Odd Fellows Hall

Goffe & Webster Streets (demolished)

Postcard New Haven Green, c. 1920s. Courtesy Joe Taylor.

The Grand United Order of Odd Fellows derives from an English fraternal order, from which Black sailor Peter Ogden obtained recognition in 1843. The New Haven chapter was founded around 1873. In 1913, the Lodge constructed a large and elegant three-storey building at the corner of Goffe and Webster Streets containing stores, meeting rooms, and a hall, at a cost of over $40,000. The building’s high expenses prompted a part of the membership to withdraw and found a competing lodge. Nonetheless, the building remained active and standing, serving as the home of the Greater New Haven Trades Council until it was demolished in the mid-1960s as part of the city’s urban renewal program.

Text source courtesy New Haven Negroes, A Social History, Robert Austin Warner, 1940.