the seal of the New Haven Chamber of Commerece
In April, 1945, forty New Haven businessmen met to discuss the merging of the New Haven Lions and New Haven Booster Clubs. It was proposed that the new organization be called the Chamber of Commerce.

In 1987 the New Haven Chamber of Commerce merged with the New Haven Development Corporation, which had been formed under the leadership of Helen Purvis and Erna Harper. The group became the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce and Development Corporation. The full legal name was New Haven Community Development Corporation, but most folks affectionately used the original Chamber of Commerce title.

According to Jayne Bailey, who served as executive secretary from 1985 through 2003, the membership list numbered 192 as of 1995. During that 50th Anniversary year, the officers were Gary Lake, president, Alice Castleman, vice president and P. Michael Staub, secretary-treasurer.


2003-2004 saw a major reogranization of the Chamber. The Board conducted a wide search and landed on Tom Fellrath, former Director of Public Policy for the St. Joseph County Chamber of Commerce as its first staff President/CEO.

Fellrath took office in April 2004 at which time the Chamber grew gby leaps and bounds from 128 to well over 250 members (nearing the all-time Chamber high of 280 members) - largely through a number of new initiatives:

  • Volunteer Chamber Ambassadors deliver Chamber member marketing packets to new residents and new members alike.
  • New member discount programs covering health insurance (through Physicians Health Plan) and office supplies and furniture (Office Depot) were created, and The Chamber launched the first-of-its-kind Employee Assistance Program through a partnership with New Haven native Bill Weber of William Weber & Associates.
  • The Chamber held a record-setting (in terms of attendance and revenue) golf outing and annual dinner in 2004, the dinner being keynoted by the voice of Fort Wayne Komets hockey on WOWO-AM, Bob Chase.
  • The Chamber's long-standing by-laws were overhauled, and the changes were approved at the Annual Dinner.
  • The Chamber moved its offices from the original City Hall (the "1913 building") to space owned by former Chamber president Dan Purvis in January 2005.
  • The current Executive Director of the Chamber is Vince Buchanan whose office is located at 501 Ann Street in New Haven.

    For more information, click on the website for the New Haven Chamber of Commerce

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    This document was last updated on
    August 22, 2005 by Computer CrackaJACKS™
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