the Hall of Records). The club remained at that location until 1915, when it moved into a new facility on Jefferson Street, half a block from Grand Avenue. This location was closer to the factory workers’ families whose children were served by the club.

During its six decades on Jefferson Street, the club was the only recreational facility in the neighborhood, a welcoming place where boys could play sports as well as games like ping pong, checkers, and table hockey. The Boys Club contained a gym with a basketball court, which provided fun and exercise even in the depths of winter. Talented hoopsters went on to play in state and even national competitions. The club’s swimming pool was the only public pool in the area; generations of local boys learned to swim there. (Continued on next page.)

The club offered camaraderie, mentoring, and a lifetime of memories. Locals who grew up playing there recall the excitement of receiving free sneakers when the club was chosen to serve as a testing site for U.S. Royal, an athletic shoe manufacturer in Naugatuck. Others recall the stern but well-meaning truancy officer who lived in the building and ensured that youth were not skipping school to play games or loiter at the candy store on Grand Avenue.

The Boys Club of New Haven was one of the first in the nation to welcome young women, becoming the Boys and Girls Club in 1970. The club moved to a new facility on the corner of Sargent Drive and Hallock Avenue in the early 1970s. The new facility was named the Albie Booth Memorial Boys and Girls Club, in honor of the New Haven native who became a star football player at Yale during the years 1929-31 and died tragically of a heart attack in 1959. In 1989, the Club moved to 253 Columbus Avenue in the Hill neighborhood. 

After the Boys Club relocated, a new youth services organization opened at 31 Jefferson in 1992: Leadership, Education, Athletics in Partnership (LEAP), which serves underprivileged children in the area. LEAP continues the work of the Boys Club into the 21st century.

Text sources: Interviews with Frank Carrano, John Ragozzino, Alphonse Proto conducted by Rhoda Zahler Samuel and SCSU Journalism students; Proto, Alphonse. It Was Grand! New Haven’s St. Patrick’s Church, Hamilton Street School and Memories of a Unique Neighborhood 1940-1966, Foz llc, 2019.


John Ragozzino, former neighborhood resident who lived on Wallace Street, shares his memories of the Boys Club at May 9, 2022 ribbon cutting for the tour.