Michelle Liu Photo
Some wise members of the Monk Council: Olivia, with siblings Pamela and Garry in back.
Jacqueline Monk Roberts remembered when stores and markets lined Washington Avenue, a vibrant spine of the Hill neighborhood.
A new committee she helped form is preserving memories like that one by establishing a Hill Neighborhood Heritage Center.
Spearheaded by siblings of the Hill’s illustrious Monk family, the committee gathered a focus group of about a dozen this past Thursday afternoon at the Hill library branch on Washington Avenue to talk about where the center will be and how to reach out to the community.
The heritage center, members asserted, won’t only preserve history but also serve to invigorate the neighborhood. They hope to draw homeowners and businesses alike back into the Hill.
As people settled in for the meeting, strains of jazz piped through the library’s community room, classics performed by the legendary jazz musician Thelonious Monk — a cousin of the New Haven Monks.
The Monk siblings — whose parents moved to the Hill in 1952 and became neighborhood stalwarts — cited their own strong ties to the neighborhood. They remembered hours spent on their Cedar Street porch watching the world go by along with neighbors who came to visit. The family helped found Thomas Chapel Church where relatives return from far and wide for reunions that include a neighborhood parade. Once one of the few African-American families in the area, the Monks participated as the Hill grew more diverse. They produced eight children, ran two small businesses, and took as foster children nearly 100 — count ‘em — New Haven kids. Monks became New Haven teachers, musicians, athletes and coaches.
“This is like my old stomping grounds,” Olivia Monk Henderson said. “This is where I went to grammar school!”
The Monks have performed acts of goodwill in recent years, sponsoring community events. The city even christened the intersection of Amistad and Cedar Streets “Monk Crossing.”
Last week’s meeting gave everyone else the chance to get nostalgic, too: Monk Henderson asked those present to put their “thinking caps” on and reflect on their own times in the Hill.
Bohan (front) and Heslin.
Examining an 1880 census map of the neighborhood, Ellen Bohan and Pat Heslin squinted at the names of households lining each block. The two women, members of the Connecticut Irish American Historical Society whose families had immigrated to the Hill decades ago, had spotted a notice for the focus group in a newspaper.
Bohan sifted through the tiny print to find families she’d known, places she’d visited.
In an effort to institutionalize this kind of remembering, Pamela Monk Kelley called for the group to bring in their own bits of history — about family, about the neighborhood — for the heritage center. Both Bohan and Heslin suggested other outside resources and groups that could help gather this information, like the New Haven Museum.
The group concurred that the center should be easily accessible (and should have a parking lot). More pressing were concerns of what kind of building it should be.
Garry Monk and renowned pencil artist Krikko Obbott (pictured), a Hill resident of nearly three decades, pushed for restoring or maintaining a historic building, as Obbott did with an 1890s brick house that later became the Hill Museum of Arts at 210 West St.
Garry Monk called for those present to disseminate news of the plans — and to contact their alders. The group made a note of their next meeting, set for March 30.
“We have a seed that we’re planting and we intend to make it happen,” Garry Monk said.
