History of Darien, Connecticut

The history of Darien, Connecticut has been shaped by its location on the shore of Long Island Sound, where the main route from Boston to New York City, first by sailing ships and dirt roads, then by locomotives and highways, continually influenced the nature of the town and its continued development.

Colonial times

The Siwanoy, an Agonquian-speaking sachemdom (or subtribe) of the Wappinger tribe, originally occupied Darien and the surroundinng towns. The Siwanoy covered an area in much of the Bronx, Westchester County and the Connecticut "panhandle" as far east as Norwalk and part of Wilton.

Originally part of Stamford, Connecticut, this area became Middlesex Parish in 1737. Settlement had begun in the late 1600s when the first roads were cut "in the woods" with permission of the (then town of) Stamford.

Originally, settlers congregated in three areas: around "Noroton Cove" (now named "Holly Pond") in the southwest corner of town, settled in the 1680s; Gorham's Landing on Goodwives River in the south-central part of town; and at the head of the Five Mile River, where the town today borders Norwalk.

The Noroton Cove settlement early on included a sawmill built by a dam on the Noroton River (actually a large stream and now the Darien-Stamford border) just north of where Interstate 95 crosses over the river. A small shipyard was founded on the shore of Holly Pond near where the Darien YMCA is today. Nathaniel Pond, a local blacksmith, owned a home built in about 1696 in Saltbox style at the corner of what is now the Boston Post Road and Hollow Tree Ridge Road. It is now the oldest house in town.

In 1703 a school district was set up in Noroton at what is now the southwest corner of Nearwater Lane and the Boston Post Road. The Hindley School is now across the street from the site, which is owned by the Noroton Fire Department. Five years later Scofield's Mill (afterward called Gorham's Mill) was built on Goodwive's River.

In 1690, the Five Mile River settlement was started when John Reed and his son built a sawmill where today's Old Kings Highway crosses the river.

The church that later became known as the First Congregational Church held its first meeting on June 15, 1739. By 1744 a meetinghouse was built and the Reverend Moses Mather became the first minister.

Middlesex Parish in the American Revolution

Near the start of the American Revolution, General George Washington and 19,000 of his men marched from Boston to New York City, passing through Middlesex Parish. The main road then was the route that was named "Old Kings Highway" in the early Twenteith Century, although back then it was called the Country Road in Middlesex Parish. It becomes Flax Hill Road in Norwalk, another part of the route Washington's army followed.

During the American Revolution, Middlesex Parish was controlled by Patriots but frequently raided by local Tories who had fled to Lloyd's Neck on Long Island. They would row across the Sound on whaleboats to steal food and clothes for their families. The raids could be deadly, and on foggy or moonless nights Patriots had to keep especially wary.

They disrupted services at the meetinghouse on July 22, 1781, captured Dr. Mather and 26 other men, and transported them across the Sound. Dr. Mather with 26 of his parishioners suffered 5 months in foul British prisons in New York City before those who survived their confinement were exchanged and returned to their homes. Mather, then in his 60s, lived on to the ripe old age of 87.

Shortly after the raid at the meetinghouse, on the night of Aug. 2, 1781, another raid took place. Hoping to ambush the Tories, Patriots hid behind a stone wall at the southeast corner of Nearwater Lane and the Boston Post Road. But the Tories got wind of the impending ambush and snuck up themselves behind a wall on the opposite side. Gunfire ensued and when the smoke cleared several men were dead on both sides. The Tories were able to get to shore to row back across the sound in their whaleboats.

On July 4, 1778, the Rev. Mather's son, Joseph, along with his wife and daughter, moved into the home he had just built on the northwest corner of what is now Mansfield Road and Brookside Road. Since it was farther from the shore, the family thought they would be safe from Tory raiders, and Mrs. Mather encouraged friends and family to store valuables there for the duration of the war. That was a mistake.

One night in March 1781, Tories went up Brookside Road and robbed the place, forcing the Mathers to reveal where the cache was stashed. Legend has it that they even forced Mrs. Mather to cook supper for them. Several neighbors on Brookside Road had sent sons off to fight in the war -- for the British -- and that may have been how the Tories heard about the good pickings.

Early Nineteenth century

According to the Darien Historical Society, the name Darien was decided upon when the residents of the town could not agree on a name to replace Middlesex Parish, many families wanting it to be named after themselves. A sailor who had traveled to Darién, Panama, then part of Colombia, suggested the name Darien, which was eventually adopted by the people of the town.

Until the advent of the railroad in 1848, Darien remained a small, rural community of about 1,000 farmers, shoemakers, fishermen, and merchants engaged in coastal trading. By the 1790s, Holly Pond was no longer fully open to the Sound, but at Gorham's Landing, where Rings End Road meets the Goodwives River, small sailing vessels from New York, Eastern Connecticut and even the West Indies would pull up during high tide for trade with local merchants.

The area retained some businesses even into the Twenteith century, but none remain -- at least none remain there. Rings End Lumber, now a thriving company on West Avenue which has expanded to other locations in Connecticut, had its start at Gorham's Landing as the Rings End Lumber and Coal Company. A gradual increase in population occurred with the arrival of emigrants from Ireland and later from Italy.

In what is now the Hindley School playing fields, close to the Boston Post Road, a "Union Chapel" was created in the 1830s for religious groups other than the original Congregationalists. St. Luke's Episcopal Church (organized August 30, 1855) and the Darien Methodist Church (organized by the 1860s) grew out of meetings there. Across the street, the Noroton Presbyterian Church was organzied on November 4, 1863. Union Chapel was no longer around when Irish Roman Catholics founded St. John Church next door in 1888 (dedicated on December 15, 1889.

Talmage Hill Community Church, a tiny chapel located at the far northern end of town, was organized in 1870.

Late Nineteenth century

In 1864 during the Civil War, the first home for disabled veterans and soldier's orphans in the United States was built at Noroton Heights. It was named after its founder, Benjamin Fitch of Darien, who funded almost the entire project. After World War II the institution's services were transferred to a larger facility in Rocky Hill, Connecticut.

Until the 1870s, the center of Noroton, around where Noroton Avenue meets the Boston Post Road, was considered the commercial center of Darien and the area north of Interstate 95 that is now considered Noroton Heights was called "Noroton." The current center of town, where the railroad tracks cross the Boston Post Road, was called "Darien Depot." But when the Town Hall was established there, that area became "Darien" and "Noroton" was adopted by the old commercial center. The name "Noroton Heights" was used after a post office with that name was established there.

Following the war, Darien became a popular resort for prosperous New Yorkers who built summer homes in Tokeneke, Long Neck Point, and Noroton. A few daily commuters to New York City then were forerunners of the many who have settled here and changed Darien into a residential suburb of metropolitan New York.

Twenteith Century

St. Thomas More Roman Catholic Church was established on September 16, 1966. Originally the home of St. John's Parochial School, the property which became the new parish originally included the school, a rectory and a convent. A fund-raising campaign to construct a church building began in 1971, and the building was dedicated on October 27, 1973.

Ku Klux Klan in Darien

The Ku Klux Klan, which preached a doctrine of Protestant control of America and supression of blacks, Jews and Catholics, had a following in Connecticut and Darien in the 1920s. The A Darien resident, Harry Lutterman, was Grand Dragon in the state. The Connecticut Klan's popularity peaked in 1925 when it had a statewide membership of 15,000.

The nearby Stamford Republican Party used its Lincoln Republican Club as a front for all Klan activities in the area. During the 1924 election, one of the largest Klan meetings in the state took place in Stamford and was organzied by Lutterman. The Stamford Advocate (as The Advocate of Stamford was then known) published an advertisement signed by local Democrats (who relied on the Catholic vote) protesting the meeting. The Klan published an advertisement in response, noting the "un-American" names of some of those who signed the Democrats' statement.

By 1926, the Klan leadership in the state was divided, and it lost strength, although it continued to maintain small, local branches for years afterward in Darien, as well as in Bridgeport, Stamford, Greenwich and Norwalk.

Exclusivity and Racism

Darien used to be a sundown town - a town which forbade African Americans and Jews to remain overnight via unwritten rules. In 1948 a billboard reading "Gentiles Only" greeted visitors on Hollow Tree Road. Laura Z. Hobson's bestselling 1947 novel Gentleman's Agreement was set in Darien to highlight American anti-Semitism via an unwritten covenant that prohibited real estate sales to Jews in communities nationwide. Gregory Peck starred in the film version, directed by Elia Kazan, which won the Academy Award for best picture. Darien would earn the offensive nickname "Aryan Darien."

Its country clubs and other private clubs were arranged hierarchically to delineate further graduations of exclusion based on wealth, occupation, religion, ethnic group, and family ancestry.

As the twentieth century wore on, Darien became less homogeneous. Its private clubs and institutions opened to a wide array of religions and ethnicities, where socio-economic class and wealth were the defining characteristics of membership. Beginning the early 1980s, Darien High School and neighboring New Canaan High School took part in the A Better Chance (ABC), a program that sends minority teenagers to prep schools and affluent suburban high schools to prepare them to enter superior colleges. Darien housed and educated a select group of New York City girls, mostly from Harlem; New Canaan housed and educated their male counterparts.

Darien remains a town made up of primarily high-income citizens and a place of luxury.

Twenty-first century

The 189-unit "Avalon Darien" townhouse-style apartment complex opened in the summer of 2002 next to the train tracks on Hollow Tree Ridge Road.

For further reference

• "In Search of the Past: A self-Guided Tour of Darien" by Patricia Q. Wall, a 20-page booklet published by the Darien Historical Society in 1986
• Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism, by James Loewen, New Press, 2005

External links

• Darien Historical Society