An expert in urban planning, Connecticut College Professor of Art History and Architecture Anna Vallye was immediately fascinated by the history of New London, and specifically, the transformation of the city during the era of urban renewal when she arrived in the city five years ago.

Under Vallye’s tutelage, a fall 2019 seminar course led to the research that would eventually be turned into chapters of the recently published book “Urban Renewal and Highway Construction in New London, 1941-1975.”

The urban renewal of New London was a product of The United States Housing Act of 1949, which was passed following World War II to give cities like New London the necessary funding to deal with the high volume of people moving out of cities into the suburbs as automobiles and highway construction made travel easier.

Cities like New London with outdated infrastructure were encouraged to undertake large-scale urban renewal projects.

The urban renewal period in New London specifically was controversial because of how it wiped out entire ethnic neighborhoods and historic architecture. Greg Stone of The Day, who grew up around New London and lived through the period of urban renewal here, called it a “disturbing chapter in the life of our city.”

On the other hand, the urban renewal project - or something like it - was inevitable. According to Stone, New London was “desperate” to survive the trend of suburban migration and fix its “ancient street system and shortage of parking.”

Both The Day and the New London County Historical Society played key roles in supplying resources to Vallye’s students who wrote chapters for the book.

Steve Manuel, executive director of the NLCHS, praised the book on New London’s urban renewal period as “scholarship provid(ing) new understanding to the problems plaguing the city, and (offering) better insight as to why the choices were made to address those problems.”

Vallye noted that not all the stories involving the urban renewal period were negative. New London made national headlines, for instance, because of a successful citizen campaign to save historic Union Station from demolition. This event launched the city’s historic preservation organization, New London Landmarks.

Matthew Baronas, a 2021 Conn graduate, wrote a chapter for the book titled “A Quest for Efficiency.” His work focused on the construction of the four-lane Thames River Bridge connecting New London to Groton.

Baronas also looked at the social implications of this construction in New London, a project that forever changed parts of the city, such as Perry’s Pond, a favorite local swimming spot that was filled for the construction of the Thames River Bridge.

Vallye plans to host another seminar course in the fall of 2022, this time specifically focusing on gathering personal accounts of those New London residents who lived through the urban renewal project. “One of the assignments will likely be taking interviews with people who lived through the renewal area in New London and continue to build stories from these interviews with longtime local residents,” said Vallye.

Johnny Alexandre is a Times intern and a senior at Connecticut College.