The Sherman Building, New Haven, Connecticut:
On Chapel Street is the upscale restaurant Union League Cafe on the first floor of what used to be the Union League Club of New Haven. The building was renamed to honor the site’s 18th century owner, Roger Sherman. While serving as New Haven’s first Mayor and United States Congressman, Sherman lived in a saltbox-shaped Colonial across the street from Yale College. He was the only person to sign all four of the great state papers: the Continental Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. It’s claimed that George Washington stayed at the Sherman residence.
In 1860, an Italianate house designed by architect Henry Austin was built on the premises for Gaius Fenn Warner, head of G. F. Warner & Co., manufacturers of malleable iron. Then the property served as the home of the Union League Club of New Haven, a private civic and social club between the 1880’s and 1940’s. In 1902, the current Beaux Arts facade was added by New Haven architect Richard Williams, giving the exterior its familiar arched expression.
