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| | The Eli Whitney Museum, Eli Whitney: The Family |
 | | Instead of a handful of two-story houses clustered around the Green, the town center was dominated by commercial structures — some of them as tall as five stories — while residences, most of them wooden, were spread over dozens of city blocks. |
 | | More seriously, it became apparent that, should New Haven be struck with a major fire — such as that which struck Long Wharf in 1820, destroying 30 stores and warehouses, or the fire at Orange and Chapel Streets, which in 1837 destroyed twenty buildings - the city would be powerless to fight it. |
 | | Although serious-minded citizens had been concerned about the problem since the mid-1830s, it was not until 1849 that a group led by James Brewster, Henry Peck, E.G. Read, and H.H. Hotchkiss, succeeded in obtaining a corporate charter for the purpose of supplying the city with pure water. |
| www.eliwhitney.org /family.htm (2120 words) |
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