Guide Exploring New Haven, Connecticut | SolarTravels.com

<body> Destination Guides Search for a City Destination Guides > North America > USA > New England > Connecticut > Central Connecticut > New Haven New Haven Travel Options Flights Hotels Vacation Rentals Cars • New Haven · The City • Arrival, Information And Getting Around • Eating • Nightlife And Entertainment • Hotels in New Haven NEW HAVEN BE THERE NOW Hotels in New Haven • Historic Mansion Inn New Haven from $149.00 USD • Days Inn-new Haven New Haven from $62.99 USD • Premiere Hotel And Suites New Haven from $125.00 USD More Hotels in New Haven >> READ IT HERE NEW HAVEN , founded in 1638 by a group of wealthy Puritans from London on a large natural harbor at the mouth of the Quinnipiac River, developed a solid economy based on shipping and, later, industry. In 1716 it became the seat of Yale University , the third oldest college in the States, but it was hardware, firearms, gas and other types of manufacturing in the nineteenth century that really brought the city into its own. New Haven churned out Winchester rifles, musical instruments, tools, carriages and corsets, and Eli Whitney , inventor of the revolutionary cotton gin, discovered in his workshop here a method of mass production that eliminated expensive skilled labor. Today, however, little manufacturing remains in New Haven, and the city has struggled for decades to revitalize and redevelop. It's an uneasy place, half tension-ridden urban wasteland and half Ivy League idyll. Town-versus-gown conflicts are so marked as to give the city a crackling energy, and New Haven is certainly less WASPish and smug than many other Ivy League towns. Drug pushing, gang wars and homelessness notwithstanding, blacks and whites - and Italians, Irish and Asians - co-exist, uneasily. The city's ethnic diversity, and the undeniable vitality provided by the much-maligned Yalies, make it a stimulating place to spend some time The City A succession of remarkably ugly buildings built during the 1950s rather blighted New Haven, but its downtown , centering on the Green , remains both attractive and walkable, thanks in part to some sensitive restoration. This area,... A succession of remarkably ugly buildings built during the 1950s rather blighted New Haven, but its downtown , centering on the Green , remains both attractive and walkable, thanks in part to some sensitive restoration. This area, laid out in 1638, was the site of the city's original settlement; around the Green are three churches, a grand library and a number of stately government buildings. The park itself is now home to a handful of homeless residents, and borders the student-filled district centered around College and Chapel streets. The surrounding five blocks are a genuinely lively place in which to hang out, filled with bookstores, cafés, clubs and hip clothing stores; the Neon Garage , an art exhibit in a real parking lot on Crown Street, is especially notable for its glass and neon sculptures. There are some very rough pockets, but in general New Haven is reasonably safe to wander around, even at night, especially during term time. New Haven's prime attraction, Yale University , stands proudly right in the center of things. You can wander at will, though free hour-long student-led tours set off daily from the Yale Visitor Information Center at 149 Elm St (tel 203/432-2300), across from the north side of the Green (Mon-Fri 9am-4.45pm, Sat & Sun 10am-4pm; tours Mon-Fri 10.30am & 2pm, Sat & Sun 1.30pm); it also supplies maps for self-guided tours. Tours will have you trooping to and fro quite a bit, starting with the beautiful old spires and ivy-strewn cobbled courtyards of the old campus (mostly built in the 1930s, but painstakingly distressed to look suitably ancient) and ending up at the remarkable Beinecke Rare Books Library , 121 Wall St, where venerable manuscripts and delicate hand-printed books are viewed with the aid of natural light seeping through the translucent marble walls (Mon-Fri 8.30am-5pm, Sat 10am-5pm, closed Sat in Aug; free). Other buildings of interest include the modernist, Louis Kahn-designed Center for British Art , 1080 Chapel St, where British paintings range from Elizabethan portraits to modern works by Peter Blake and Francis Bacon (Tues-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun noon-5pm; free). The impressive Yale University Art Gallery , just across the road at 1111 Chapel St (Tues-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun noon-5pm; closed mid-July to Aug; free), and the nation's oldest university art collection, holds American decorative arts, regional design and furniture, and African and pre-Columbian works. Among major European paintings is Van Gogh's famous Night Café , said by the artist to be "one of the ugliest pictures I have done." A quirky Collection of Musical Instruments is at 15 Hillhouse Ave (limited hours, phone ahead tel 203/432-0822), and the Peabody Museum of Natural History , 170 Whitney Ave, is a solid nineteenth-century collection of fossils, skeletons and gems (Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun noon-5pm; $5). Since 1900, New Haven's close-knit Italian District has been based among the well-kept brownstones and colorful window boxes of Wooster Street , just beyond Crown Street southeast of the Green. This was where the city's original Italian immigrants settled when they came to work on the railroad. There's little to see here, but there are some incredibly popular restaurants, and it's well worth stopping by when there's a festival on. </body>