Page 10 - North Haven Magazine Issue 9 Summer 2019

a Monument
a Monument
or a Memorial Hall?
or a Memorial Hall?

by Susan A. Iverson
“You can’t fight City (Town) Hall” - you’ve heard the expression before. Our town hall’s very beginnings centered on
a fight, of sorts, between different groups of North Haveners. How our town hall came to be built is a provocative
story, and one that (hopefully) no longer raises any partisan discord!

his story was preserved in the North Haven Annals, a collection of memories written by Sheldon
TThorpe. Sheldon was a Civil War veteran and an avid local historian. He was very involved with
all the goings on about town and a member of many of the committees that directed activities here.
(If you’re interested in reading more of Sheldon’s book, it’s available free on Google Books!) He was
closely involved in the events that led to the building of the North Haven Memorial Town Hall in
1886. I’m sure there are other sides to this story, but Thorpe’s version of how our town hall came to
be is the one that survives.

North Haven has always had its share of soldiers fight and die in wars. As we know all too well, the
collective memory of wartime can fade rapidly for those who do not participate in the fighting, while
those who fight carry the memories forever. The veterans of the Civil War and their families certain-
ly lived with the memory of brothers, friends, and neighbors who lost their lives, and believed that
this horrible episode in our history should not be forgotten. So in 1885 the veterans, Sheldon Thorpe
included, formed an association with the goal of building a monument to all those soldiers who had
fallen. This monument would be erected on the Town Green, in view of all and a reminder of the
sacrifices our soldiers made when they were called to join the Union Army or one of Connecticut’s
Regiments of Volunteers.

The Veterans Association organized a committee to appear before the
annual town meeting in October 1885 to ask for an appropriation of
“one and one-half mills” on the Grand List for building the monu-
ment. The vote was passed, and the Association set to work determin-
ing costs and obtaining some private funds to assist with the project.
The sum of $3000 would be needed for the construction. But by No-
vember of 1885 there was grumbling among some of the citizens in
town that the money could be better spent on a public building than
a monument, and a petition was drafted to try to withdraw the ap-
propriation of funds. The petition failed, but that winter discussions
continued, and by February of 1886 a special town meeting was held
to determine the fate of the monument. By this time, several clergy-
men had also expressed their opposition to the monument, instead
favoring the building of a memorial hall. The resulting vote rescinded
funding for the monument and instead approved $5000 to be used to
build a memorial hall, paid for with one and one-half mills taken from
the Grand List and any additional cost be funded by five additional
payments from the Town treasury.
According to Thorpe, Plans for the Memorial Hall moved forward rapidly - Solomon
“ Civil War veteran and builder of many of the best homes around
Linsley was selected to construct the building. He, too, was a
North Haven. He needed to complete the project quickly, be-
These resolutions were the death blow to the monument. The
cause town leaders wanted it finished in time to celebrate North
veterans did not violently assail the Public Building project; they
Haven’s Centennial in October of 1886. Linsley was able to have
were suddenly left in a hopeless minority. It was felt they could
better afford to wait the unerring verdict of time than force a
first so that the meeting hall on the second level could be used for
bitter partisan fight on the community. Public opinion, influ- the structure standing in time, but the second floor was finished
enced by need rather than by patriotism, they recognized as a the Centennial Celebration. The offices on the first floor would
stubborn foe, and so retreated, defeated and humiliated. be completed later. The first floor would also house the Bradley
Library, the precursor of the North Haven Memorial Library.
10 North Haven Magazine - Summer 2019