List of mayors of New Haven, Connecticut Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids Mayor of New Haven, Connecticut
Incumbent Justin Elicker since 2020
Formation	1784
First holder	Roger Sherman
Salary	$134,013

This is a list of the mayors of New Haven, Connecticut. A mayor is the main leader of a city, similar to how a principal leads a school. They help make important decisions for the community.

For a long time, before 1826, mayors in New Haven didn't have a set time limit for how long they could serve. They stayed in office as long as the state government, called the Connecticut General Assembly, wanted them to. Starting in 1826, the mayor and other city leaders were chosen every year at a town meeting. They held their jobs until the next year's meeting. Since the 1870s, New Haven's mayors have been elected for two-year terms.

As of July 2025, the Mayor of New Haven earns about $134,013 each year.

Past Mayors of New Haven

Years served	Name	Party	Lived	Notes
1784–1793	Roger Sherman	Federalist	1721–1793	He was one of the people who signed the Declaration of Independence. Later, he became a U.S. Senator.
1793–1803	Samuel Bishop	Democratic-Republican	1723–1803	He also worked as a probate judge.
1803–1822	Elizur Goodrich	Federalist	1761–1849	He was a law professor and also served as a U.S. Congressman.
1822–1826	George Hoadley	Democratic-Republican	1781–1857	He was a bank president. Later, he became Mayor of Cleveland from 1846 to 1847.
1826–1827	Simeon Baldwin	Federalist	1761–1851	He was a judge and had previously been a U.S. Congressman.
1827–1828	William Bristol	Democratic-Republican	1779–1836	He also served as a State Senator.
1828–1830	David Daggett	Federalist	1764–1851	He was a U.S. Senator, Speaker of the CT House, and Chief Justice of the CT Supreme Court.
1830–1831	Ralph Ingersoll	Democrat	1789-1872	He also served as a U.S. Congressman.
1831–1832	Dennis Kimberly	Democrat	1790–1862	He was a lawyer and a major general. He was elected mayor again in 1833 but chose not to serve. He was also chosen as a U.S. Senator in 1838.
1832–1833	Ebenezer Seeley	Democrat	1793–1866
1833–1834	Noyes Darling	Whig	1782–1846	He was a judge. (Dennis Kimberly was elected for this term but declined to serve.)
1834–1839	Henry Collins Flagg	Whig	1792–1863	He was a lawyer and an editor.
1839–1842	Samuel Johnson Hitchcock	Whig	1786–1845	He was a lawyer and president of Yale Law School.
1842–1845	Philip S. Galpin	Whig	1796–1872	He was a businessman involved in carpet manufacturing and insurance.
1846–1850	Henry E. Peck	Whig	1795–1867	He was a newspaper printer and publisher.
1850–1854	Aaron N. Skinner	Whig	1800–1858	He was a headmaster at a classical boarding school.
1854–1855	Chauncey Jerome	Whig	1793–1868	He was a clock manufacturer.
1855-1856	Alfred Blackman	Democrat	1807-1880
1856–1860	Philip S. Galpin	Whig	1796–1872	He was the secretary of Mutual Security Insurance Company.
1860–1863	Harmanus M. Welch	Democrat	1813–1889	He was a businessman who founded the New Haven Rolling Mill. He was also president of the First National Bank.
1863-1865	Morris Tyler	Republican	1806–1876
1865–1866	Erastus C. Scranton	Republican	1808–1866
1866–1869	Lucien Wells Sperry	Democrat	1820−1890	He was a carpenter and merchant.
1869-1870	William Fitch	Republican	1820-1877
1870-1877	Henry G. Lewis	Democrat	1820-1891
1877-1879	William R. Shelton	Democrat	1821-1892
1879-1881	Hobart B. Bigelow	Republican	1834–1891	He was a businessman and founder of the Bigelow Manufacturing Co.
1881-1883	John Brownlee Robertson	Democrat	1809-1892
1883-1885	Henry G. Lewis	Democrat	1820-1891
1885-1887	George F. Holcomb	Democrat
1887–1888	Samuel Amos York	Democrat	1839-1898
1889–1890	Henry Franklin Peck	Republican	1828-1911
1891–1894	Joseph B. Sargent	Democrat	1822–1907	He served three terms and founded Sargent & Co.
1895–1896	Albert C. Hendrick	Republican	1833-1912	He was a former chief of the New Haven Fire Department.
1897–1899	Frederick Benjamin Farnsworth	Republican	1851-1930	He oversaw the creation of a new city charter. This charter gave New Haven a single administrative structure. He is buried in Grove Street Cemetery.
1899–1901	Cornelius Thomas Driscoll	Democrat	1845–1931	Born in Ireland, he was New Haven's first mayor who was an immigrant.
1901-1909	John Payne Studley	Republican	1846–1931	He used the police to stop performances of a play called "... Warren's Profession". He is buried in Evergreen Cemetery.
1910–1917	Frank J. Rice	Republican	1869–1917	He was elected for four terms. He passed away while still in office.
1917	Samuel Campner	Republican	1887-1934	He was New Haven's first Jewish mayor.
1918–1926	David E. FitzGerald	Democrat	1874-1942
1926-1928	John B. Tower	Republican
1929–1931	Thomas A. Tully	Republican	1886-1950
1932–1944	John W. Murphy	Democrat	1878–1964	He was a labor leader.
1945–1953	William C. Celentano	Republican	1904-1972	He served for eight years. He was the first Italian-American mayor of New Haven and a funeral director.
1954–1970	Richard C. Lee	Democrat	1916–2003	He served eight terms and was New Haven's youngest mayor.
1970–1975	Bartholomew F. Guida	Democrat	1914–1978
1976–1979	Frank Logue	Democrat	1924–2010	He served two two-year terms as the city's chief executive. He won the office in the 1975 election.
1980–1989	Biagio "Ben" DiLieto	Democrat	1922–1999	He served five terms and was a former police chief.
1990–1993	John C. Daniels	Democrat	1936–2015	He was the first black mayor of New Haven.
1994–2013	John DeStefano, Jr.	Democrat	born 1955	He was New Haven's longest-serving mayor.
2014–2020	Toni Harp	Democrat	born 1949	She was the first woman elected mayor and the second African American mayor of New Haven.
2020–present	Justin Elicker	Democrat	born 1975

List of mayors of New Haven, Connecticut facts for kids

Past Mayors of New Haven

See also