Located on Connecticut's scenic Long Island Sound, New Haven is a thriving metropolitan center that makes it one of Connecticut's best cities for your home and family. New Haven had the first public tree planting program in America that gave New Haven its distinctive character nicknamed "The Elm City." Education, arts and culture, social activities, manufacturing, corporate enterprises, commerce, and world-class health care all flourish. New Haven is unique in the wealth of cultural amenities and high learning to residents, visitors and students from across the globe for its rich history of fine colleges and universities. Arriving in New Haven in 1716, Yale University established itself as an important academic and cultural influence. In addition to its unsurpassed undergraduate and graduate programs, Yale maintains the Peabody Museum, which features highly informative and entertaining anthropology and dinosaur exhibits. The outstanding natural history museum is the only museum in Connecticut that has fossil dinosaur material on permanent display. The Pulitzer Award winning "The Age of Reptiles" mural depicts 300 million years of our planet's prehistoric animals. Explore the cultures and peoples of the world through exhibits on Ancient Egypt, Mesoamerica, the Andes, the American Great Plains and more. New Haven's also home to the renown Yale Center for the British Art. This museum boasts the most comprehensive collections of British art outside the UK, including paintings, drawings, sculpture, prints, and rare books that chronicle British life from the Elizabethan period to the present. The University is an integral part of the city's economy and is New Haven's largest employer. Few cities in the world have so many art exhibits at such a variety of colleges as New Haven. Additional art venues around New Haven include downtown's Shubert Theater, Albertus Magnus College, Southern Connecticut State University, and the University of New Haven and nearby Quinnipiac University, also offer fine art galleries, traveling art displays, science shows, enrichment and learning opportunities. Culture abounds on quite Audubon Street known as the Audubon Arts District where you will find a variety of galleries including Artspace, Small Space Gallery, performance spaces like the Arts Hall, and arts organizations and art schools. The city green is one of Connecticut's oldest established in 1638, and is surrounded by stunning 17th century churches. It is acclaimed as one of the most beautiful in New England. Trinity Church standing on the northwest corner of the historic green was founded in 1752 and has been a tourist attraction from its opening. Trinity is an exceptional example of medieval architecture. The beautiful Tiffany window in the Center Church depicts the Rev John Davenport leading the first service in the new colony of Connecticut. New Haven's Colony Historical Society has exhibits of fine art, everyday artifacts, furniture, genealogical records, and maritime displays. There are rotating exhibits drawn from the museum special collection, such as the Amistad Incident in which captured African slaves who went on trial in New Haven in 1839 after they mutinied and took control of their slave ship. This was the first human rights case ever to be argued in an American courts on behalf of Africans. The public school system in New Haven is rich with unique specialties and opportunities. New Haven has almost fifty public schools, including a wide variety of specialized academies, interdistrict magnet schools and charter schools. Private school opportunities are plentiful. The Connecticut Children's Museum showcases many different theme rooms, with one designed to resemble the always popular Goodnight Moon storybook. New Haven's active recreation department utilizes fully the city's 2,300 acres of beautiful parks. Long Island Sound offers a beautiful setting for swimming, fishing, boating, and peaceful harbor cruises - predominantly around the panoramic Long Wharf Drive and Lighthouse Point Park. Throughout the city exists fine restaurants and abundant shopping, including unique shops, specialty boutiques and major department stores. Since 2000, downtown has seen a dramatic increase in new restaurants, nightlife, and specialty retail stores. The area has experienced an influx of hundreds of new and renovated apartment units and condominiums, and a significant number of upscale restaurants and nightclubs have opened. Supplemental to the downtown offerings are suburban malls. New Haven's rich cultural and educational environment on the scenic Long Island Sound makes the "Elm City" one of Connecticut's best cities for your home and family.