Cedar Hill (New Haven)

It includes portions of the city-designated neighborhoods of East Rock, Quinnipiac Meadows, and Mill River.

[2] David Atwater was one of the earliest European settlers recorded living in Cedar Hill (at that time called the East Farm).

[12] From the late 1860s through the 1890s most of the development was residential and concentrated it that portion of the area which lay near the junction of State Street and Middletown Avenue.

The beginning of the street is now a residential area but the better part of it is now closed to cars but can be hiked up to the top of East Rock.

[13] One of the more important light industry built in the area was the Rock Street Brewing Company,[14] owned by George Basserman.

Basserman owned the brewery and the adjacent apartment building, which still stands on the corner of Rock and 1395 State Street.

The most significant feature of the area's development during the first half of the 20th century was the construction of the Cedar Hill Yard in the central part of the district between State Street and Middletown Avenue.

Begun in 1909 as part of an effort by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, during the building of the new railyard in Cedar Hill rail men wanted to strike,[18] but were able to get the extra pay to work all the hours the construction of the yard would require.

Most of the residents of Cedar Hill Avenue at that time were there to help with the Ferry Street Congregational Church work.

These houses were constructed for the working men of the burgeoning manufacturing industries in the adjacent Fair Haven neighborhood.

[20] The National Folding Box & Paper Co. is on James Street across from the Cedar Hill Station (car barn when there were trolleys), and both buildings still stand today.

The best remaining example of scattered commercial structures built in Cedar Hill is the Michael W. Ferrell Building at 1296-1304 State Street.