Toni Nathaniel Harp sworn in as first female Mayor of New Haven

Toni Nathaniel Harp (r), was sworn in as New Haven’€™s first female mayor as her daughter Djana (l), holds onto the bible while her son Matthew (c), looks on. PHOTO/John Woike/Hartford Courant

Toni Nathaniel Harp was sworn as the 50th and first female mayor of New Haven, CT., on Wednesday.

It was standing-room only for a crowd that packed the auditorium and spilled over into a separate room at Career High School, a facility designed by her late husband, Wendell Harp.

Mayor Harp, 66, shared the stage with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and the rest of the statewide elected officers, both U.S. senators and U.S. Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro.

The oath of office was administered by her old friend Lubbie Harper Jr., who began his career as a teacher and then a school administrator in New Haven, before becoming a lawyer and advancing to the Connecticut Supreme Court, from which he recently retired. The new mayor’s grown children — Jamil, Matthew and Djana Harp — held the Bible as she was sworn in.

Mayor Harp has served in various public offices – she served as a state senator in Connecticut from 1993 to 2013 and a New Haven Alderman.

Read more: New Haven Register