List of mayors of New Haven, Connecticut

This is a list of the Mayors of New Haven, Connecticut.

Before 1826, the city's mayors did not have a fixed term of office; once elected, they held office indefinitely, at the pleasure of the Connecticut General Assembly. Beginning in 1826 the mayor and members of the Common Council were elected an annual town meeting and held office until the following year's town meeting. Since the 1870s, New Haven's mayors have been elected to two-year terms.^[1]

As of July 2012, the Mayor of New Haven earns an annual salary of $127,070.^[2]

Years served	Name	Party	Lived	Notes
1784–1793	Roger Sherman	Federalist	1721–1793	Signer of the Declaration of Independence. Later became a U.S. Senator.
1793–1803	Samuel Bishop	Democrat-Republican		Also probate judge
1803–1822	Elizur Goodrich	Federalist	1761–1849	Professor of law. Also served as a U.S. Congressman. New Haven's longest-serving mayor (19 years).
1822–1826	George Hoadley	Democrat-Republican/Jacksonian Democrat	1781–1857	Bank president. Later became Mayor of Cleveland (1846–1847).
1826–1827	Simeon Baldwin	Federalist	1761–1851	Judge. Was previously a U.S. Congressman.
1827–1828	William Bristol	Democrat-Republican	1779–1836	Also State Senator
1828–1830	David Daggett	Federalist	1764–1851	Also U.S. Senator; CT House Speaker; Chief Justice of the CT Supreme Court
1830–1831	Ralph Ingersoll	Democrat		Also U.S. Congressman
1831–1832	Dennis Kimberly	Democrat	1790–1862	Lawyer. Also major general and member of Connecticut General Assembly. Was elected mayor again in 1833, but declined the office. Was chosen U.S. Senator in 1838.[3]
1832–1833	Ebenezer Seeley	Democrat
1833–1834	Noyes Darling	Whig		Judge
1834–1839	Henry Collins Flagg	Whig		Lawyer, editor
1839–1842	S. J. Hitchcock	Whig		Lawyer, law teacher
1842–1846	Philip S. Galpin	Whig		Businessman (carpet manufacturing and insurance)
1846–1850	Henry E. Peck	Whig	1795–1867	Newspaper printer and publisher.
1850–1854	A. N. Skinner	Whig		Classical boarding school headmaster
1851	Ralph I. Ingersoll		1789–1872	[4]
1854–1855	Chauncey Jerome	Whig		Clock manufacturer
1855-1856	Alfred Blackman		[5]
1856–1860	Philip S. Galpin	Whig		Secretary of Mutual Security Insurance Company
1860–1863	Harmanus M. Welch	Democrat	1813–1889	Businessman who was founder and president of the New Haven Rolling Mill and president of the First National Bank.
1863-1865	Morris Tyler		[5]
1865-1866	Erastus C. Scranton		[5]
1866–1869	Lucien Wells Sperry		1820−1890	Carpenter and merchant; committed suicide after embezzling trust funds; died $50,000 in debt.
1869-1870	William Fitch		[5]
1870-1877	Henry G. Lewis		[5]
1877-1879	William R. Shelton		[5]
1879-1881	Hobart B. Bigelow		1834–1891	Businessman, founder of the Bigelow Manufacturing Co.
1881-1883	John B. Robertson		[5]
1883-1885	Henry G. Lewis		[5]
1885-1887	George F. Holcomb		[5]
1887–1888	Samuel A. York
1889–1890	Henry F. Peck
1891–1894	Joseph B. Sargent	Democrat	1822–1907	Served three terms. Founder of Sargent & Co.
1895–1896	Albert C. Hendrick
1897–1899	Frederick B. Farnsworth		1851-1930	Interred in Grove Street Cemetery, New Haven
1899–1901	Cornelius T. Driscoll		About 1845–1931
1905	John Payne Studley	Republican	1846–1931	Interred in Evergreen Cemetery, New Haven, CT
1910–1917	Frank J. Rice	Republican	1869–1917	Elected to four terms. Died in office.
1917	Samuel Campner
1918–1922	David E. FitzGerald
1928	John B. Tower
1929–1931	Thomas A. Tully
1932–1935	John W. Murphy	Democrat		Labor leader
1940–1941	John W. Murphy	Democrat
1945–1953	William C. Celentano	Republican	1904-1972	Served eight years. First Italian-American mayor of New Haven, funeral director.
1954–1970	Richard C. Lee	Democrat	1916–2003	Served eight terms. Was New Haven's youngest mayor.
1970–1975	Bartholomew F. Guida	Democrat	1914–1978
1976–1979	Frank Logue	Democrat	1924–2010	Served two two-year terms as the city’s chief executive. He won the office in the 1975 election, defeating incumbent Democratic Mayor Bart Guida in a party primary.
1980–1989	Biagio DiLieto	Democrat	1922–1999	Served five terms. Former police chief.
1990–1993	John C. Daniels	Democrat	1936–2015	First black mayor of New Haven.
1994–2013	John DeStefano, Jr.	Democrat	born 1955	New Haven's longest serving mayor.
2014–present	Toni Harp	Democrat	born 1949	First woman elected mayor of New Haven.

References

• Robert A. Dahl (1961), Who Governs?: Democracy and Power in an American City. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-00051-0, ISBN 978-0-300-00051-1. Table 2.1, The Mayors of New Haven, 1784-1960 (pages 12–14).

Notes

1. Robert A. Dahl (1961), Who Governs?: Democracy and Power in an American City. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-00051-0, ISBN 978-0-300-00051-1. Page 12.
2. "Finch, mayor of biggest city, doesn't earn biggest salary". ctnews.com. 30 August 2012. Retrieved 16 December 2012.
3. Dennis Kimberly, Memorials of Connecticut Judges and Attorneys as printed in the Connecticut Reports volume 30, page(s) 605-607. Connecticut State Library website, accessed August 3, 2010.
4. Not in Dahl's list for this date. This date comes from United States Congress. "INGERSOLL, Ralph Isaacs, (1789 - 1872) (id: I000020)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
5. New Haven (Conn.) (1885). City Year Book for the City of New Haven ...: Containing Lists of the Officers of the City Government; Address of His Honor the Mayor; Annual Reports of City Departments and Other Public Documents ... p. 380.