Early Modern (1500–1800)

New Haven Nine-Square Plan

1638 · United States · North America · Military, colonial, and ideal-city planning · Planned by John Davenport, Theophilus Eaton (founders)
Historic plan of New Haven recording the original 1638 nine-square grid with all buildings as of 1748; the central square (the Green) and the eight surrounding squares laid out by John Brockett are cl
Historic plan of New Haven recording the original 1638 nine-square grid with all buildings as of 1748; the central square (the Green) and the eight surrounding squares laid out by John Brockett are cl · public-domain

Core idea

Nine-block core with central common

Why it matters

Template for colonial New England towns

Description

New Haven was laid out in 1638 by the Puritan founders John Davenport and Theophilus Eaton as a colonial settlement on Long Island Sound. The plan is a square of nine equal blocks, with the central block reserved as a common green for the meeting house, market and militia ground, and the surrounding eight blocks divided among the settlers. The scheme fused biblical ideals of the ordered community with practical land division.

Significance

The nine-square plan became a template for colonial New England town-founding and is among the earliest formal town plans in what became the United States. The New Haven Green endures as a canonical American civic space, and the plan is a staple of teaching on colonial urbanism and the religious roots of American town design.

What shaped it

Plans it influenced

Sources

Open it on the interactive timeline →
hub.toekom.st — History of Urbanism · an interactive timeline of 850 planned cities across 6,000 years.