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“A YALE INSTITUTION.”
The New Haven House Hself once
Belonged to Wale.
When Yale College sold the New
Haven House, it undoubtedly let goa
piece of property that is now worth a
merry penny or two and which might
be put to a hundred different uses, if in
the possession of the University.
But of all the good uses that were
considered by the management of the
College at the time the transfer was
made to Mr. Seth H. Moseley in the fall
of 1867, there seemed none quite so
much to be desired as a good hotel.
Plans were already on foot to make the
property the site of the Divinity School,
but it may-be said without disparage-
ment to the claims of the Theological
Department, that it was thought that
some other site might be as well occu-
pied by it and that just then and there
the best thing to do was to make sure
of having a good hotel which Yale’s
friends could always rely upon.
It is indeed. a very lively tradition,
among those who remember the in-
cident of the transfer, that President
Woolsey was very firm on this point,
and that the Treasury Department of
Yale, which at first adopted an indiffer-
ent attitude to the prospective pur-
chaser, was, after a conference with the
head of the College, very much more
zealous in completing the deal. |
This is going a little ahead for the
purpose of an orderly history, but per-
haps many of the readers of the Weekly
do not know that the Street family, who
eave Yale her handsome Art Building and
the endowment for it, had also erected
and owned the New Haven House prop-
erty in substantially the form in which
it is at present. At the time the New
Haven House was built, it was one of
the very few first class hotels of the
country. The Massasoit House in Spring-
field marked the new departure in
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while on his way to Boston, and on his
first interview with Mr. Kingsley, the
Treasurer, he had practically made up
his mind that he did not care to con-
sider the property. It was atthe second
interview, when, according to tradition,
President Woolsey had expressed him-
self strongly, that it was possible for
him to consider it.
Since this time the New Haven House
has been practically a part of Yale Uni-
versity. There are few men who know
as many of the graduates of Yale, and
especially of the best known of them,
as Mr. Moseley. There are few, too, who
have followed the affairs of Yale from
the standpoint of an intelligent outsider
with better opportunities for observa-
tion and judgment and with opportuni-
ties that were better used.
It was only a short time ago, in con-
versation with a friend, that Mr. Mose-
ley referred to an oft heard complaint
of the noise and disorder of the student
community. His friend had said he
supposed he had had a great deal of
trouble with the lawless, especially on
the occasion of a great celebration, and
that his property was often in danger.
Mr. Moseley very quickly replied that
he not only never had a feeling of alarm
on this account but that he had never
had any trouble whatever with students.
He had seen them in all kinds of fun
and jollity but they had never gone
beyond the danger point in their treat-
ment of him and of his property, and
instead of having unpleasant memories
of the students of Yale, he had the very
pleasantest recollections of all his asso-
ciation with them. His friendships
among Yale men he counted one of the
best possessions of his life. Mr. Mose-
ley was also very quick, in a similar
conversation, to repudiate the sugges-
tion that he probably lost a good deal of
money in bad debts in his relations with
students. He says it is the rarest thing
‘are short.
VV Ee eos Tax:
for him to have any bad account with
a Yale man. Instead of being troubled
about their payment of debts, he goes
out of his way to accommodate them,
keeping enough cash in his safe on
holidays to cash their checks when they
Now and then a check will
come back as a result of some man’s
carelessness in the keeping of his own
account, but he says it is always made
good. | :
Mr. Moseley has recently suffered
from an attack of the grip and for some
time past has not been active in the
management of the hotel. The affairs
of the hotel are now in the hands of his
son, Mr. William H. Moseley. Recent
changes in the property are familiar to:
visitors in New Haven in the-last few
years, They include a very large addi-
tion to the dining-room and an extensive
rearrangement of the lobby and the
basement, adding very much to the
convenience and attractiveness of the
place.
Phelps Hall.
The beautiful memorial to the late
William Walter Phelps, which is known
as the Phelps Hall or Gateway, though
it has now been in use less than a year,
is one of the most familiar sights either
to a New Haven visitor or to those who
follow an illustrated report of the
progress of Yale. Though familiar by
several different reproductions in the
-WEEELY, it is here given again in order
to make complete this chapter on the
building era of Yale. The successful
consummation of the architect’s design,
carried out under very difficult circum-
stances, is quite notable. Although ad-
joining buildings of totally different
architecture, it rises with such impres-
sive dignity from what might be called
incongruous surroundings, as to fasten
the eye at once upon its own bold and
artistic form. It is used for recitation
rooms and for a home for the Classical
Club of Yale. |
Vanderbilt Hall.
There was much satisfaction among
the friends of Yale when it was known
that the architect who designed
Phelps Hall was to be the one who had
drawn the plans for the Vanderbilt me-
morial, the gift of Mr. and Mrs. Cor-
nelius Vanderbilt in memory of their
son, William H., who died in his Junior
year at Yale. This building, which is
reproduced elsewhere in this issue, is
one in whose praise all critics, of how-
ever severe judgment, unite. Mr.
Haight was not limited by reasons
financial in perfecting his ideal of a col-
lege dormitory. :
Three Cady, Berg & See Build-
ings.
The name of the architect firm of
Cady, Berg & See appears very fre-
quently in this chapter. It is not
possible here to go into any extended
description of three more structures
which they have designed. They are
also reproduced elsewhere in this paper
and are,-like the other buildings referred
to, already familiar to all those who
have been in New Haven in these latter
years. ’
‘Dwight Hall, the home of Yale’s
Young Men’s Christian Association and
the center of the voluntary religious life
of the University, was the first one
erected.
Chittenden Memorial Library, which
gave ample accommodations for this
part of the University, is so constructed
as to enable it to become a harmonious
part of a generous plan of library con-
struction to be consummated in the fu-
ture, while it is in itself a striking por-
tion of the architecture of Yale.
A third is Winchester Hall, which is
the most imposing of the Sheffield Scien-
tific School buildings. This also is illus-
trated elsewhere in this paper. The
erection of this building was made pos-
sible by the generosity. of Mrs. Win-
chester.
hotel building and service. The Astor
House of New York and the Tremont of
Boston were, at that time, with the
Massasoit, practically the only hotels,
as they are classified now, in the coun-
try. :
The building of the New Haven House
was on a very liberal plan, in fact, too
liberal a one for the New Haven of that
day, which could not support any such
hostelry asthat. A great deal of money
was put into it and it is of excellent
construction throughout, solid brick
walls running from cellar to roof. The
beams, wherever they have been cut
into in recent modifications of the house,
show themselves to be of enormous size
and great strength. For a number of
years, so the belief is, its owners made
up a generous deficit in the revenues of
the house.
As intimated above, this was a part
of a very large property, which went to
Yale and principally to the building and
endowment of the Art School. The
property had remained in the possession
of the College not long when Mr. Mose-
ley, its present proprietor, stopped in
New Haven to look it over. He had
then been for a number of years travel-
ing abroad, seeking to recover his
health. He had his early hotel training
in the Massasoit House, of which men-
tion has already been made, and from
there had gone to the Brevoort of New
York, then very famous among the
hostelries of this country, and sought
more by public men and by distin-
guished visitors from abroad than any
other hotel. Mr. Moseley had success-
fully managed this house for about nine
years when his health broke down.
His coming to New Haven was with
the idea of finding a more quiet occu-
pation where he would not run the
risk of again overtaxing his strength.
He stopped here only for a few hours
PHELPS MEMORIAL
(Architect, Mr. Charles C. Haight.)
GATEWAY.