On Arnold's trail: Robert Greenberg Monday with HSC students.
Benedict Arnold.
A local historian met up with an archaeologist and a scientist in the parking lot of High School in the Community Monday hot on the heels of a mystery: How infamous Revolutionary War traitor Benedict Arnold lived and whether he had a secret tunnel running to his house from the harbor in order to smuggle goods.
The local historian, Robert S. Greenberg, gathered with state archaeologist Sarah Sportman, Scott Brady, president of the Friends of the Office of State Archaeology (FOSA), and soil scientist Debbie Surabian. Benedict Arnold historian Laura Macaluso, an organizer of the expedition, was on hand as well.
Their purpose: To gather more clues about the property where Arnold lived, in preparation for a dig scheduled for spring 2022. Noah Webster, who penned the first dictionary in 1806, lived in the house as well.
The house no longer exists. But the basement does. And historical treasures presumably lie within.
The crew collected data Monday about the underground property to plan for how and where to dig in order to more about details like the wine cellar as well as a possible entrance to the secret tunnel to lead to the harbor.
“We live above an amazing time capsule here in New Haven, and I want to bring all these wonderful historical locations to the surface,” Greenberg, the executive director of the local history museum Lost in New Haven, told the students.
Robert Greenberg at the recently reopened hole showing foundation of house.
Greenberg discovered five years ago that the school’s parking lot is on land behind the 1770 house of Benedict Arnold. ”I read articles that said the basement was intact,” he said.
“I studied the maps over 10 years in the hope that someday I would be able to dig below the building that was there,” he said. “Fortunate enough for me, [the graffiti-covered building above] burned down, and they had to destroy the structure.”
Greenberg said that, with the permission of the landlord, he dug a hole five years ago. “I predicted Benedict Arnold’s house would be there.” He unearthed a foundation, as well as artifacts like a smoking pipe and some bottles from the 1800s, then left the site dormant, covering it over with boards.
“I was establishing Lost in New Haven, and I wanted to solidify the deal that the landowners would donate the site to the museum so I could secure the site as an archaeological site and so it couldn’t get developed,” he said.
Debbie Surabian with ground penetrating radar.
Greenberg said he and Macaluso reached out to state archeologist Sportman, who arranged for the ground-penetrating radar crew and will be instrumental in organizing the 2022 dig based on data collected Monday. The property owner, Betsy Henley-Cohn, has agreed to donate the land to the Greenberg’s Lost in New Haven, which hopes to create a museum there with the artifacts.
At a taped-off area of the parking lot nearby on Monday, Surabian was wheeling a ground-penetrating radar contraption resembling a joggling stroller that uses radar pulses to image the subsurface. Sportman and Brady were chalking off grids.
“That’s why they’re here today,” Greenberg said. “To analyze what else is underneath.”
He held up a sepia photo. “It was the grandest house in New Haven, a grand Colonial style house,” Greenberg said as cars roared along Water Street in the cold, grey air. “You looked right out onto the harbor, and when Benedict Arnold was here, he had three of his ships right in front.”
The renowned traitor was also a smuggler. “He had a secret tunnel that we think he would smuggle the goods from the house to the ships,” he said.
“So what they’re also trying to determine is possibly the entrance of that smuggling tunnel,” he said. The expedition proceeded with the unearthing of what were believed to be retaining walls for that tunnel.
The plan is to analyze the walls and foundation of the house. “Some things you can see in the field, but the software can create a 3‑D image of the ground,” said Brady, the volunteer archaeologist. With the grids, “you can say we saw something really interesting five feet over and four feet in, and really zero in on it.”
“Come springtime,” Greenberg said, “we can actually start to open up areas, and dig more.”
Monday’s expedition covered not just the area of the underground house’s footprint, but a nearby area behind the house, under the current parking lot. “Artifacts from Benedict Arnold’s and Noah Webster’s days are most likely still under the ground behind the house,” Greenberg said. “I want to prove that.”
“It’s exciting,” said historian Macaluso, who has written extensively on Benedict Arnold. “I think this project is going to give us a richer sense of life.”
Laura Clarke, president of the public art nonprofit Site Projects, walked over from Wooster Square to see the action. “I love art intertwined with history, and I see this as something that will become public art, one that’s invested with many layers of meaning,” she said.
“Any questions?” Greenberg asked the students.
No hands went up.
“That’s OK,” he said, as they filed back inside. “It’s early. The more we uncover, the more they’ll understand their history. I want these kids to have an archaeological site so that when they’re walking around New Haven, they’ll know that what’s above is not all there is, that there’s history beneath them.”
Strange. I have just been writing about Benedict Arnold today in a story I am working on. It was very fun to take a look at the Independent just now and see this news item. I don't want to give away my thunder or what my book is actually about, but coincidentally this is what I wrote earlier today as Benedict Arnold plays a tangential role in my story:
"Arnold’s “Apothecary” Shop (New Haven’s first drug dealer, I imagine), was situated across The Green from Yale College. By selling books and “sundries” to Yale students, he rapidly earned enough to move to a larger shop on Water Street near New Haven Harbor. At 26 years of age in 1767 he had acquired three ships and was making a fortune smuggling rum, sugar, molasses, and most likely cocaine and opium from London and the Caribbean and probably slaves as well...
I am very sure that the research going on now on Water Street will eventually prove me right. I came to this conclusion after reading the traditional histories of his exploits, maddening arrogance, and frankly, bi-polar type manic episodes. He exhibited all the symptoms of acquiring, consuming, and dealing massive amounts of sugar, cocaine, and opium. His sneakiness, subterfuge against friends and enemies alike, ability to withstand pain and the put upon belief he held that he was being unfairly treated are further indications of his personality disorder and severe mental illness. George Washington and others of sounder minds simply did not trust him. BA had no use for anyone he could not corrupt or buy. There is no evidence that he was capable of feeling empathy toward man, woman, or beast, and his massive ego allowed nothing and no one to stand in his way. His bravery was fueled by cocaine. His pain was assuaged by opioids and his personal entourage of well-armed slaves kept him safe from the phalanx of haters he left in his wake.
I think he has earned the title of "New Haven's first drug dealer".