At the very beginning of this land’s history, this plot stood at the edge of Pangea, where the glaciers eventually ended their slow crawl. More recently, it marked the path Native Americans traced from the shore of Long Island Sound to places further inland. It eventually became the setting of one of the first streets defined by colonists in our region, a place we now refer to as Savin Avenue.

In this area, the favorable topography and soil—mostly shale and schist—made quarrying profitable. Charles Graham, whose ancestry included such land titles as dukedom, marquisate, and earldom, owned this land and and the plots surrounding it during the 1800s. In a storied career, Mr. Graham owned many companies and became a State Senator, which explains why a nearby street, Graham Manor Road, bears his name.

Mr. John Sherman, a mason who appreciated the value of a quarry, purchased the land from Graham. It’s safe to say that during the late 1800s and early 1900s, the site literally became the foundation of many new houses throughout town. By the late 1920s, the site was no longer quarried and began to change hands. Much of the area returned to nature, edged with a handful of homes. For the rest of the century, trees grew, small streams and vernal pools appeared, animals returned and neighboring children frequented the bedrock outcrops for perfect climbing. The area offered hilly drops to slide down and a small forest for imagination and escape, taking on the name of “the old quarry.”

When the land went up for sale by an owner in 2001, the lot was deeply forested, parts were used for illegal dumping, and continued negligence invited litter and other issues and concerns. The land was marked for development but—in a fortunate turn—the land itself was not immediately conducive to building. Seeing this rare and important opportunity, neighbors and the citizens of West Haven quickly mobilized: over 60 neighbors and 500 residents signed petitions to save the land. They attended city meetings and were vocal and persistent. The site held not only building constraints but historical and sentimental value, adding to the local rallying cry to protect open space.

The effort to protect 410 Savin Avenue helped spearhead West Haven’s Conservation and Open Space Land Commission. It motivated others to request open space for their own neighborhoods. In 2001, the land was purchased by the City of West Haven as open space and subsequently, the City granted the Land Trust an easement for 410 Savin Avenue.

Parts of the land had been left as rocky rubble from previous development, leaving room for invasive species to take over small but important sections of the property where native species would otherwise thrive. The DEP, USDA, and The Nature Conservancy have surveyed the property and offered guidance to rejuvenate the ecosystem. The site has also risen to the status of a registered archeology site for the State of Connecticut.

410 Savin Avenue is now officially named Natura Rise under an apt motto: “May nature rise again on this land that has been important in many ways to this City.” There are hopes that it will become an educational site, particularly for demonstrating natural methods to eliminate invasive plants and replace them with native species.

For now, this important landscape provides is a respite for migrating birds. Deer, wild turkey, and other local neighbors can be seen roaming freely from this property to nearby open spaces. 410 Savin Avenue is a testament to how nature and people can work together to allow some land—no matter how small—to serve the important purpose of shared open space.