Welcome
Welcome to our humble home
We love getting old pictures of the neighborhood so email them over!
How it Started
It started with Jack Haggerty and Nick DeMatties meeting for lunch from time to time. They
invited Bob and Jim Lee to join them. They started meeting every 2 months. Soon they were
joined by Jimmy and Richie Flanagan and Wally Brennan. Before you knew it there were 12 than
15 people. We had what was called our first reunion lunch around May 2004 at Lucibello’s and it
was attended by 31 people.
The idea started with Saint Peters alumni and quickly grew to add Sacred Heart and Truman
alumni, and now includes St John Evangelist and Saint Anthony’s alumni. The first group was
mainly 1952 and 53 grammar school graduates. We now include all who grew up on the Hill in the40’s, 50’s and 60s.
Our second reunion was also a luncheon, and for the first time it included the girls. We met at
Biagetti’s and 53 people attended. We continued 6 months later again at Biagetti’s and we now
numbered 83. By now we formed a committee, which meets every 2 months, Based on many
requests we decided to have our first evening reunion at the Savin Rock Conference Center in
May, 2006. We way exceeded expectations and 200 people attended.
Many people did not want to wait until May 2007 for our next diner reunion and asked to have a
luncheon in November. We did so in November 2006 at Biagetti’s and 100 attended.
Our second diner reunion was held May 10, 2007 at Anthony’s Ocean View and was a huge
success attended by 330 people. You can imagine the scene with many people seeing kids they
grew up with for the first time in 45 to 50 years (nametags were required).
Our intent is to host DINNER REUNIONS on an annual basis. So keep an eye out for emails or
visit us on our website to mark the dates, times, and places, in your calendar and remember to
pass the word
A Little Neighborhood History
The Hill is the southwestern-most neighborhood of New Haven Connecticut. As early as 1800, this area was known as "Sodom Hill". Located directly south of Downtown New Haven, the neighborhood is now home to New Haven Union Station as well as Yale New Haven Hospital and the Yale School of Medicine. Originally a distinct suburb of New Haven, The Hill began its urban development in the early 1800s. The sub-neighborhood south of Columbus Ave now known as Trowbridge Square was established (continued below right)
in the 1830s by brothers Nathaniel and Simeon Jocelyn. Known at first as the village of Spireworth, this enclave was founded as a rare example of a racially integrated planned community.
In the middle of the century waves of Irish and German immigrants began pouring into the neighborhood. African-Americans migrated from the American South, and this neighborhood also served as a stop on the Underground Railroad.In 1957 a sizable swath of the Hill containing 881 households and 350 businesses was flattened to make way for the Oak Street Connector, a 1.1 mile highway stub that was never extended toward Derby as originally planned. In 2013 New Haven began work to downgrade the Oak Street Connector into city streets in an effort to reconnect The Hill to Downtown New Haven.
(History comes from Wikipedia Web Page "The Hill, New Haven")