SGC-WH-GIA-037 · Research edition September 8, 2026
278 Main Street, between Washington Avenue and Martin Street. Historic name: Old West Haven High School. The 1940 town history used 270 Main Street. Giannotti is verified by the photographed school sign; Gianotti is retained as a search alias.
Executive history
Dr. Carl C. Giannotti School occupied the former West Haven High School at 278 Main Street. The National Register nomination identifies the building’s earlier and later names, while its photograph of the entrance records the spelling GIANNOTTI on a sign presented by the class of 1965. Gianotti, with one n, occurs in later summaries and remains a useful search term, but it should not replace the spelling on the school’s own sign. This collection follows both the physical building and its later junior-high identity. [WH-GIA-008][WH-GIA-003]
The building answered pressure on an expanding school system. West Haven’s high-school pupils had previously attended Union School on Center Street. The 1940 town history says that the high-school course developed in stages, becoming three years long in the 1890s and four years in 1909. Its account of the earliest two-year course contains an internally contradictory date, so that detail is not adopted here. The book dates the start of construction of the new Main Street high school to November 11, 1925, and its opening to 1927, with 596 pupils. [WH-GIA-002]
The National Register supplies the precise move-in day: February 7, 1927. Architect Roy W. Foote designed the school, and C. W. Murdoch, Inc. was the builder. The main block dates to 1926–1927; the auditorium and gymnasium followed in 1929. Its grand portico and classical ornament conveyed the civic importance attached to education. The later junior-high occupation therefore did not begin with a new schoolhouse on an empty site; it reused an established public landmark. [WH-GIA-008]
Enrollment soon outgrew the original expectations. By the time the 1940 history was written, it reported 1,832 students and double sessions. It also recorded a graduating class of 327 in 1934. Seth G. Haley had become principal in September 1919, before the Main Street move; the history credits his period with an expanding athletic program. In 1933 he became superintendent and D. Webster Belcher succeeded him as principal. The surviving printed photograph shows the building while it still served the high school, with mature trees partly screening the facade. [WH-GIA-002][WH-GIA-009][WH-GIA-001]
After the high school moved to its later campus, this building was adapted for junior-high classes and named for the physician who had served the school community for twenty years. The nomination dates that transition around 1964 and records closure in 1983. The exact 1963–1964 naming sequence needs further confirmation. The Historical Society reports holding Giannotti registers, and later yearbooks offer valuable leads, but neither access to a record nor a posted photograph establishes permission to reproduce it. This initial collection therefore pairs a cleared period building image with documentary evidence and clearly identified research leads. [WH-GIA-008][WH-GIA-007]
Key dates
1916 — Land was acquired for a separate high school. WH-GIA-008
1925-11-11 — Construction of the Main Street high school began, according to the 1940 history. WH-GIA-002
1927-02-07 — Students, faculty, and principal Seth G. Haley moved into the new high-school building. WH-GIA-008
1929 — Auditorium and gymnasium wing completed. WH-GIA-008
c. 1963–1964 — Building converted to junior-high use and named for Dr. Carl C. Giannotti; exact renaming date unresolved. WH-GIA-008
1965 — Entrance sign commemorates a gift of the class of 1965. WH-GIA-003
1983 — School building closed and was sold for redevelopment. WH-GIA-008
1985-10-24 — Old West Haven High School listed in the National Register. WH-GIA-010
A closer look at the surviving record
Before the Giannotti name
The 1940 plate labels this building West Haven High School and says it opened in 1927. It records the same Main Street building that later generations knew as Giannotti Junior High.
The printed account connects the 1927 opening of the new high school with later overcrowding and double sessions. It reports 596 students at opening and 1,832 by the period it describes.
Includes source text where acquired. Source websites require an internet connection. OCR may contain errors; verify names and dates against the scan.
10 catalog entries
No matching items. Try fewer words or another spelling.
WH-GIA-001 · Photographs · 1927–1940; published 1940
West Haven High School on Main Street, published in 1940
Period building photograph, published before the Giannotti junior-high conversion. The caption states that the high school opened in 1927.
Public domain in the United States: repository states that copyright was not renewed, citing the Stanford renewal database. No separate copyright notice appears on the selected plate. Cropped to the printed photograph and caption and rotated 90 degrees clockwise to make it upright. Capture date and photographer not stated. No reconstruction, colorization, or AI alteration.
History of West Haven, Connecticut (1940)
PDF page 185
Source: https://archive.org/download/historyofwesthav00unse/historyofwesthav00unse.pdf#page=185
Credit: Writers’ Program (U.S.), Connecticut, History of West Haven, Connecticut (Church Press, 1940); Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center / Internet Archive. Cite SGC SGC-WH-GIA-037, WH-GIA-001, source title, page and URL; accessed September 8, 2026.
WH-GIA-002 · Historical documents · 1940
Opening and expansion of the Main Street high school
Printed page 65 describes the high-school move, enrollment, leadership, and district governance. The text’s early-course date 1899 conflicts with its own 1890 move narrative; do not silently normalize it.
Public domain in the United States: repository states that copyright was not renewed, citing the Stanford renewal database. No separate copyright notice appears on the selected plate. Full printed page retained. Scan quality reflects the photocopied source; OCR may contain errors.
History of West Haven, Connecticut (1940)
PDF page 181
Source: https://archive.org/download/historyofwesthav00unse/historyofwesthav00unse.pdf#page=181
EDUCATION
In the early days, each district was controlled by a district committee and
was under the supervision of a board of school visitors. These school visitors,
who were elected to the office, made periodical inspections of the schools, inves¬
tigated the work being done, and offered suggestions.
In 1899, there were four school houses in the Union School District with
1,055 pupils between 4 and 16 years of age. The other two West Haven Dis¬
tricts had one school house each, with a total of 411 pupils.
In that year, the Union School District was reorganized under a board of
education. Other school districts continued under supervision of the board of
school visitors until 1926, when schools were consolidated, and supervision of
all schools was transferred to the board of education. A legislative act of 1927
provided that the West Haven Board of Education have six members.
The four-room Campbell Avenue School, built about 1893, in the section
then the Northern School District, is the last of West Haven’s wooden school
buildings. For man)' years before the erection of this structure, a small, crude
schoolhouse stood on the site. A two-room school also was conducted on Smith
Place.
High School,
A two-year course of instruction in high school subjects was first given in
1899 in the old wooden Union School building. The first class of five pupils
occupied a room together with the eighth grade. When the Union School, a two-
story brick building with a tower, was erected on Center Street in 1890, the high
school pupils were transferred to that building.
There was no high school graduation in 1896, as the course was changed
to three years. In 1909, a fourth year was added.
For several years, the need for a new high school building was apparent,
but it was not until November 11, 1925, that construction was started.
The new high school, at 270 Main Street, opened in 1927 with an enroll¬
ment of 596 students. Registration increased to such an extent in the succeed¬
ing years that double sessions became necessary. During the past year, 1,832
students were enrolled. The largest graduating class on record was the class of
1934, numbering 327 students.
Seth G. Flaley, a graduate of Bowdoin College, was named principal of the
high school in September, 1919. Among his accomplishments was the adoption
of an athletic program, which gained such" impetus by the year 1922 that the
appointment of a physical director became a necessary step. Francis Fitzgerald
was named to this post, which he still holds.
Expansion and Improvements
In June of 1898, Edgar C. Stiles of Hartford, a former principal of the
Seymour schools, was made superintendent of West Haven schools. Mr. Stiles
served the West Haven school system until his death in 1933. At that time Mr.
65
Credit: Writers’ Program (U.S.), Connecticut, History of West Haven, Connecticut (Church Press, 1940); Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center / Internet Archive. Cite SGC SGC-WH-GIA-037, WH-GIA-002, source title, page and URL; accessed September 8, 2026.
WH-GIA-003 · Sources & research leads · 1985-02
1985 architectural photographs and Giannotti sign
Sixteen views include facade, portico, doorway with GIANNOTTI sign, vestibule, lobby, and auditorium.
Photographs credited GMPT, February 1985. Third-party survey photographs: no blanket federal public-domain status assumed. Photo 4 / PDF page 7 gives the spelling and class-of-1965 inscription. External source reference; the complete source is not reproduced in this download.
Credit: Original publisher or holding institution, linked at source. Cite SGC SGC-WH-GIA-037, WH-GIA-003, source title, page and URL; accessed September 8, 2026.
WH-GIA-004 · Sources & research leads · 1927 or later
1927 high school postcard in CT Digital Archive
Catalog search identifies a postcard whose reverse states the school was completed and occupied in February 1927.
Catalog lead: item page could not be fully read because of connection verification. Date of postcard publication, rights and file delivery not verified. External source reference; the complete source is not reproduced in this download.
Credit: Original publisher or holding institution, linked at source. Cite SGC SGC-WH-GIA-037, WH-GIA-004, source title, page and URL; accessed September 8, 2026.
WH-GIA-005 · Sources & research leads · 1935; blog 2016
1935 West Haven High School yearbook and named portraits
Blog documents a surviving yearbook and reproduces school and class imagery.
Copyrighted blog and uncleared yearbook scans. Source link only; high-school cohort predates the Giannotti name. External source reference; the complete source is not reproduced in this download.
Credit: Original publisher or holding institution, linked at source. Cite SGC SGC-WH-GIA-037, WH-GIA-005, source title, page and URL; accessed September 8, 2026.
WH-GIA-006 · Sources & research leads · 1953
1953 West Haven High School yearbook
A modern upload of a 1953 yearbook potentially documents classes in the Main Street building.
Modern archive upload gives no reuse license; do not download into publication assets. External source reference; the complete source is not reproduced in this download.
Credit: Original publisher or holding institution, linked at source. Cite SGC SGC-WH-GIA-037, WH-GIA-006, source title, page and URL; accessed September 8, 2026.
WH-GIA-007 · Sources & research leads · Undated
Historical Society school records
Society reports Giannotti and Bailey middle-school registers, Blue Flame yearbooks, and Rostrum newspapers.
Consult the repository for catalog and rights information; registers may include personal addresses and attendance data. External source reference; the complete source is not reproduced in this download.
Credit: Original publisher or holding institution, linked at source. Cite SGC SGC-WH-GIA-037, WH-GIA-007, source title, page and URL; accessed September 8, 2026.
WH-GIA-008 · Sources & research leads · Undated
Coverage gaps
No cleared Giannotti-era class portrait or yearbook page was located. Exact renaming and first junior-high class date remain unresolved.
Keep building opening 1927 separate from junior-high establishment c.1963–1964. External source reference; the complete source is not reproduced in this download.
Credit: Original publisher or holding institution, linked at source. Cite SGC SGC-WH-GIA-037, WH-GIA-008, source title, page and URL; accessed September 8, 2026.
WH-GIA-009 · Sources & research leads · Source consulted September 2026
Supporting source: archive.org
Supporting source for the collection history and chronology.
External source; consult the original publication for its full context.
Credit: Original publisher or holding institution, linked at source. Cite SGC SGC-WH-GIA-037, WH-GIA-009, source title, page and URL; accessed September 8, 2026.
WH-GIA-010 · Sources & research leads · Source consulted September 2026
Supporting source: npgallery.nps.gov
Supporting source for the collection history and chronology.
External source; consult the original publication for its full context.
Credit: Original publisher or holding institution, linked at source. Cite SGC SGC-WH-GIA-037, WH-GIA-010, source title, page and URL; accessed September 8, 2026.
