Bridgeport
Zip Codes: 06604, 06605, 06606, 06608, 06610

The town of Bridgeport is at the mouth of the Pequonnock River, covers 17.5 square miles and is home to over 141,980 residents. Bridgeport was first settled in 1665. The town was incorporated in 1821 from Stratford and Fairfield; the city was chartered in 1836, and the two were immediately consolidated. Connecticut’s largest city is, in many ways, a small town with a sense of community, neighborhood spirit, and traditional values. The median age was 32 and the median household income was just over $37,000. The median housing cost was $159,700.

Bridgeport was first settled in 1665. The town was incorporated in 1821 from Stratford and Fairfield; the city was chartered in 1836, and the two were immediately consolidated. Connecticut’s largest city is, in many ways, a small town with a sense of community, neighborhood spirit, and traditional values. In recent years, Bridgeport has undergone a revitalization and is now home to the Bridgeport Bluefish, the University of Bridgeport and the headquarters of People’s Bank.

Danbury
The Town of Danbury, population 66,420 covering 44.0 sq. miles is located along the New York border. It was founded in 1684 by “Eight Families” who walked to the area from Norwalk and purchased land from the Indians. First surveyed in 1693, the town, including what was then Bethel parish, was in 1784 made a halfshire of Fairfield County. In 1889 Danbury was chartered as a city with its present borders.

Fairfield
Fairfield is a town of approximately 58,000 residents and is located on the coast of Long Island Sound between the cities of Bridgeport and Stamford. The town was settled in 1639 and covers an area of 30.6 square miles. Its population is extremely diverse, reflecting the different geographic and ethnic backgrounds of its people. There were 20,856 households in Fairfield in 2004 with a median age of 39 and a median household income of nearly $91,000. The median home sale price (2003) was $416,150.

Greenwich
The town of Greenwich forms the southwest corner of the state, covers an area of 48 square miles and is home to some 60,000 residents. Geographically blessed, Greenwich extends over 50 square miles — from the rolling hills, woods and meadows of backcountry, dotted with lakes and wetlands, to its 32 miles of shoreline, coves and tributaries on the Long Island Sound. The town was first settled in 1640 when the land was purchased from Indians. Considered a Connecticut plantation in 1662, the town was incorporated in 1665. Greenwich enjoys the benefits of solid affluence: high median incomes, virtually no unemployment, and a consistent rating as one of the safest cities in the country. These assets have made it an attractive address for many corporate relocation’s, and US Tobacco, American Can, Cheseborough-Ponds, and many other national firms have executive offices here.

Greenwich History
In 1640 settlers from the New Haven Colony purchased land from the Siwanoy Indians in the area now known as Old Greenwich. Shortly thereafter the English joined the Dutch in a dispute with the Siwanoys which resulted in their massacre. After the disappearance of most of the Indians the industrious newcomers carved out larger and larger land holdings on which to raise potatoes, grain, and fruit. Settlements grew along the shore from Stamford on the east to the Byram River on the west and north to the border with New York State. By 1730 the 50 square miles which comprise present day Greenwich were laid out. For its first 200 years the acquisition and cultivation of farm land was the major enterprise of residents, although grist mills signaled the beginnings of local industry and active shipping was conducted from the Mianus River. The relative calm of these years was broken by the Revolutionary War. Greenwich was a garrison Town which experienced occupation by both British and American armies as well as raids from irregulars. The seven-year long war was fought on the roads and farms of Greenwich destroying homes, crops, and human lives.

The coming of the railroad in 1848 marked a significant improvement in transportation and brought increasing numbers of new residents to Greenwich. The Irish came to work on the railroad and settled close to Greenwich Avenue, the Town center. In an adjacent neighborhood called Chickahominy, Italian stonemasons congregated to be near the Byram quarries. Other Italians settled further east in North Mianus where they worked in the Mianus Woolen Mill. The Germans went to Byram, then know as East Port Chester, and found work in the Abendroth Foundry. Glenville, on the Byram River, attracted Poles who worked in the felt mill and Russell Burdsall & Ward, manufacturers of nuts and bolts. Each of these areas developed as distinct neighborhoods which have continued to be home to second and third generation descendants.

Greenwich also developed as a resort catering to New Yorkers wishing to escape the noxious city for the summer. Along the shore, hotels were erected to house, feed, and entertain these visitors. Many decided to build homes in Greenwich, creating such areas as Belle Haven, Field Point Park, Byram Shore and Rock Ridge. People with easily recognizable names – Benedict, Bruce, Converse, Gimble, Havemeyer, Mallory, Milbank , Rockefeller, and Teagle – amassed large land holdings upon which to build the estates for which Greenwich is famous. These families became great benefactors to the new community.

The 20th century burst upon Greenwich with yet another improvement in transportation. The trolley from Rye to Stamford connected Greenwich from west to east with a convenient, in-Town service. The automobile then took precedence after the First World War. In 1938 the Merritt Parkway cut through the northern section of Greenwich, followed in 1957 by I-95 on the south. Once again new arrivals swelled the population of Greenwich. This time the newcomers were the employees of corporations leaving New York City for suburban headquarters. While the beginning of the century saw the creation of great landed estates, the post World War II period witnessed their dissolution into smaller building lots which accommodated the new residents. Growth and development brought about the reorganization of Town government, the consolidation of the school system, and the establishment of a network of independent, non-profit organizations which supply the Town with its social services and cultural institutions. The second half of the century saw a growing concern in Greenwich for protecting its heritage, resulting in the creation of two local historic districts, twenty-three buildings and areas listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the acquisition of undeveloped land as park and conservation areas. Greenwich is a special place to its residents who work hard as volunteers in its behalf.

Living In Greenwich
Mention Greenwich, Connecticut, anywhere and chances are people will have heard of it. Greenwich is home to artists and writers, actors and sports figures, top-to-middle corporate executives and leaders in the world of finance. In 1990 the town celebrated its 350th anniversary. The history of our country’s development since pre-Revolutionary days is reflected in the lives of generations of vital and interesting Greenwich residents, who continue to be the town’s greatest asset.

Town residents enjoy nearly 1500 acres of park land. They include a large Audubon Center, two islands on the Sound with beaches served by town ferries, and Greenwich Point, with a beach, boating and picnic facilities and woodland walks. The town also owns and operates an 18-hole golf course, dozens of paddle and tennis courts, a skating rink and marinas. There are four private yacht clubs, eight golf clubs and a tennis and a squash racquet club.

Taxes
Property taxes in Greenwich are based on assessments statutorily limited to 70 percent of property market value. The current mill rate of 10.43 establishes residential taxes at a lower level than most Westchester and Fairfield County towns, yet Greenwich provides an unusual number of quality services to its residents. This is made possible by the town’s conservative fiscal policy and a tradition of volunteerism that has been cited as an example for communities across the country.

Norwalk
The town of Norwalk covers 27.7 square miles and is home to some 80,000 residents. Norwalk was originally settled in 1649 and was declared a town by the Connecticut Colony in 1651. It and South Norwalk were consolidated as the City of Norwalk in 1913. Today the town’s flourishing economy is only about 1/3 manufacturing. It has become an increasingly residential due to the commuter railroads and influx of corporate offices and research facilities. The quality of life is especially enhanced by the harbor, which has evolved into one of New England’s largest recreational marinas.

The rehabilitation of this city’s once notorious South Norwalk neighborhood consisting of several blocks of 19th-century row houses is transforming the waterfront into a trendy precinct that has come to be called, inevitably, “SoNo.” The Norwalk Seaport Oyster Festival, held in early September, attracts over 90,000 visitors to its tall ships and oyster boats, crafts show, and food court. The district, bounded roughly by Washington, Water, and North and South Main streets, is readily accessible from the South Norwalk railroad station.

Ridgefield
No town in Connecticut has a more imposing main street. Ridgefield’s is 132 feet wide, lined with ancient elms, maples, and oaks, and bordered by massive 19th-century houses in largely Classical Revival and Late Victorian styles. Impressive at any time of the year, it is in its glory during the brief blaze of the October foliage season. Only a little over an hour from New York City, 58 miles northeast, the town’s population of 24,000 is a true evocation of the New England character.

Shelton
The town of Shelton, population 35,760 covering 31.4 sq. miles is located on the Housatonic River. It was first settled before 1700 by residents of Stratford. In 1717 the General Assembly granted parish privileges to “the northern parts of the town of Stratford,” and the ecclesiastical society subsequently formed was given the name Ripton. The parish was incorporated from Stratford as the town of Huntington in 1789. The co-extensive city of Shelton was chartered in 1915. The name of the town was changed to that of the city in 1919. Like its neighbor across the River, Derby, Shelton began its considerably industrial growth only after the completion of the Housatonic Dam in 1870. Shelton’s population growth had been consistent and considerable since the 1950’s. The town’s traditional products, such as wire goods, tacks, and tools remain the foundation of its industrial sector. There are several recreational facilities along the river constructed by the power companies as part of the dam development.

Stamford
The town of Stamford in the lower neck of the state, stretches from a border to the north with New York State to the Long Island Sound on the south, covers an area of 38.5 square miles and is home to some 109,910 residents. The town was first settled in 1641 and named in 1642. The town was accepted by the Hartford government as a plantation 1662. The city was chartered by the state of Connecticut in 1893.

A trickle of corporations started moving their headquarters from New York 38 miles northeast to Stamford in the 1960s. That flow became a steady stream by the 1980s, and more than a dozen Fortune 500 companies continue to direct their operations from here. They have erected shiny mid-rise towers that give the city of 117,000 residents an appearance more like the new urban centers of the Sun Belt than those of the Snow Belt. Stamford is home to several Fortune 500 companies, such as Conoco, Xerox, Continental Group and Champion International. In addition, it is a popular residential community with many commuting to employment in the nearby New York metropolitan area. One result is a lively downtown that other cities surely envy. Roughly contained by Greylock Place, Tresser Boulevard, and Atlantic and Main streets, it has two theaters, tree-lined streets with many shops and a large mall, pocket parks and plazas, and a number of stylish restaurants, sidewalk cafes, and nightclubs.

History
In 1930, the population of Stamford was 56,000 people, a jump of 42 percent in just 10 years. The industrial work force numbered 10,000 men and women, nearly one fifth of the population. They worked in 118 industrial establishments, and manufactured products valued at 40 million dollars annually. But the decade of the thirties was not one of growth, and by 1934 the number of industrial firms had dropped by one third, and the value of manufactured goods was down to 20 million dollars per year.

A good indication of the state of the economy is the value of building permits. During the boom year of 1929, over $5 million worth of building permits were issued. In 1934 that number had dropped to $500,000.

The decade of the thirties was one of many rises and falls. The Peoples National Bank was the only bank in town to fail, its assets and liabilities were taken over in 1933 by the First National Bank and Trust Company with no loss to depositors.

Stamford lost some old firms like Lyman Hoyt and Sons Furniture Company and Stollwerck Chocolate Company, but also gained a few. Borden Farms Products and Schavoir Rubber Company were able to lease empty factory buildings at bargain prices. In the worst year of the Depression, 1934, Machlett Laboratories bought a factory in Springdale. Globe Slicing Machine and Clairol came to town, as did American Cyanamid Corporation, opening a research laboratory on West Main Street. Pitney Bowes and the Schick Dry Shaver Company expanded in Stamford. By the way, Colonel Jacob Schick manufactured pencil sharpeners before he invented the electric shaver. While no one noticed at the time, with hindsight one can see a pattern emerging. The foundry industries were being replaced in Stamford, and the work force had to start using brain rather than brawn.

It was the thirties, it was the time of the great Depression, the new industries could not absorb the number of unemployed, tax revenues were declining, and the Town Board of Finance had to cut the school budget by $200,000 in 1932. 92 teachers lost their jobs. They challenged the Board of Finance over the budget cuts and lost.

People were out of work, children were starving, and there was not a social service safety net. It was the City of Stamford working closely with groups like the Family Welfare Service, Salvation Army, Catholic Welfare Bureau, and other affiliates of the religious community, that had the responsibility for providing for the needy. The cases were pathetic, but it wasn’t long before welfare expenditure entered the political arena. By the time of the New Deal, 17% of Stamford’s population was receiving municipal funds. More money was spent for welfare than on education.

Stamford had a new charter, approved by the State legislature in 1933. It provided for a full time salaried mayor, a seven member City Council, and a six member Board of Finance. On January 1st 1935, Democrat Alfred N Phillips Jr. took office as Stamford’s first strong mayor. He promised to make Stamford a happier and more prosperous place in which to live and to see that suffering in Stamford is abolished. He was energetic and resourceful and a New Deal democrat, and managed to get large federal works projects for the city, while increasing citizen participation in government.

The new charter came under fire almost immediately, critics contending that the strong mayor had too much power. But it was the dual structure of government that drew the most criticism. Separating town and city for some functions and not for others was an outmoded and inefficient way to govern a modern industrial city. In 1937, the Connecticut legislature passed a resolution calling for a commission to study the consolidation of town and city governments. Action was postponed by the start of World War II. In June of 1941 Stamford celebrated it’s 300th anniversary. Between 1848 and 1941 Stamford had transformed itself. 93 years.

The Charter Consolidation Inquiry Commission, formed by the state legislature before the war, reported back in 1946. They recommended a single government for town and city. The whole country area of Stamford was against it. Even Town First Selectman Barrett, who became the consolidated city’s first mayor, was against it. That’s why Stamford has a 40 member board of representatives, 2 members from each district. At the time, the rural sections had only six districts and they would have been overwhelmed by the city. The city was Democratic and it was presumed that the rural districts would be Republican.

Voters approved the Consolidated Charter in November 1947 and it took effect on April 15, 1949, ending separation of the 56 year old city and the 308 year old town governments.

The Charter Commission intentionally divided responsibility among mayor, Board of Representatives, and Board of Finance. The critics of the charter revision called Stamford’s government one with few powers and many checks, pointing out that the mayor lacked clearly defined administrative power and had many limitations on his authority. No single individual was responsible for the overall operation of government. The system however provided citizens with many opportunities to serve on boards and commissions.

It was Thomas Quigley, who served three terms as mayor, who tested the powers of the mayor to fix the tax rates under the charter by filing lawsuits against both the Board of Finance and the Board of Representatives. He lost both suits. In 1951 it was the Board of Representatives who created a five member Urban Redevelopment Commission and in 1953 adopted the city’s first Master Plan, an inevitable response to the changes in the city that Herbert Swan had predicted back in 1929.

The war years had a profound effect on Stamford industry and it was during those years that the seeds of change were sown Stamford shifted to war production just as 9500 men and women left Stamford to serve in the armed forces. Electric Specialty Company, Stamford Rolling Mills, Yale and Towne, Pitney Bowes, Machlett Laboratories and Norma Hoffman Bearings shifted to war production.

By 1944, as the end of the war approached, business and civic leaders organized the Stamford Postwar Planning Council. They discussed employment of returning veterans, absorption of displaced war workers, and orderly reconversion of local industries to peacetime production. Stamford’s postwar plan, received national recognition and served as a model for other Connecticut cities. What the plan did not anticipate was the labor unrest that erupted in 1945.

Union and management at Yale and Towne could not agree on two union demands, the closed shop and substantial wage increases. 2500 of the 3500 workers at Yale and Towne in Stamford walked out. They shut down the plant, and pickets barred company officials from entering the buildings. The strike lasted 21 weeks. While changes were inevitable, it was the Yale and Towne strike that became the defining moment of that change.

Westport
The town of Westport, population 24,610 covering 22.4 sq. miles is located on the shore of the Long Island Sound. Originally known as Saugatuck after its river, it was incorporated under its present name in 1835 on land from Fairfield, Norwalk and Weston. The early development of the town was based on use of the river. The port prospered because it became the main commercial route for the entire region’s manufacturing and farm products. The shipping trade reached its height in the year the town was incorporated, but afterwards it began to decline because of the competition from the railroads. Then mills and factories were built, and local cotton factories did particularly well. In the early 20th century New York City writers, musicians and especially artists began to flock to Westport. Today the town is an affluent suburb of New York that continues to be artistically and culturally inclined.

After World War II, the housing crunch had young couples scouring the metropolitan area for affordable housing along the three main routes of what is now known as the Metro North transit system. Some of them wound up in this pretty village beside the Saugatuck River, several miles inland from Long Island Sound (47 miles northeast of New York City, 29 miles southwest of New Haven). Most of the new commuter class found Westport to be too far away from Manhattan (1-1 1/2 hr. each way on the train), and it was deemed the archetype of the far-out bedroom communities that were dubbed the “exurbs” — beyond suburban.

Notable for its large contingent of people in the creative crafts, primarily commercial artists, advertising copywriters, art directors, and their fellows, the town was also appealing to CEOs and higherlevel executives, many of whom solved their commuting problem by moving their offices to nearby Stamford. The result is a bustling community with surviving elements of its rural New England past wrapped in a sheen of Big Apple panache.