Benedict Arnold’s former New Haven home under exploration

NEW HAVEN — In popular culture, Benedict Arnold has become a symbol — the prototypical traitor, the American hero who defected to join the British during the Revolutionary War, his name synonymous with betrayal.

But city man and amateur historian Robert Greenberg hopes to help spur local residents to consider him more concretely. Arnold lived on Water Street; there is potentially still evidence of his day-to-day existence there buried just beneath the surface.

Earlier this month, Greenberg gathered with local and state officials and students from High School in the Community as a portion of the institution’s parking lot was scanned with radar, setting the stage for the planned excavation of the purported foundation of Arnold’s former home.

“(I want) the city, and mostly the students, to think about what they’re walking on,” said Greenberg this week. “The essence of that 300, 400-year history is still under us.”

It was the latest step in an endeavor that has spanned more than a decade for Greenberg, he said. The specific site of Arnold’s home, demolished in the early 1900s, was previously unclear, obscured by urban renewal and construction in the area.

By comparing pictures and overlaying historic maps on current Google satellite images, Greenberg said he zeroed in on the site.

After an existing structure there was demolished in 2015, he garnered permission and did a little digging with a pry bar — a few inches down, he found the top of the foundation of the home. There was a button dating back to 1851; a vintage pipe.

Noah Webster also lived in the home, Greenberg noted, as he began writing the nowfamous Webster’s Dictionary.

“I felt this really deep magnificence to the land itself,” said Greenberg. “(There are) places in America where you can feel the ghosts.”

After the site was opened,

Laura Macaluso, a graduate of Southern Connecticut State University and friend of Greenberg’s, got in touch with state archaeologist Sarah Sportman, paving the way for the radar scan.

Macaluso said this week she was intrigued by the figure of Benedict Arnold for some years. She wrote her dissertation on public art in New Haven, and came across a painting of the man in City Hall. Puzzled, she learned of Powder House Day.

On April 21, 1775, thenCapt. Benedict Arnold led soldiers to demand the keys to New Haven’s powder house from the alders of the time, then marched to Cambridge to offer aid in the wake of the Battle of Lexington and Concord.

Arnold struck her as an interesting figure, she said. Some of her work focuses on public art and monuments — how people commemorate and shape memory. Arnold evokes different legacies in different places, she noted.

“I think what I’m really interested in is trying to figure out how the memory making begins,” said Macaluso. “How much of (his historic legacy) is Benedict Arnold, and how much is people making memory?... He’s just eternally useful as a figure.”

Macaluso said she hoped learning about Arnold’s time in New Haven prompted people to consider the changing nature of the Water Street area, which now features I-95, and of the city as a whole.

The discovery of the house’s site, she said, was a way into “what seems like literally buried history.”

“We can understand a little bit more about his life,” said Macaluso. “We can also understand learn about this town, this state, this country. It’s the kernel of something much bigger to me.”

Greenberg, who has curated a collection of city artifacts titled “Lost in New Haven,” said he hoped to one day establish a permanent archaeological exhibition or pop-up museum at Arnold’s former home, allowing students to readily consider the events that had occurred right by their place of learning.

Ben Scudder, whose U.S. History class at High School in the Community went out to meet with Greenberg, said he hoped that would happen.

It had been a boon for Greenberg to speak with them, he said — it was a chance to get students excited about history and let them see some of it first-hand, which has become more difficult during the coronavirus pandemic. The idea that Benedict Arnold lived next door reinforced the storied nature of Connecticut history, he said — colonial-era happenings took place right here.

Scudder said his class had spent time afterwards talking about the name “Water Street.” It had not occurred to many of the students, he said, that the area used to be on the water. He said hoped those conversations sparked curiosity in them, and an awareness of the malleable nature of our world.

“There are things all around them that have changed or been changed over time,” said Scudder. “(I hope they think) what’s in my backyard? What’s in the park next door?”

Greenberg noted his grandfathers instilled a love of history in him from a young age, with one setting up pop-up exhibitions of artifacts and curiosities in New Haven, hoping to spark conversation among residents.

With the “Lost in New Haven” exhibition, Greenberg said he strove to create a “history carnival,” and example of the “spectacle” and mysteries of the city, he said. There is rich history in New Haven, he said — sites “lost to time.”

Exploring it and cataloging it has become a calling, influenced by the memories of his family, he said. He would like to pass the knowledge down to future generations, as Native Americans did, telling stories around the campfire.

“Why was I put on this earth? Why am I here? I got this weird calling,” Greenberg said. “It’s an honor for me to have found (the Benedict Arnold site).”