New Haven Commercial Historic District - New Haven, MO
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 38° 36.846 W 091° 12.806
15S E 655544 N 4275467
River port town, once very important, now small town. Lewis and Clark passed here, John Colter lived here.
Waymark Code: WM12V7J
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 07/18/2020
Views: 0
County of district: Franklin COunty
Location of district: Main St., New Haven
"The New Haven Commercial Historic District is located on Front Street in the community of
New Haven, Missouri (1990 pop. 1,757). New Haven is in Franklin County, approximately
sixty-five miles west of St. Louis on the south bank of the Missouri River. It is accessed by the
State Route 100 and is eighteen miles northwest of the Franklin County seat of Union. New
Haven's residential area is on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River at an elevation of 580 to
600 feet above sea level. Some one hundred feet below the bluff is the community's historic
commercial area and the right-of-way of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. The New Haven
Commercial Historic District contains ten buildings constructed between ca. 1890 and 1940; nine
retain a high level of integrity and are counted as contributing." ~ NRHP Nomination Form
Text Marker placed by the City in 1956:
1856 --- NEW HAVEN --- 1956
Early prominent Missouri River port, New Haven was settled about 1805 and was named Miller's Landing for pioneer Philip Miller, The Pacific R.R. (Mo. Pac.) reached here in 1855 and the town was laid out and renamed the next year.
John Colter, member of Lewis and Clark Expedition explorer of Yellowstone Park, settled a few miles east in 1810.
The New Haven Flood control levee here was completed by the U.S. Corps of Engineers in April, 1955.
Additional History: Directly across the river was a town called Pickneyville. It was the 1st county seat for then Montgomery county. When Warren county was formed this area became a part of that county, but Pinckneyville was long gone by then. A victim of a dangerous Missouri River. New Haven was the center of social life. The children in Warren County (then Montgomery) came across the river to attend school. The citizens of Peers (then spelt Piers), Treloar, Holstein came across the river to shop and attend social functions. When the bridge was constructed across the Missouri River at Washington MO, (in 1938) the ferry's ceased operation and contact between the two sides of the river faded away.