A map of sites important to
Maier Zunder’s life.
I mapped out the important
locations in the life of my great grandfather Maier Zunder (1829-1901). Almost all are within the historic Nine
Square area of New Haven CT. I included
his houses on Cherry St and Orange St; the two locations of his business, a
wholesale grocery on State Street.
Though he was one of the biggest merchants in New Haven, he also founded
and served as a bank president, founded and developed and B’nai B’rith
Lodge. But the vocation nearest his
heart was serving on the New Haven Board of Education during the period that
public education was developed. As the
result of his service, the Board named a new elementary school (long
demolished) after him.
I used a historical map, more
towards his own time rather than a contemporary map. Not only does it reflect his life and times,
but it includes a very particular element.
In some early newspaper
articles, his address is listed on Cherry Street. He also lived near Germania Hall (Seattle had
one); Maier was very active in the German community.
On Sept.
4, 1870, a large group assembled at Gernamia Hall on Cherry Street
But where was Cherry
Street? I had never seen a Cherry
Street, searched the maps. Then I
started looking at old maps of New Haven on a Yale website. Sure enough, when I went back far enough, I
found Cherry Street, it was off State Street, crossed the railroad tracks (don’t
know if they were there then) and turned into Wooster Street, a block off
Wooster Square.
Now there is nothing there,
bare land. New Haven fell prey to ‘redevelopment’
in the 1960s and the city bulldozed a number of vibrant ethnic neighborhoods
and replaced them with …. Nothing.
On a trip to New Haven, I
talked to two people who would know about Cherry Street. I met with Colin C., a local historical
architect and entrepreneur in the Institute Library (a whole other story) and
asked him about Cherry Street. I had to
throw a little green to his restaurant tour first. He declared that there was no Cherry Street. I showed him the old map; he was
stunned. How could there be a street in
historic New Haven that he didn’t know about?
I also talked to a senior librarian (now retired) and the Colony
(remember the fancy historical society).
He also declared there was no Cherry Street but he had a lot of old maps
and we found it.
Colin C. was really more
interested in another great great grandfather of mine, Paul Weil who owned a
tavern in the Nine Squares area. I would
like to know more about him too. The German
Jewish community (mostly from Bavaria) was tremendously intermarried. Everybody was related to everybody else three
ways. One day, he emailed me that he had
found Maier Zunder’s house on Orange Street and he sent me poor quality image. Orange Street is a major street; I had
several addresses. My genealogy teacher
at that time said that they probably renumbered it; she was right. I hit Google maps, knew where it might be and
found it right away.
Here’s a recent photo from
Google maps
This is actually two town
houses which have been combined together.
Maier’s house was the one on the right.
It’s all been remodeled and a three story office addition on the
back. When I was there, I asked the law
firm that was there then if I could look around. They let me go anywhere I wanted. I didn’t pick up too much signal.
This was a very convenient
location to his businesses, to the Board of Education and also to Mishkan
Israel synagogue, the ‘new’ temple built in 1896 was just a block to the
right. He must have used a horse and
buggy to get around but I haven’t figured out how that worked.
[1] Werner
Hirsch, “Encyclopedia of New Haven Jews, (New Haven: unpublished, 2006)
451. The Register quoted is the New
Haven Register
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