Newhallville Corner Renamings Advance

Alders fast-tracked the renamings of two Newhallville street corners after two neighborhood leaders who have dedicated decades of their lives to church-focused community service.

Local legislators took those votes Monday night during the latest regular monthly meeting of the Board of Alders City Services and Environmental Policy (CSEP) Committee. The two-hour virtual meeting took place online via Zoom.

Now the proposals have one last stop: expected approval by the full Board of Alders.

During Monday evening’s meeting, the committee alders unanimously voted in support of renaming the corner of Brewster Street and Shelton Avenue for General Bishop Elijah Davis, Jr., who spent 35 years as the pastor of Pitts Chapel Church on Brewster Street.

The committee alders also unanimously voted in support of renaming the corner of Lilac Street and Butler Street in honor of Mary C. Griffin, longtime deacon of First Calvary Baptist Church, dedicated community management team member, polling station volunteer, and celebrated baker.

“Ms. Griffin is just a wonderful woman all the way around. She’s a beautiful queen,” West Rock Alder Honda Smith said during the meeting, noting how she has known Griffin for three decades and has long admired her perseverance in looking after neighborhood youth in need. ​“This is a beautiful thing, and I truly support this 100 percent.”

“He’s a great man. He’ll do anything to help his community, the people of the community, and I just can’t say enough about him,” Deacon Joe Davis said about Elijah Davis during the public testimony section of Monday’s meeting. ​“If anybody deserves to have his name on a street corner, it’s General Bishop Elijah Davis.”

Throughout the meeting, with the help of over a dozen members of the public and recently-retired former Newhallville Alder Delphine Clyburn, the pictures of two lifelong community servants took shape.

According to the proposed corner-renaming aldermanic order, Griffin has lived on Lilac Street in Newhallville since 1972. Clyburn said neighbors have long called Griffin ​“the Mayor of Newhallville” because of her commitment to the community.

She and her husband Melvin were ordained as deacons at First Calvary in 1997.

She spent her professional career in New Haven as a public school teacher at Lincoln Bassett School and Troup Academy.

According to the aldermanic order, she volunteered at polling stations, was an active member of the neighborhood management team, helped establish a community block watch, organized community clean-ups, assisted in preparing food for the elderly, and donated her baking skills to annual Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday parties.

“She’s a beautiful person,” said Sean Hardy. ​“I’ve known her all my life. She is superb, very active in the community, very committed. I love myself Ms. Mary Griffin.”

Darrell McClam agreed. He said that renaming the corner after Griffin while she’s very much a part of the neighborhood she has long served is a fitting way ​“to give her her flowers now.” ​“This is such an important accolade for her,” he said.

Those who spoke up in support of Davis similarly showed the longtime Newhallville pastor in praise.

According to the proposed aldermanic order, Davis was born in North Carolina. He and his family moved to New Haven and joined Pitts Chapel U.F.W.B. Church in 1974.

He would become the pastor of that chapel in 1986, and, over the course of his long career, add to his list of titles Connecticut State Police Chaplain, Presiding Annual Bishop of the Northern Connecticut Annual conference, General Bishop of the Unified Freewill Baptist Churches, and Second Vice President of the National Convention of Freewill Baptist U.S.A.

The order also states that, during his career helming Pitts Chapel, he’s helped establish a neighborhood food bank, winter coat drive, youth mentoring program, dand eacon training school. He’s also helped people recently released from prison find jobs and housing, provided counseling and assistance to those struggling with HIV and AIDS, held annual Christmas toy giveaways, and opened an after school center at the church.

“When people were getting shot, Bishop Davis would walk the streets of Newhallville, trying to make calm and get peace back into the neighborhood,” McClam said. ​“Brewster Street is not the best street in Connecticut. He wanted to be where the problems were, by his choice. He wanted to stay in Newhallville. He let people know they can do better, that there’s a better way.”