A 16 acre park in New Haven, CT, used for many public events and bordered by Yale University.

Getty Images/iStockphoto

New Haven Green

New Haven


New Haven's spacious green has been the spiritual center of the city since its Puritan fathers designed it in 1638 as the prospective site for Christ's second coming. Since then it has held the municipal burial grounds – graves were later moved to Grove Street Cemetery – several statehouses and an array of churches, three of which still stand.

The 1816 Trinity Church (Episcopal) resembles England's Gothic York Minster, featuring several Tiffany windows. The Georgian-style 1812 Center Church on the Green (United Church of Christ), a fine New England interpretation of Palladian architecture, harbors many colonial tombstones in its crypt. The 1814 United Church (also United Church of Christ), at the northeastern corner of the green, is another Georgian-Palladian work.

Across Church St, the 14ft bronze Amistad Memorial stands in front of City Hall on the spot where 55 kidnapped African slaves, who sought their freedom and seized control of the slave-ship Amistad, were imprisoned in 1839 while awaiting one of a series of trials that would ultimately release them.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby New Haven attractions

1. Yale University

0.13 MILES

Each year, thousands of high-school students make pilgrimages to Yale, nursing dreams of attending the country's third-oldest university, which boasts…

2. Tomb

0.17 MILES

The Tomb is not open to the public. This is the home of Yale’s most notorious secret society, the Skull & Bones Club, founded in 1832, and its list of…

3. Yale Center for British Art

0.18 MILES

Reopened in 2016 after extensive restoration, this fabulous gallery was architect Louis Kahn’s last commission and is the setting for the largest…

4. Yale University Art Gallery

0.21 MILES

This outstanding museum was architect Louis Kahn's first commission and houses the oldest university art collection in the country; it includes Vincent…

5. Artspace

0.24 MILES

Specializing in contemporary visual arts and community outreach, Artspace runs this bright contemporary gallery and organizes the annual City-Wide Open…

7. Grove Street Cemetery

0.39 MILES

Three blocks north of the green, this cemetery holds the graves of several famous New Havenites behind its grand Egyptian Revival gate, including rubber…

8. Peabody Museum of Natural History

0.66 MILES

It's hard not to be fascinated by this vast collection of animal, vegetable and mineral specimens, including wildlife dioramas, meteorites and minerals…

  • placement: superzone
  • path: Destinations/POIs/superzone
  • possible size: [970, 250], [970, 90], [728, 90], [1, 1],
  • targeting:
    {
      "url": "usa/new-england/new-haven/attractions/new-haven-green/a/poi-sig/470032/361988",
      "destination": "New-Haven",
      "continent": "North-America",
      "country": "USA",
      "region": "Connecticut",
      "city": "New-Haven",
      "position": "superzone"
    }