Knowing Our Place
Knowing Our Place is a series of reflections by Arthur Mullen, exploring the layered history of New Haven, through architecture, adaptive reuse, civic memory, and the meaning embedded in physical places. Moving through forgotten buildings, public spaces, landscapes, and historical moments, the series uses the story of one city to ask larger questions about identity, democracy, community, and what it means to belong somewhere. Through history, preservation, and observation, we examine how the places we inherit continue shaping the people we become.
Knowing Our Place
Latest Episodes
Marshal of the Opera House
In this episode of Knowing Our Place, we explore the remarkable rise and dramatic fall of Peter R. Carll, the United States marshal, theater impresario, and visionary behind New Haven’s great nineteenth century opera house. Standing at...
The Union League Conversation Room
In the heart of downtown New Haven, as automobiles began appearing alongside horse drawn wagons on Chapel Street, a series of glowing stained glass lunettes crowned the Union League Conversation Room. Installed in 1903 during the construction o...
Washington's New England Tour 1789
In October 1789, during the first congressional recess, mere months after the Constitution took effect, George Washington set out from New York on a demanding tour through New England. The young United States was fragile and widely mistrusted, ...
A Rail Splitter Addresses Yale
In March of 1860, Abraham Lincoln delivered a powerful two-hour speech in New Haven that helped transform him from a regional figure into a national political force. Speaking at Union Hall before a large audience that included Yale ...
Joel Schiavone's Rizz Revitalized Downtown New Haven
At Chapel and College Streets lies a stretch of ground where centuries of American history converge. From Roger Sherman’s home in the Revolutionary era to the string of Broadway premieres staged at the Shubert Theater, this single block serves ...