A talk exploring New Haven’s environmental history in the late 1800s and early 1900s through the examination of two social movements will take place on Wednesday, April 11, at noon in Burke Auditorium as part of the F&ES Seminar Series.
Amity Doolittle, lecturer and research scientist, will discuss the Sanitarian Reform Movement and the City Beautiful Movement in her talk, “Sanitary Reform and New Haven’s Urban Landscape: An Environmental History of Beaver Ponds Park, 1880-1920.”
During this period, different notions about science and hygiene and what constituted a healthy city influenced the shape of the urban landscape. Scientists and sanitarians had believed that urban parks could create refuges of pure air, open ventilation and sunshine that would cure the moral corruption of the poor, immigrant and laboring classes.
Today Beaver Ponds Park has two ponds, ballfields, playgrounds, elevated walks and swimming holes, and is situated along Fitch, Crescent and Fournier streets.
