25 IN ‘25: 25+ HISTORIC PLACES TO VISIT IN 2025!

Following the establishment of the nation in 1776 and the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War, the City of New Haven was incorporated 241 years ago when the State of Connecticut approved its Charter on January 21, 1784. New Haven is the first city in the state, along with New London.

New Haven has more National Historic Landmarks (nine) than any other city or town in the state, and it’s the unparalleled cultural capital of Connecticut.

There are many more than 241 historic places, events, and books in and about New Haven – but that’s too many to list all at once, so to get started, here’s a short list of some places to go and things to do in 2025. Click here to download a copy of the list

1 – 4. Spend time on the New Haven Green, a National Historic Landmark district, and places on the Green like the New Haven Free Public Library, with its local history room, and the Center Church, with its historic crypt, and mark your calendar for Wake Up the Green on Saturday, May 10, including a reenactment of Powder House Day and celebrations of the centennial of the New Haven Garden Club.

5. Explore the Grove Street Cemetery, another National Historic Landmark, established in 1797 – the oldest publicly chartered burial place in the nation, organized as a city of the dead with streets and family plots, and mark your calendar for its annual July 4 commemoration organized by the General David Humphreys Branch of the Connecticut State Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.

6. Go early and often to the New Haven Museum, and its Whitney Library and Pardee Morris House, a vibrant center for exploring the people, places, events, and ideas that shape and define the Elm City. Make sure to use the museum’s newly reinstalled “Amistad Retold” exhibition as a catalyst to learn more about that essential story, and connect with the resources and programs of Discovering Amistad and visit the Amistad Memorial at City Hall

7. Eat at Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana, opened 100 years ago in 1925, and eat at many of the other amazing apizza places in New Haven, where every day is an apizza day.

8. Engage with the Beinecke Library and other special collections of Yale Library for their archives, exhibitions, and events – including a special event on Saturday afternoon, April 19, birthday of Roger Sherman, a founder of the nation and first person elected mayor of New Haven after its incorporation in 1784.

9. Read The Life of William Grimes, first published 200 years ago in 1825, the first fugitive slave narrative, written by Grimes, who liberated himself from enslavement and lived most of his life in New Haven, where he is buried in Grove Street Cemetery. In this bicentennial year of Grimes’s book, also note that this year marks the 200th anniversary of the last sale of enslaved people on the New Haven Green, on March 8, 1825.

10. Connect with Albertus Magnus College, also celebrating the centennial of its founding in 1925 (and cheer local schools like Nathan Hale and Troup also opened in 1925).

11 - 12. Check out the Southern Connecticut State University Library special collections – and make sure also to learn about the Ethnic Heritage Center and its five constituent organizations, hosted on the SCSU campus, and get moving with their wonderful Walk New Haven tours.

13. Get to know the Dixwell Community House, first opened in 1924, with its Toni N. and Wendell C. Harp Historical Museum, and the Stetson branch of the New Haven Free Public Library – plus make sure to check out the other neighborhood library branches around town – Mitchell in Westville, Wilson in the Hill, and Fair Haven – all of which have books and resources about local history.

14. Catch a game at the Yale Bowl, another National Historic Landmark, and celebrate the history of football in New Haven. This year is the 150th anniversary of the first Harvard-Yale football game, played on November 13, 1875, at Hamilton Park in New Haven – and note other historic events at the bowl, like the Special Olympics World Games 30 years ago in 1995, a time that also marks the beginning of the International Festival of Arts and Ideas.

15. Visit the Blessed Michael McGivney Pilgrimage Center to learn about the history of the Knights of Columbus, a global organization founded in New Haven in 1882.

16 - 17. Get inspired at great museums like the Yale Peabody Museum, newly renovated, expanded, reopened, and the Yale University Art Gallery, both of which have great New Haven related items in their collections.

18. Make plans to see Fort Nathan Hale and Black Rock Fort and other Revolutionary War era sites and think about New Haven’s many connections to the American Revolution – considering, for example, the establishment of the Second Company’s Foot Guard 250 years ago in 1775.

19. Get to know the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, celebrating the sesquicentennial of its founding in 1875, the first such station in the nation.

20. Visit the New Haven Preservation Trust online and use what you learn to explore the historic fabric throughout the city’s neighborhoods.

21 - 24. Patronize historic New Haven establishments, such as those established 50 years ago in 1975: Toad’s Place, Claire’s Corner Copia, Campus Customs, and Atticus Bookstore.

25. Keep an eye out for the schedules of places that are temporarily closed or not yet opened, but that will be open in the future, like the Yale Center for British Art, the Morris Steinert Collection of Musical Instruments, and Lost in New Haven.

25+. This list is just a starting point! Keep your own list, add to it, and share it with friends, family, and neighbors – history is for all of us to explore, to make, to keep, and to pass on! As you make your own list, look to the sites noted above and to marvelous resources like Info New Haven, the Connecticut Freedom Trail, the Yale Visitor Center, among others.