Fair Haven is a small neighborhood in New Haven, surrounded by 2 rivers -- the Mill and Quinnipiac -- near New Haven’s harbor and Long Island Sound. This town was originally named Dragon, Dragon Town, Dragon Point, or Sea Dragon. It was named this because the first settlers, who arrived in 1640, saw some seals and assumed they were sea dragons. Later, residents of Fair Haven voted to change their neighborhood’s name. Its current name came from legendary captain Richard Russel, who was impressed by Fair Haven and its beauty. He called it "Fayre Haven," which means beautiful place or harbor.

Fair Haven was well known for its oyster business, causing it to be nicknamed "oyster town," and for its beautiful dragon bridge, built in 1793. In the 1700s and early 1800s, there was a lot of fishing and farming and little that you would recognize in modern Fair Haven. Fair Haven fishermen remained very successful for many years, but starting in the mid-1800s, pollution hurt the business badly.

Also during the late 1700s and early 1800s, Herman Hotchkiss left his mark on Fair Haven. He bought land in Fair Haven up to his death in 1836. Because of his love of the neighborhood, and the large amount of land he owned, Herman Hotchkiss became known as the founder of Fair Haven.

Fair Haven was annexed into the city of New Haven in 1870. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, according to the U.S. Census, the neighborhood was also almost entirely white. At this time, factories were the most important employers in the neighborhood. The owners of these factories were key players in Fair Haven's history. For instance, Hiram Camp was the owner of the New Haven clock company, which at its peak made the largest number of clocks of any factory in the world! The president of a major steel corporation, James A. Farrel, and George S. Barnum, the leader of the railway company that supplied Fair Haven, also were well-known industrialists from Fair Haven.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Fair Haven changed significantly. Pollution, unemployment, poverty, and high crime rates swept through the small neighborhood. At this point everything seemed violent and unsafe. Many lower-income families moved in to the community.

Then, in early 1960s and 1970s, Fair Haven was target for “urban renewal” that which would include the construction of federal funded housing projects and other government programs design to revitalize the area. Change and become a better neighborhood with lots of things to do. During this time, Fair Haven developed the pride that still exists as of today.

BBy 1990, the neighborhood was becoming very diverse. Today, Fair Haven is described as a little Puerto Rico, because of the high percentage of Latino residents living there. The Hispanic community is large and still growing; it represents approximately 35% of the Fair Haven population. While some immigrants from the Caribbean arrived earlier, the percentage of Puerto Ricans in Fair Haven almost tripled between 1990 & 2000. There seems to be few racial problems in Fair Haven and because of that the community appears to be divided more along social and economic lines than racial lines.

- Jamilka Carrasquillo, Justine Case, Jasmine Thomas