MELANIE SCHOENBERG/YH

Defining the line between Yale and city

On Mon., Oct. 26, 1998, an architectural and urban design firm in New York sent a facsimile to the Yale University Planning Department. It stated the development goal for the sites currently occupied by Maple Cottage (85 Trumbull St.) and the Kingsley-Blake House (88 Trumbull St.): "To create a Gateway to Yale University facilities accessed by Trumbull Street from Interstate 91." The word "gateway" is circled on the document, and somebody has scribbled in its place, "major entrance to Yale within the context of New Haven." This semantic drama succinctly articulates an important debate not only about two historic buildings and the future of picturesque Trumbull Street, but also about Yale's relationship with New Haven.

What exactly is the gateway cited in these documents? What is Yale planning to build on Trumbull Street if Maple Cottage comes down and its across-the-street neighbor, the Kingsley-Blake house, is relocated? The Friends of Hillhouse Avenue, who battled the University in court this week, are convinced that the University has big building plans. But Michael Morand, SY '87, DIV '93, Yale's assistant vice president of New Haven and state affairs, summed up the University's response to the Friends' distress with a caveat: "Don't always trust the documents people give."

Let's make a deal

The documents are a series of illustrations and proposals, the "gateway" facsimile among them, that emerged during the discovery process of the trial, The Friends of Hillhouse Avenue vs. Yale University, which concluded on Wed., Jan. 20. The Friends took Yale to court to dispute the demolition of Maple Cottage, designed in 1836 by noted American architect Alexander Jackson Davis. The building, the first in the cottage orné style in the U.S., was also the childhood home of American suffragist Lillie Devereux Blake.

Yale's plan to tear down Maple Cottage resulted from an agreement forged in February 1998 between the University and members of the New Haven Preservation Trust. Yale agreed to restore four historic buildings listed as "Contributing Structures" in the Elm Street and Hillhouse Avenue Historic Districts in exchange for the right to demolish Maple Cottage. The agreement further stipulated with regard to the Kingsley-Blake House, also on the National Register of Historic Places, "This site must be cleared for a future development site. The future building to occupy this site, along with that projected for #85 [Maple Cottage], will mark the Trumbull Street entrance to the campus." The controversy engendered by this simple agreement, heralded by Yale as a triumph of town-gown cooperation, shows that no matter how vague Yale's plans for the future of the site may be, they will most certainly generate dissent.

`Substantial new signage'

In the preliminary stages of the lawsuit, the Friends of Hillhouse Avenue requested all

materials from Yale regarding Maple Cottage and the land it currently occupies. The University produced a series of maps, prints, design corridors, and written documents drawn up by the architectural firm Cooper, Robertson, Ltd. that explored the development and design potential of the sites at 85 and 88 Trumbull St. and provided some clues to the University's intentions. But so far they're only clues--the name of the Trumbull Street game is ambiguity. Yale may or may not create a gateway there, but the idea is at least under consideration. Still, University President Richard Levin, GRD '74, insists that "The University has made no decision on the eventual use of the 85 or 88 Trumbull Street properties."

In response to Connecticut Historical Commission inquiries, Cooper and Robertson sent the Commission a fax on Tues., Sept. 1, 1998, arguing that "a more substantial building, housing academic or student administrative offices, if properly scaled, would be a more suitable announcement of the University on Trumbull Street" than Maple Cottage. The firm's development proposal called for "substantial new signage to orient visitors, and, perhaps, a symbolic `gateway' to announce the arrival at Yale." A Mon., Nov. 2, 1998 Cooper and Robertson fax makes the design intent for Trumbull Street a little more concrete--but just a little. The report projects future buildings on Trumbull "intended to define a major entry corridor to Yale University facilities accessed
by Trumbull Street from
Interstate 91."

The suggestions of these architectural reports commissioned by Yale, vague as they are, have spawned a rather hearty flow of correspondence. "You don't need enormous new buildings to shape an entrance to Yale on Trumbull Street," advised Sterling Professor Emeritus in the History of Art Vincent Scully, JE '40, GRD '49, in a letter to Levin. "They would be badly out of scale with Hillhouse Avenue." But Kemel Dawkins, Yale's vice president in charge of facilities, insisted the significance of the "gateway" documents has been overestimated by opponents of such a project. "Cooper and Robertson has been engaged to look at campus planning in a large sense," Dawkins said. "One area they have studied is the Hillhouse district. They are not plans for future buildings but advising us for future sites."

Levin concurs with Dawkins, giving an even more dismissive response to the Cooper and Robertson report. "The idea of using 85 Trumbull for some sort of symbolic `gateway' was merely a proposal presented to the officers of the University by Cooper and Robertson," he explained. "The proposal was never even seriously reviewed."

Uncertainty and impatience

But opponents of the Trumbull "gateway" say that Yale may just be playing its cards close to the vest. "[Yale] will claim that they're conjectural plans," Eric Papenfuse, JE '93, GRD '99, a member of the Friends of Hillhouse Avenue, said. "They haven't done anything yet, but the point is that this is something that very easily could happen." One reason for Yale's reticence is that the University is still waiting on Judge Frank Meadow's ruling in the case. "Since the judge has yet to rule, we do not feel that it would be appropriate for us to comment in detail," Morand said.

The semantic war over Trumbull Street gets even more muddled when it comes to what kind of buildings Yale might erect in place of Maple Cottage and the Kingsley-Blake House. "Cooper and Robertson illustrated the possibility of constructing academic buildings on these sites, but these were merely illustrations, not even proposals," Levin said. "No specific use for buildings on these sites has been identified, and no decision about the eventual use of the properties has been taken." A Cooper and Robertson representative supported Levin's statement, calling the Trumbull Street suggestions part of a larger dialogue on potential plans.

But if Yale is so unsure of its vision for the sites at 85 and 88 Trumbull St., why was the University so interested in clearing these specific areas through its agreement with the Preservation Trust? And why is it so loath to leave Maple Cottage standing? Robert Egleston, executive director of the New Haven Colony Historical Society, expressed some confusion about the University's possible "gateway" plans in
a Thurs., Sept. 3,
1998 letter to John Shannahan, director of the Connecticut Historical Commission: "What is entirely unclear is how the removal, by demolition or other means, of two 19th-century buildings from Trumbull Street contributes to Yale University's desire to make this street into a major gateway to the University and to the city," he wrote in the letter. "It seems to me that a revitalized 85 and 88 Trumbull St. would add a great deal more to such a gateway than two parking lots could."

Not surprisingly, contractors hired by Yale and the Preservation Trust have emerged with differing assessments of how much it would cost either to restore or revitalize the decrepit Maple Cottage. But this option does not seem particularly appealing to the University, regardless of cost. "At this point, we're not talking restoration because so little of the historic structure and fabric remain," Dawkins said.

The house that Jackson built?

Max Ferro, an architect hired by Yale to assess the historical value of Maple Cottage, testified in court on Fri., Jan. 15, that he has "never examined an old building more completely and totally gutted, more stripped of any historical fabric" than Maple Cottage. He said that all that is left of A.J. Davis in the structure currently standing at 85 Trumbull St. is "seven feet of Greek key fret in the wrong place."

But the Friends of Hillhouse are skeptical of Ferro's
300-page report to the University, most of which consists of appendices--compiled by his researcher and assistant--that he admitted he had not read. The Friends claim that because Ferro began his research with the knowledge that Yale intended to demolish the building, his report was a biased assessment that fails to reflect the important historic value Maple Cottage still retains.

In addition to questioning the objectivity of Ferro's report, the Friends also doubt the legitimacy of the original agreement between Yale and the Preservation Trust. "There's been much made of this agreement between the New Haven Preservation Trust and Yale, but what it was was an agreement made behind closed doors with a very small number of members of the New Haven Preservation Trust," Papenfuse said. Dawkins denied this claim. "What has happened in the last year [was] extraordinary community involvement. The notion that this has all been done in secret is not accurate."

That's what the Friends are for

Regardless of the specific language Yale chooses to describe potential plans for Trumbull Street, the Friends of Hillhouse see any sort of development at 85 and 88 Trumbull as an act of violence against the historical and architectural integrity of the neighborhood. "To gate this off and say that now this area is Yale and the area to the east is New Haven sets up an unnatural barrier--one that isn't historically appropriate or appropriate in terms of the feeling of the city," said Anstress Farwell, an architectural historian and Friends co-founder. "It's saying that this is now a Yale preserve, and that is just not what it should be. This was built by the city of New Haven, it wasn't built by Yale, and it's one of the best historic districts in the city and should have a feeling of openness."

Dawkins claims that "Yale is not proposing the creation of a gate," arguing that Trumbull Street "is already a gateway to Yale in New Haven." But according to Papenfuse, the question of boundaries goes beyond what Yale intends to build. "This history is being rewritten and reformed as Yale University," he said. "It's not really the issue of what the building is, it's the issue of how the University is dealing with the unreasonable destruction of historical resources and what that means in relationship to an entire district."

Dawkins insists that Yale is committed to honoring the principles of its agreement with the Preservation Trust, namely that any structures replacing Maple Cottage and the Kingsley-Blake House will "respect the current setbacks and be sensitive to the massing along Trumbull Street and Hillhouse Avenue." But for many of the Friends and their friends, the destruction or removal of two houses on the National Register of Historic Places for any development purposes--no matter how unobtrusive--is both inappropriate and dangerous. "If you can destroy a building which is a contributing structure in a national historic district, then you can probably destroy just about any building," Papenfuse said. As the contract between Yale and the Preservation Trust stipulates, the University's stewardship of its properties "requires a careful balancing of preservation and change, with the goal of a more vital, humane and urban campus, and with a standard for judgment that change can be justified in cases where these values will be furthered." Regarding Maple Cottage, many feel that this principle has been grossly misapplied.

In the matter of Trumbull Street...

Until Meadow delivers his ruling--a decision which could take up to four months and even then might go through a lengthy appeal process--the future of Maple Cottage and the Trumbull Street corridor hangs in the balance. But one thing is certain: whether it is, as Yale claims, for reasons of historical value, or, as the Friends claim, for development purposes, the University has a strong interest in the removal of Maple Cottage. Gateway or no gateway, something is going to happen on Trumbull Street if Yale gets its way.