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158-644: Wilton is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut , United States. As of the 2020 census , the town population was 18,503. The town is part of the Western Connecticut Planning Region . Officially recognized as a parish in 1726, Wilton today is a residential community with open lands, historic architecture such as the Round House , and many colonial homes . Many residents commute to nearby cities such as Stamford or New York City . Wilton

316-401: A humid subtropical climate ( Cfa ) along Long Island Sound . The hardiness zone is 6b in the north and 7a within ten miles of the coast except for areas of Greenwich and Stamford along the coast which are 7b. [1] See or edit raw graph data . As of the census of 2000, there were 882,567 people, 324,232 households, and 228,259 families residing in the county. The population density

474-536: A British raid on Greenwich on February 26, 1779 General Israel Putnam , who had stayed at Knapp's Tavern the previous night, rode away on his horse to warn the people of Stamford. Putnam was shot at by the British raiders but was able to escape. The hat he was wearing with a musket ball hole in it is on display at Knapp's Tavern in Greenwich (which is commonly, albeit somewhat erroneously, called Putnam's cottage ). In

632-712: A CDP which is coextensive with the entire town. CDPs are only recognized within towns, not cities. Because the primary role of CDPs is to establish "place" data for communities located in unincorporated areas, a CDP cannot be within an incorporated place. Since the Census Bureau recognizes New England cities as incorporated places, a CDP cannot be within a city. Data users from outside New England should be aware that New Englanders usually think in terms of entire towns (i.e., MCD data), making CDP data of marginal local interest. Since virtually all territory in New England outside of Maine

790-455: A borough or city can span more than one town. In practice, though, most cities in Connecticut today do not function any differently from their counterparts elsewhere in New England. See the section below on boroughs and villages for more background on this topic. There are far fewer cities in New England than there are towns, although cities are more common in heavily built-up areas, and most of

948-479: A borough, a city can cover only a portion of a town rather than being coextensive with the town. This is rare today—only one or two examples remain—but it was more common in the past. At least one borough historically spanned more than one town: the borough of Danielsonville originally laid over parts of Killingly and Brooklyn , until the Brooklyn portion petitioned to be reorganized as a fire district and concurrently

1106-521: A city, it is coextensive and consolidated with the Town of Hartford; governed by a single governmental entity with the powers and responsibilities of the Town being carried out by the entity referred to as the City of Hartford. In legal theory though not in current practice Connecticut cities and boroughs could be coextensive (covering the same geography as the town) without being consolidated (a single government); also

1264-533: A communal pasture area. The outer limit of this pasture approximates Wilton's present southern boundary. By the end of the 17th century, the Norwalk Proprietors began to sell off the northern lands for settlement. The first non-Indian settlements in what is now Wilton were in the fertile lands of the Norwalk River valley, and on the ridges of Belden Hill , Chestnut Hill, and Ridgefield Road. In order to till

1422-420: A fair number of unincorporated, named communities that lie within the incorporated territory of a municipality. Connecticut is one of two New England states to have any type of incorporated general-purpose municipality below the town level, namely incorporated boroughs (Vermont has incorporated villages). There are nine remaining in the state, with one, Naugatuck , having consolidated with the town. Additionally,

1580-406: A family was $ 100,593. Males had a median income of $ 70,187 versus $ 50,038 for females. The per capita income for the county was $ 48,295. About 5.6% of families and 8.0% of the population were below the poverty line , including 9.4% of those under age 18 and 6.4% of those age 65 or over. Data is from the 2010 United States Census and the 2006–2010 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. Data

1738-505: A family was $ 217,415. Males had a median income of $ 190,000 versus $ 71,611 for females. The per capita income for the town was $ 65,806. About 1.3% of families and 2.9% of the population were below the poverty line , including 1.7% of those under age 18 and 6.6% of those age 65 or over. The Wilton Parks and Recreation Department offers a number of programs for all ages including pre-school programs, senior programs youth soccer and basketball. There are also many walking paths including part of

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1896-452: A few cases in Maine where a township or gore does not border any other unorganized land, it is treated as its own MCD rather than being folded into a larger UT. In theory, a CDP could probably be defined within an MCD representing an unorganized area. Due to the extremely sparse population in most such areas, however, there are few if any cases in which the Census Bureau has actually done so. For

2054-487: A former governor of neighboring Massachusetts . In 2016, voters in Wilton delivered a 22-point margin of victory to Hillary Clinton , the best performance for a Democratic presidential nominee in the town since Johnson in 1964. In 2019 and 2021, Republicans won the majority of local offices. In 2020, the town gave a 33-point margin to Joe Biden . Wilton is a part of the 26th Senate District . Represented by Ceci Maher . Wilton

2212-490: A historical example in New Hampshire, see Plantation number four . Most areas of New England never developed municipal forms based on the compact populated place concept. This contrasts with states with civil townships, which typically have extensive networks of villages or boroughs that carve out or overlay the townships. Two of the New England states do have general-purpose municipalities of this type, however, to at least

2370-470: A limited extent. Connecticut has incorporated boroughs , and Vermont has incorporated villages . Such areas remain a part of their parent town, but assume some responsibilities for municipal services within their boundaries. In both states, they are typically regarded as less important than towns, and both seem to be in decline as institutions. In recent decades, many boroughs and villages have disincorporated, reverting to full town control. The term "village"

2528-474: A list of all New England towns and other town-level municipalities, see the following articles: Note: All population statistics are from the 2020 United States census . Connecticut contains 169 incorporated towns. Put into terms that are equivalent to the other New England states, 20 are cities/boroughs and 149 are towns. (As discussed in the Cities section of Other types of municipalities in New England above,

2686-638: A long trek each week. By 1725 there were forty families living in Wilton who wanted their own Congregational church and were allowed by Norwalk to hire a minister (Robert Sturgeon, who also became the town's first schoolmaster), open schools and build roads. Therefore, in 1726, with the approval of both the Proprietors and the Wilton settlers, a petition to the General Court in Hartford created Wilton Parish, "a village enjoying parish privileges" but still part of

2844-461: A normal-sized town, these areas were known by a variety of names, including gores , grants, locations, purchases, surpluses, and strips. Sometimes these areas were not included in any town due to survey errors (which is the technical meaning of the term "gore"). Sometimes they represent small areas that were left over when a particular region was carved into towns, not large enough to be a town on their own. Some appear to have simply been granted outside

3002-550: A part of a town — within Barnstable, the seven villages correspond to districts for fire, water, sewer and elementary schooling, for instance. (In Maine and New Hampshire, the term "village corporation" is used for a type of special-purpose district.) Many villages also are recognized as places by the United States Postal Service (some villages have their own post offices , with their names used in mailing addresses) or

3160-520: A particular municipality. All municipalities titled as cities are classified as incorporated places, even if their population-distribution pattern is no different from that of a typical town; towns are never classified as incorporated places, even if they are thoroughly built up. The ambiguity over whether certain municipalities in Massachusetts should be classified as cities or towns, and the Census Bureau's inconsistent handling of these municipalities (see

3318-606: A referendum proposal was passed to allow liquor stores. On September 11, 2001, four town residents died in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center : Edward T. Fergus Jr., 40; Peter Christian Fry, 36; John Iskyan, 41; and Edward P. York, 45. Wilton High School graduate John Henwood, 35, also died in the attack. According to the United States Census Bureau , the town has a total area of 27.4 square miles (71 km), of which 27.0 square miles (70 km)

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3476-447: A resource center. The language laboratory teaches six languages: French, German, Spanish, Latin, classical Greek, and American Sign Language. The elementary schools have class sizes typically ranging from 18 to 22 and a 19-to-1 student/teacher ratio. Middlebrook has interdisciplinary instruction teams in languages and science, mathematics, social studies, computers, art, and gifted student instruction. Class sizes range from 20 to 25 with

3634-413: A result, Maine has developed more of an infrastructure for administration of unincorporated and unorganized areas than the other New England states. The existence of this fallback probably explains why Maine has had significantly more towns disincorporated over the years than any other New England state. There have been numerous instances of towns in Maine disincorporating despite populations that numbered in

3792-513: A similar purpose to MCDs in other states in terms of governmental function or civic-identity importance. New England towns are classified as MCDs not because they are not "incorporated" but rather the data that the census gathers on places is analyzed based on different models (those of compact settled places and open rural places) that is not well represented by the New England Town system of organization. In order to better fit their own purposes,

3950-412: A single compact populated place. Plantations in Maine are similarly classified as MCDs. That New England towns serve, in essence, the same function as incorporated places in other states, but are not treated as incorporated places by the Census Bureau, can be a source of confusion. The Census classifications should not be understood to imply that New England towns are not incorporated, or necessarily serve

4108-423: A somewhat different manner from that of the other New England states. In these areas, towns were often "chartered" long before any settlers moved into a particular area. This was very common in the mid to late 18th century—although there were towns which predated that period and were not part of this process in southeastern New Hampshire, such as Exeter . Once there were enough residents in a town to formally organize

4266-663: A student/teacher ratio of 13-to-1. There are four private schools in the town: The Wilton Bulletin is a weekly newspaper published by Hearst Connecticut Media and formerly published by Hersam Acorn Newspapers . GOOD Morning Wilton is an online daily news website. Virgin Mobile Live , a 24-hour online radio service licensed by Virgin Radio, is based in Wilton. There is also the weekly Wilton Villager newspaper. The town's main north-south roadways are U.S. Route 7 and Route 33 . State highways Route 53 and Route 106 also run through

4424-457: A total area of 837 square miles (2,170 km ), of which 625 square miles (1,620 km ) is land and 212 square miles (550 km ) (25.3%) is water. The terrain of the county trends from flat near the coast to hilly and higher near its northern extremity. The highest elevation is 1,290 feet (390 m) above sea level along the New York state line south of Branch Hill in the Town of Sherman;

4582-423: A town and a city have become blurred. Since the early 20th century, towns have been allowed to modify the town meeting form of government in various ways (e.g., representative town meeting , adding a town manager ). In recent decades, some towns have adopted what effectively amount to city forms of government, although they still refer to themselves as towns. As a practical matter, one municipality that calls itself

4740-719: A town and another that calls itself a city may have exactly the same governmental structure. With these changes in town government, a reluctance to adopt the title of city seems to have developed, and few towns have officially done so since the early 20th century. In Massachusetts, nine municipalities ( Agawam , Barnstable , Braintree , Franklin , Palmer , Randolph , Southbridge , West Springfield and Weymouth ) have adopted Mayor-Council or Council-Manager forms of government in their home rule charters, and are therefore considered to be legally cities, but nevertheless continue to call themselves "towns". They are sometimes referred to in legislation and other legal documents as "the city known as

4898-426: A town disincorporated or a plantation surrendered its organization). The remaining eight counties contain significant amounts of unincorporated/unorganized territory. Most of these areas are in very sparsely populated regions, however. Only about 1.3% of the state's population lives in areas not part of a town, city, or plantation. (Since the 2000 Census, two towns, Madrid and Centerville, have disincorporated. Thus, at

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5056-550: A town government, no further action was necessary to incorporate. This practice can lead to inconsistencies in the dates of incorporation for towns in this region. Dates given in reference sources sometimes reflect the date when the town was chartered, which may have been long before it was settled, and not the date when its town government became active. In other parts of New England, some "future towns" were laid out along these lines, but such areas would not be formally incorporated as towns until they were sufficiently settled to organize

5214-551: A town government. A typical town in the northern three states was laid out in a 6-by-6-mile (9.7 by 9.7 km) square. Each contained 36 sections, 1 mile (1.6 km) squares or 640 acres (260 ha). One section was reserved for the support of public schools. This was copied when the Continental Congress laid out Ohio in 1785–87. Many early towns covered very large amounts of land. Once areas had become settled, new towns were sometimes formed by breaking areas away from

5372-557: A town meeting as its legislative body; instead, a city's legislative body is an elected representative body, typically called the city council or town council or board of aldermen . City governments are typically administered by a mayor (and/or city manager ). In common speech, people often generically refer to communities of either type as "towns", drawing no distinction between the two. The presence of incorporated boroughs in Connecticut and incorporated villages in Vermont has influenced

5530-460: A unique type of entity called a plantation . Beneath the town level, Connecticut has incorporated boroughs , and Vermont has incorporated villages . In addition to towns, every New England state has incorporated cities. However, cities are treated in the same manner as towns under state law, differing from towns only in their form of government. Most cities are former towns that changed to a city form of government because they grew too large to have

5688-475: A very rudimentary organization that does not rise to the level of an organized general-purpose municipal government (e.g., a town clerk 's office exists for the purpose of conducting elections for state or federal offices). In general, unorganized areas fall into one of the three categories below. During the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, as town boundaries were being drawn up, small areas would sometimes be left over, not included in any town. Typically smaller than

5846-531: Is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Connecticut . It is the most populous county in the state and was also its fastest-growing from 2010 to 2020. As of the 2020 census , the county's population was 957,419, representing 26.6% of Connecticut's overall population. The closest to the center of the New York metropolitan area , the county contains four of the state's top 7 largest cities— Bridgeport (1st), Stamford (2nd), Norwalk (6th), and Danbury (7th)—whose combined population of 433,368

6004-588: Is also a part of the 42nd House District , currently represented by Keith B. Denning. Since 2015, Wilton has been led by First Selectwoman Lynne Vanderslice, a Republican serving her second four-year term. Her term expires on November 30, 2023. A total of about 3,750 students attend the town's four public schools: two elementary schools, Miller-Driscoll School (Grades Pre-K–2) and Cider Mill School (3–5); one middle school, Middlebrook School (6–8); and one high school, Wilton High School , which has accelerated classes for gifted students, music and visual arts courses, and

6162-424: Is from the 2007–2011 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, ACS Demographic and Housing Estimates, "Race alone or in combination with one or more other races." In the late 1960s and early 1970s, corporations began moving their headquarters to Fairfield County from Manhattan ; Thomas J. Lueck of The New York Times said that the trend "permanently decentralized big business in the New York region ." During

6320-415: Is home to many global corporations such as ASML , Breitling SA , Cannondale Bicycle Corporation , Melissa & Doug , and formerly Deloitte . It is also home to AIG Financial Products , whose collapse played a pivotal role in the financial crisis of 2007–2008 . The transformation from a small farming town to a suburban residential community has been carefully controlled by zoning, efforts to preserve

6478-411: Is incorporated, CDPs do not really serve the same purpose as they do elsewhere; CDPs in New England invariably represent territory that is not "unincorporated", but part of a larger incorporated town. The extent to which such an area has its own distinct identity can vary, but is not usually as strong as identification with the town as a whole. There are numerous instances where the Census Bureau recognizes

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6636-591: Is land and 0.4 square miles (1.0 km), or 1.50%, is water, including the South Norwalk Reservoir. Wilton is bordered by Ridgefield to the northwest, Norwalk to the south, New Canaan to the southwest, Westport to the southeast, and Weston and Redding to the northeast. It is also bordered on the west by the hamlet of Vista in Lewisboro , Westchester County , New York. Wilton has about 500 surviving 18th- and 19th-century homes. In 2005, Marilyn Gould,

6794-542: Is nearly half the county's total population. The United States Office of Management and Budget has designated Fairfield County as the Bridgeport–Stamford–Norwalk metropolitan statistical area . The United States Census Bureau ranked the metropolitan area as the 59th most populous metropolitan statistical area of the United States in 2019. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget has further designated

6952-433: Is no area that is outside the bounds of a municipality. Using usual American terminology, there is no "unincorporated" land in Massachusetts. Of the 351 municipalities, the number that are cities and the number that are towns is a matter of some ambiguity. Depending on which source is consulted, anywhere from 39 to 53 are cities. The ambiguity is the result of questions around the legal status of municipalities that have since

7110-499: Is one of the few states in the region that is an exception to this rule; the Massachusetts Constitution requires a town to have a population of at least 10,000 people before it can switch its government from a town meeting form to a city form. Nevertheless, even without a hard and fast population limit for city status, the practical threshold to become a city seems to be higher in the three southern New England states than in

7268-412: Is only a geographical point of reference. All municipal services are provided by the towns, who sometimes will share certain resources through regionalization. In order to address issues concerning more than one town, several regional agencies that help coordinate the towns for infrastructure, land use, and economic development concerns have been established. Within the geographical area of Fairfield County,

7426-532: Is residually polluted with Monsanto chemicals called Aroclor, polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs . From c.  1932 until 1977, the river received PCB pollution discharges from the General Electric plant at Pittsfield, Massachusetts . Refer to List of Mountains and Summits in Fairfield County, Connecticut . Fairfield County has a hot-summer humid continental climate ( Dfa ) which borders

7584-481: Is sometimes used in New England to describe a distinct, built-up place within a town or city. This may be a town center , which bears the same name as the town or city (almost every town has such a place), or a name related to that of the town, or a completely unrelated name. The town of Barnstable, Massachusetts , for example, includes the villages of Barnstable Village , West Barnstable , Centerville , Marstons Mills , Osterville , Cotuit , and Hyannis . Except for

7742-460: Is sufficiently populated to be covered by a town or a city. In colonial times, Massachusetts also used the term "plantation" for a community in a pre-town stage of development (Maine originally got the term from Massachusetts, as Maine was part of Massachusetts until 1820, when it became a state via the Missouri Compromise ). The term "plantation" had not been much used in Massachusetts since

7900-578: The Appalachian Trail runs through Fairfield County; the trail enters Connecticut in the northernmost and least populous town in the county, Sherman , and moves east into Litchfield County , which encompasses the majority of the Appalachian Trail in Connecticut. The section of the Taconic Mountains range that runs through Greenwich and North Stamford of Fairfield County is also the part of

8058-589: The Connecticut Gold Coast , Fairfield County, along with all other Connecticut counties, was abolished as a governmental agency in accord with state legislation that took effect October 1, 1960. The first enclosed shopping malls in Fairfield County were Trumbull Shopping Park (1963), in the bedroom community of Trumbull just outside Bridgeport, the now gone Lafayette Shopping Park (1965) in Bridgeport, replaced downtown blocks that were demolished as part of

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8216-601: The New Haven Line . New England town Towns date back to the time of the earliest English colonial settlement , which predominated in New England, and they pre-date the development of counties in the region. Areas were organized as towns as they were settled, throughout the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Town boundaries were not usually laid out on any kind of regular grid, but were drawn to reflect local settlement and transportation patterns, often affected by natural features. In early colonial times, recognition of towns

8374-428: The United States Census Bureau (which recognizes some villages as census-designated places and tabulates census data for them). Towns with an example of the former, such as Richmond, Rhode Island , do not have a post office themselves, but instead use villages in town or villages in nearby towns as a mailing address. This leads to a weaker town identification in such towns, with residents more strongly identifying with

8532-549: The United States Census Bureau does not classify New England towns as "incorporated places". They are instead classified as " minor civil divisions " (MCDs), the same category into which civil townships fall. The Census Bureau classifies New England towns in this manner because they are conceptually similar to civil townships from a geographic standpoint, typically exhibiting similar population-distribution patterns. Like civil townships, but unlike most incorporated municipalities in other states, New England towns do not usually represent

8690-518: The census of 2000, there were 17,633 people, 5,923 households, and 4,874 families residing in Wilton. The population density was 654.3 inhabitants per square mile (252.6/km). There were 6,113 housing units at an average density of 226.8 per square mile (87.6/km). The racial makeup of the town was 95.55% White , 0.60% African American , 0.09% Native American , 2.69% Asian , 0.01% Pacific Islander , 0.27% from other races , and 0.79% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.53% of

8848-733: The "Lock City", as the home of the Yale and Towne Lock Manufacturing Company . Bridgeport, nicknamed "Park City" had in 1930 over 500 factories within its borders. Bridgeport Machines, Inc. , a milling machine manufacturer, was founded in Bridgeport in 1938, as well as Hubbell Incorporated in the 1890s, these are two examples, various companies were headquartered in Bridgeport, such as Warnerco , ACME Shear , Westinghouse subsidiary Bryant Electric among others, and others such as Remington Arms , General Electric , Singer Sewing Machines , Sikorsky Aircraft , Carpenter Steel , and countless others, had large scale manufacturing complexes there. Most of

9006-446: The 1840s, and for many years prior to the 1860s Vermont had just one city. Even Massachusetts, historically New England's most populous state, did not have any cities until 1822, when Boston was granted a city form of government by the state legislature. In most of New England, population is not a determining factor for what makes a city or town, and there are many examples of towns with larger populations than nearby cities. Massachusetts

9164-717: The 18th and 19th centuries as what might be termed "future towns", but never saw enough settlement to actually commence operation of a formal town government. All three of the northern New England states also include at least one unorganized township that was once a town but has disincorporated and reverted to unorganized territory, generally due to population loss. Maine also has some unorganized townships that were once organized as plantations. Maine has significantly more unorganized territory than Vermont or New Hampshire. Fewer than 100 Vermont residents and fewer than 250 New Hampshire residents live in unorganized areas. In Maine, by contrast, about 10,000 residents live in unorganized areas. As

9322-489: The 18th century. Massachusetts also once had "districts", which served much the same purpose. They were considered to be incorporated, but lacked the full privileges of a town. On August 23, 1775, in order for more representation for the Revolutionary War, 36 towns in Massachusetts and 6 in Maine were incorporated, effectively eliminating the district meaning. Maine and Rhode Island are also known to have made limited use of

9480-408: The 1910s, abandoned farms were discovered by New Yorkers for summer homes and in the 1930s, there were noticeable stresses at Town Meetings between the "old-timers" and the "new people." The community was changing from agricultural to one of commuters. By 1935, the last two of Wilton's nine schoolhouses—Belden Hill and Hurlbutt Street —had closed. The original nine school districts are consolidated into

9638-457: The 1970s, through home-rule petition, adopted corporate charters approved by the state legislature with forms of government that resemble city government and do not include elements traditionally associated with town government (especially, a board of selectmen and a town meeting). Of the fourteen communities that have done so, all but three call themselves a "town" in their municipal operations, and are usually referred to by residents as "towns", but

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9796-540: The 1980s many buyouts and reorganizations and an economic recession lead to companies vacating much of the suburban office space in Fairfield County. In 1992 Fairfield County had the headquarters of over 25 major multinational corporations, giving it the third largest concentration of those companies in the United States after New York City and Chicago . Fairfield County is home to a large concentration of hedge funds and private equity firms , with many located along

9954-450: The 20th century, however. One late instance was the separation of Sugar Hill, New Hampshire , from the town of Lisbon in 1962. It has not taken place anywhere in New England in the last fifty years; boundary changes of any type are fairly rare. Towns are the basic building block of the New England municipality system, although several other types of municipalities also exist. Every New England state has cities . In addition, Maine also has

10112-563: The 42 municipalities that title themselves as cities are recognized as cities. This includes the 39 cities that adopted city forms of government through pre-home rule procedures. The other 309 municipalities in the state are treated as towns below. The same classification is used for identifying Massachusetts cities on the list of New England towns and its attendant pages with historical census population statistics. For further information, see this section of Massachusetts government . Fairfield County, Connecticut Fairfield County

10270-552: The Appalachians that is closest to the coast out of the entire Appalachian Mountains . The agreed 1684 territorial limits of the county are defined as 20 miles (32 km) east of New York's Hudson River , which extends into Long Island Sound with a southerly limit of halfway to Long Island, New York. The eastern limit is mostly a natural border defined as the halfway point of the Housatonic River with New Haven County with

10428-475: The CDP. At the same time, not all built-up places with significant populations are recognized as CDPs. The Census Bureau has historically recognized relatively few CDPs within urbanized areas in particular. Many towns located in such areas do not contain any recognized CDPs and will thus be completely absent from Census materials presenting the population of "places". Greenwich, Connecticut, is one prominent example. While

10586-410: The Census Bureau, can be another source of confusion. The Census classifications should not be understood to imply that cities are incorporated but towns are not, or that cities and towns represent two fundamentally different types of entities. The Census classifies New England municipalities strictly based on whether they are towns or cities, with no regard to the actual population-distribution pattern in

10744-448: The Census only counts cities and certain fully urbanized towns as "places" in its categorization. In other towns, those with small built-up central villages, the Census designates one or more census-designated places (CDPs) and considers all other land to be parts of "minor civil divisions". This classification is done only for the Census's own data analysis, and otherwise has no connection to

10902-534: The Center school in Wilton Center . Originating in its colonial origins, Wilton had developed in a rather haphazard, individualistic way: a house here and a store there. Shortly after World War II, a new phenomenon brought a new look to Wilton's landscape: the builder subdivision. Light industry began moving into town. To plan for orderly growth, town zoning was adopted. With the growth in population and businesses came

11060-403: The F.D. Rich Company, which was hired by the city to redevelop what was described as the aging, deteriorating downtown, throughout the 60s, 70s and early 80s. Stamford's population grew from 92,713 in 1960 to 135,470 people in 2020, making it the 2nd largest city in Connecticut in 2022 (behind Bridgeport ), surpassing New Haven . According to the United States Census Bureau , the county has

11218-527: The Gold Coast in places like Greenwich , Stamford , and Westport . Major hedge funds headquartered in Fairfield County include Bridgewater Associates , AQR Capital , Point72 Asset Management , Lone Pine Capital , Viking Global Investors , and Tudor Investment Corporation . Fairfield County is the top location for aquaculture in the state. As of 1960, counties in Connecticut do not have any associated county government structure. Thus Fairfield County

11376-514: The Indians between the Norwalk and Saugatuck Rivers and "a day's walk into the country." This land was called Norwalk . The first settlers, called the Proprietors, arrived in Norwalk in 1651 and owned 50,000 acres (200 km) in common. On the outskirts of Norwalk's settled area, the Proprietors were allowed private ownership of land in a common planting field, but cattle, sheep, and hogs were grazed in

11534-514: The Killingly portion was renamed Danielson by the General Assembly. There are no legal restrictions in Connecticut that would prevent a city or borough today from similarly overlaying the territory of more than one town, provided it is not consolidated with one of the underlying towns. Cities actually developed earlier in Connecticut than in the other New England states, and were originally based on

11692-620: The Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth's Office considers all fourteen to be legally cities. Other sources within state government often refer to all fourteen municipalities as towns, however. The U.S. Census Bureau listed all as towns through the 1990 Census. For the 2000 Census, some were listed by the Federal government as towns and some as cities, a situation that continues in Census materials since 2000. Massachusetts appears to be

11850-544: The Norwalk River Valley Trail. Merwin Meadows is a picnic area for families with a pond, playground and athletic field. Once a Republican bastion, Wilton has become increasingly Democratic in recent years. In 2008, Wilton voted for Barack Obama , who became the first Democratic candidate for U.S. President to carry the town since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. The town flipped back in 2012, voting for Mitt Romney ,

12008-586: The Spring and early Summer of 1614 in the North America-built vessel Onrust . The first European settlers of the county, however, were Puritans and Congregationalists from England . Roger Ludlow (1590–1664), one of the founders of the Colony of Connecticut , helped to purchase and charter the towns of Fairfield (1639) and Norwalk (purchased 1640, chartered as a town in 1651). Ludlow is credited as having chosen

12166-466: The Statistics and Superlatives section below), further blurs matters. To fill in some of the "place" data, the Census Bureau sometimes recognizes census-designated places (CDPs) within New England towns. These often correspond to town centers or other villages, although not all such areas are recognized as CDPs. In cases where a town is entirely or almost entirely built-up, the Census sometimes recognizes

12324-512: The Town of ..." Greenfield, in December 2017, dropped the "town" designation, which some called "embarrassing" and which legislators said made paperwork more difficult. Common parlance labeling a community a "city" or a "town" may have more to do with its current size, whether its current size or its historical size and reputation. In addition to towns and cities, Maine has a third type of town-like municipality not found in any other New England state,

12482-524: The Town of Greenwich appears in MCD materials, the Census Bureau does not recognize Greenwich as a "place". In New Hampshire and Vermont, the Census Bureau treats each individual unorganized entity (township, gore, grant, etc.) as an MCD. In Maine, it seems, due to the extent of unorganized area, the Census Bureau typically lumps contiguous townships, gores, and the like together into larger units called "unorganized territories" (UTs), which are then treated as MCDs. In

12640-611: The U.S., except that it uses the town as its basic unit rather than the county. Even though the Census Bureau does not treat New England towns as "incorporated places", it does classify cities in New England as such. The rationale behind this is that cities are likely to be more thoroughly built-up and therefore more readily comparable to cities in other states than towns are. Boroughs in Connecticut and incorporated villages in Vermont are also treated as incorporated places. That New England states, in general, regard cities and towns on equal footing, yet they are handled in two different ways by

12798-556: The US Census Bureau treats Groton Long Point as a borough, as an act of the state legislature gives it the same powers as a borough, although it has never formally organized as one. They were once more numerous. Many of those that remain are very small. Connecticut also has at least one remaining city ( Groton ) that is within, but not coextensive with, its parent town . A second non-coextensive city, Winsted , still exists on paper, but its government has been consolidated with that of

12956-470: The actual organization or legal status of New England towns. The census bureau does uniquely recognize towns, however, in that it classifies metropolitan areas in New England on the basis of town boundaries rather than county boundaries as it does in other parts of the U.S. Unique to New England is the New England city and town area , which is analogous to Metropolitan Statistical Areas in other parts of

13114-763: The affluent areas for which the county is better known. Fairfield County was the home of many Native American tribes prior to the Europeans' arrival. People of the Schaghticoke tribe lived in the area of present-day New Fairfield and Sherman . From east to west the Wappinger sachemships included the Paugussetts , Tankiteke, and the Siwanoy . There were also Paquioque and Potatuck inhabitants of Fairfield County. The Dutch explorer Adriaen Block explored coastal Connecticut in

13272-407: The age of 18 living with them, 53.1% were married couples living together, 12.3% had a female householder with no husband present, 30.6% were non-families, and 24.9% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.68 and the average family size was 3.21. The median age was 39.5 years. The median income for a household in the county was $ 81,268 and the median income for

13430-428: The age of 18 living with them, 55.50% were married couples living together, 11.50% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.60% were non-families. 24.00% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.40% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.67 and the average family size was 3.18. In the county, the population was spread out, with 25.60% under

13588-468: The age of 18, 7.00% from 18 to 24, 30.90% from 25 to 44, 23.30% from 45 to 64, and 13.30% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.40 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.60 males. The median income for a household in the county was $ 65,249, and the median income for a family was $ 77,690. Males had a median income of $ 51,996 versus $ 37,108 for females. The per capita income for

13746-420: The average family size was 3.25. The age distribution is 31.5% under the age of 18, 2.8% from 18 to 24, 25.6% from 25 to 44, 27.9% from 45 to 64, and 12.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.2 males. The median income for a household in the town was $ 197,428, and the median income for

13904-505: The borough concept. At one time, all cities were non-coextensive; the practice of making cities coextensive with their towns was a later adaptation intended to mimic the city concept that had emerged in the other New England states. Over time, many non-coextensive cities have expanded to become coextensive with their parent town. As with boroughs, many have also disincorporated and reverted to full town control. These two trends have combined to make non-coextensive cities very rare in recent times;

14062-625: The boundary with New York State , housing the Stratford Shoal Light , is not part of any town and is administered directly by the United States Coast Guard . In general, inhabited minor off-shore islands are administered as part of a nearby town and in some cases, are their own independent towns, such as the town of Gosnold , Massachusetts, which encompasses the Elizabeth Islands . Unlike municipalities in most other states,

14220-415: The built-up area around a town center as a CDP, resulting in a CDP that bears the same name as the town. In these cases, data for the CDP is, in general, meaningless to local residents, who seldom draw any particular distinction between the built-up area around the town center and outlying areas of the town. A local source citing data for such a community will almost always use the data for the entire town, not

14378-493: The cession of the town of Rye and all claims to the Oblong to New York. From the late 17th to early 18th centuries, several new towns were incorporated in western Connecticut and added to Fairfield County, namely Danbury (1687), Ridgefield (1709), Newtown (1711), and New Fairfield (1740). In 1751, Litchfield County was constituted, taking over the town of Woodbury. The final boundary adjustment to Fairfield County occurred in 1788 when

14536-419: The cities and towns are responsible for all local governmental activities including fire and rescue, schools, and snow removal; in a few cases, neighboring towns will share certain resources. The last county seat was Bridgeport , which had served this role from 1853 until 1960. On June 6, 2022, the U.S. Census Bureau formally recognized Connecticut's nine councils of governments as county equivalents instead of

14694-564: The city's urban renewal, Danbury Fair Mall (1968) on the former fairgrounds of the annual Danbury Fair , Hawley Lane Mallin Trumbull (1971) and the Stamford Town Center (1982) as part of the urban renewal project in downtown Stamford. Stamford, Connecticut, is an example of edge cityurbanization . Stamford in the 1960s was a residential suburb of New York City, with a few industries and research laboratories, but of Stamford's downtown

14852-405: The corresponding need for new schools, new roads, executive offices, and more support services. The period of greatest growth was from 1950 to 1970, when the population grew from 4,558 to 13,572. Wilton was classified as a "dry" town until 1993, when the local ordinance was altered to permit the sale of alcoholic beverages in restaurants. The town was then referred to as "damp." On November 5, 2009,

15010-589: The country. The city gained a reputation for having an aging industrial image, what New York Times articles described as a smokestack filled, aging view of the city from the highway. The Connecticut Turnpike (Interstate 95) was built in the mid-1950s along the coast, joining the scenic Merrit Parkway , built in the late 1930s to alleviate traffic on the Post Road , and built further inland away from population centers. Towns such as Westport , Darien, New Caanan, Stamford, and Greenwich became New York City suburbs, forming

15168-469: The county remained agricultural. Westport in the 1920s was a bohemian summer artist colony, and was home to famous artists, writers, and painters, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald , who spent a summer in town. The Cos Cob art colony flourished from the late 1800s to the 1920s. At the height of its influence in the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan had a distinct presence in the county and county politics. The group

15326-504: The county was $ 38,350. About 5.00% of families and 6.90% of the population were below the poverty line , including 8.30% of those under age 18 and 6.60% of those age 65 or over. As of the 2010 United States census , there were 916,829 people, 335,545 households, and 232,896 families residing in the county. The population density was 1,467.2 inhabitants per square mile (566.5/km ). There were 361,221 housing units at an average density of 578.1 per square mile (223.2/km ). The racial makeup of

15484-425: The county was 74.8% white, 10.8% black or African American, 4.6% Asian, 0.3% American Indian, 6.8% from other races, and 2.6% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 16.9% of the population. In terms of ancestry, 18.1% were Italian , 15.9% were Irish , 9.8% were German , 8.7% were English , 5.5% were Polish , and 2.7% were American . Of the 335,545 households, 36.4% had children under

15642-503: The director of the Wilton Historical Society said: People aren't taking down historic houses but the more modest homes that were built in the '50s and '60s.... What that's doing is changing the affordability of the town and the demographic of the town. Wilton used to have a wide demographic of people who worked with their hands—artisans, builders, mechanics. Now it's management and upper management. Between 1999 and 2005,

15800-434: The district concept. Districts have not been at all common since the first half of the 19th century, and there have not been any districts anywhere in New England in over a century. Maine is the only New England state that currently has a significant amount of territory that is not sufficiently populated to support town governments; thus, it is the only New England state that still needs the plantation type of municipality. For

15958-400: The evolution of cities in those states. In Connecticut in particular, the historical development of cities was quite different from in the other New England states, and at least technically, the relationship between towns and cities is today different from elsewhere in New England. Just as boroughs in Connecticut overlay towns, so do cities; for example, while Hartford is commonly thought of as

16116-562: The exception of several islands belonging wholly to Stratford . The depth of the Sound varies between 60 and 120 feet (37 m). The county hosts or contains the rivers Byram , Housatonic , Mianus , Mill , Norwalk , Pequonnock , Rippowam , Saugatuck , and Still . The Still River is polluted with mercury nitrate from the hat industry in Danbury , also thereafter diluting into the Housatonic River and Long Island Sound . The Housatonic

16274-484: The exception rather than the rule in the New England system, and the number of New England residents who live in them is extremely small in comparison to those who live in towns and cities, even in Maine. Most such areas are located in very sparsely populated regions. Much of the barely inhabited interior of Maine is unorganized, for example. The majority of the unincorporated areas in New Hampshire are in Coos County , and

16432-630: The expansion of the Norwalk River Valley Trail , a multi-use trail designed to run between Norwalk and Danbury. The southwest corner of town includes part of the Silvermine neighborhood (which also extends into New Canaan and Norwalk ). Georgetown , which is primarily within the town but also extends into Redding and partly into Weston , is in the northeast corner of town. Other neighborhoods in town are South Wilton , Wilton Center , Gilbert Corners, Cannondale , and North Wilton. As of

16590-469: The first 20 months of US involvement during the First World War, producing 50% of Allied ammunition during that time. Bridgeport by 1920 had a population of 143,555 people, then the 44th largest US city. Danbury , in northern Fairfield County, was known as the "Hat City", producing 20% of America's hats, until the industry began to decline in the 1920s. Stamford (population 40,067 in 1920), was known as

16748-507: The first four Connecticut counties, on May 10, 1666. From transcriptions of the Connecticut Colonial Records for that day: The original Fairfield County consisted of the towns of Rye , Greenwich, Stamford, Norwalk, Fairfield , and Stratford . In 1673, the town of Woodbury was incorporated and added to Fairfield County. In 1683, New York and Connecticut reached a final agreement regarding their common border. This resulted in

16906-496: The first meetinghouse had become too small, and a second was built on the corner of Sharp Hill Road. Less than sixty years later, this second meeting house had fallen into such disrepair that a third church was built in 1790 on Ridgefield Road where it still stands as the oldest church building in Fairfield County, Connecticut . During the Revolutionary War , more than 300 men from Wilton served in some military unit. Among them

17064-597: The flow of supplies from Connecticut that were reaching the Continental Army . Tryon and Henry Duncan led a fleet of 26 ships carrying 2,000 men to Westport's Compo Beach to raid Continental Army supply depots in Danbury on April 22, 1777. American Major General David Wooster (1710–1777), who was born in Stratford, was in charge of the stores at Danbury and defended them with a force of only 700 troops. Two years later during

17222-797: The hundreds. While these were not large communities, they were large enough to realistically operate a town government if they wanted to, but simply elected not to. In Vermont and New Hampshire, disincorporation has, in general, not been brought up for discussion unless a town's population has approached single digits. In general, coastal waters in the New England states are administered directly by either state or federal agencies and are not part of any town. Several towns, however, have chosen to include all or part of their corresponding coastal waters in their territory. Coastal waters include human-made structures built within them. In Connecticut, for example, an artificial, uninhabited island in Long Island Sound at

17380-490: The incorporated villages in Vermont, these "villages" are not incorporated municipalities and should not be understood as such. Towns do sometimes grant a certain measure of recognition to such areas, using highway signs that identify them as "villages", for example. These informal "villages" also sometimes correspond to underlying special-purpose districts such as fire or water districts, which are separately incorporated quasi-municipal entities that provide specific services within

17538-418: The land was farmland used for dairy herds, horses, or marketable crops. Farmers found their yield from the rocky soil to be very low at the same time that midwestern produce, made readily available by the railroads, began to compete with homegrown products, home industry expanded. Industries such as shoemaking, shirt making, carriage building, and distilleries were common. Mills of various types were built along

17696-451: The lands, the settlers had to clear the forests and remove hundreds of glacial rocks, which became the stone boundary walls that are treasured today. The families who bought land in Wilton did not have their own church and were required to attend service in Norwalk each Sunday. When demand for Wilton lands increased in the early 18th century, the Proprietors realized that the land would be worth more if Wilton settlers did not have to make such

17854-490: The largest cities in the county were Bridgeport , Norwalk , Danbury , Stamford and Greenwich . By 1905, Bridgeport had become the principle manufacturing center in the state, and one of the major manufacturers in the New England region behind Boston , Providence , and Worcester , with $ 44,586,519 total worth of products manufactured without adjusting to today's money. Stamford and Greenwich had become popular resort towns for New York City's wealthy. Connecticut in 1905

18012-464: The largest municipalities in the region are titled as cities. Across New England as a whole, only about 5% of all incorporated municipalities are cities. Cities are more common in the three southern New England states, which are much more densely populated, than they are in the three northern New England states. In early colonial times, all incorporated municipalities in New England were towns; there were no cities. Springfield, Massachusetts , for instance,

18170-885: The lowest point is sea level itself. The Taconic Mountains and the Berkshire Mountains ranges of the Appalachian Mountains run through Fairfield County. The Taconics begin roughly in Ridgefield and the Berkshires begin roughly in Northern Trumbull , both running north to Litchfield County and beyond. A portion of the Taconics also is in rural Greenwich and rural North Stamford in Fairfield County and run north into Westchester County , New York , eventually re-entering Fairfield County in Ridgefield . A small portion of

18328-612: The majority of the unincorporated areas in Vermont are in Essex County . Two additional counties in New Hampshire and three additional counties in Vermont contain smaller amounts of unincorporated territory. In Maine, eight of the state's sixteen counties contain significant amounts of unorganized territory (in essence, those counties in the northern and interior parts of the state). Four other counties contain smaller amounts. Most of these areas have no local government at all; indeed, some have no permanent population whatsoever. Some areas have

18486-425: The metropolitan statistical area as a component of the more extensive New York–Newark–Bridgeport, NY–NJ–CT–PA combined statistical area , the most populous combined statistical area and primary statistical area of the United States. As is the case with all eight of Connecticut's counties, there is no county government and no county seat . As an area, it is only a geographical point of reference. In Connecticut,

18644-510: The name Fairfield . Fairfield is a descriptive name referring to the beauty of its fields. The town of Stratford was settled in 1639 as well by Adam Blakeman (1596–1665). William Beardsley (1605–1661) was also one of the first settlers of Stratford in 1639. Fairfield County was established by an act of the Connecticut General Court in Hartford along with Hartford County , New Haven County , and New London County ; which were

18802-654: The number of deer in the area. Wilton town center contains several local restaurants, boutiques, retail stores .These stores were added around 2000 next to the old Wilton Center, which consists of the Wilton Library, the Wilton Post Office, the Old Post Office Square, and the Village Market. In the southern part of town, US 7 contains a business district. Recent nature access developments in town include

18960-443: The only New England state where this issue has arisen, though other New England states also have municipalities that have adopted what amounts to city forms of government but continue to call themselves "towns". In the other New England states, it does not appear that any need to officially label such municipalities as "cities" has been identified. For purposes of determining the "largest town" and "smallest city", in this article, only

19118-530: The only one currently incorporated is the city of Groton , located in the southwestern part of the town of Groton, Connecticut . In Vermont, if a village becomes a city, it does not continue to overlay its parent town, but breaks away and becomes a completely separate municipality. Most cities in Vermont today are actually former villages rather than former towns, and are much smaller than a typical town in terms of land area. The above process has created several instances where there are adjacent towns and cities with

19276-411: The original existing towns. This was an especially common practice during the 18th and early 19th centuries. More heavily populated areas were often subdivided on multiple occasions. As a result, towns and cities in urbanized areas are often smaller in terms of land area than an average town in a rural area. Formation of new towns in this manner slowed in the later part of the 19th century and early part of

19434-728: The people of Wilton sought and were granted separate Town government status by an act of the Connecticut General Assembly and became a political entity independent from Norwalk. The town chose the traditional New England Town Meeting-Selectmen form of government, which has been retained to this day. In the 19th century, education became the responsibility of the school societies of nine separate school districts in Wilton. In addition, many Wilton children and those of well-to-do families of Norwalk and Stamford attended five private schools and academies in Wilton. Wilton's population grew slowly from 1,728 in 1810 to 2,208 in 1860. Most of

19592-524: The plantation. A plantation is, in essence, a town-like community that does not have enough population to require full town government or services. Plantations are organized at the county level and typically found in sparsely populated areas. There is no bright-line population divider between a town and a plantation, but no plantation currently has any more than about 300 residents. Plantations are considered to be "organized" but not "incorporated." Not all counties have them; in some southern counties, all territory

19750-408: The population. There were 5,923 households, out of which 46.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 75.4% were married couples living together, 5.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 17.7% were non-families. Of all households 15.3% were made up of individuals, and 6.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.91 and

19908-527: The port in Bridgeport, by passing New York City. The New York and New Haven railroad along the county's coast was constructed in the late 1840s, which started in New York City and ended in New Haven, connecting Bridgeport, Stamford, Norwalk and all the towns on the coast. In 1851, the county seat of Fairfield County was moved from the town of Fairfield to the newly founded neighboring city of Bridgeport . This

20066-597: The railroad in 1852 brought few advantages to a community of home industry and farming, but offered easy access to bountiful western lands. After the Civil War, Wilton's population declined as cities grew, industrialization increased, the market for home products dropped, and farms were abandoned. Its population declined by some 30% between 1860 and 1900. By 1900, the census showed only 1,598 people living in Wilton. This depopulation enabled many 18th- and 19th-century homes to escape demolition and suburban development. Beginning in

20224-443: The regional agencies are: Several former county municipal buildings are used by other state or local agencies, including: Law enforcement within the geographic area of the county is provided by the respective town police departments, whereas in other states in the region such as New York and Vermont law enforcement would be provided by the local county sheriff's department. In the less dense areas, such as Sherman , law enforcement

20382-421: The relationship between towns and cities in Connecticut is different from the other New England states, at least on paper; thus, in the technical sense, all 169 of the above municipalities are really towns, with 20 overlaid by a coextensive city or borough of the same name.) Together, these 169 municipalities cover the entire state. There is no unincorporated territory, but, as in all New England states, there are

20540-439: The remaining 32 are organized as plantations. These 485 organized municipalities together cover much of, but not all of, the state's territory. Of Maine's sixteen counties, only four are entirely incorporated. Four other counties are almost entirely incorporated, but include small amounts of unincorporated/unorganized territory (three of these four counties were entirely incorporated or organized at one time, but lost that status when

20698-506: The same name. In all cases, the city was originally the "town center" of the town, but later incorporated as a city and became a separate municipality. All three of the northern New England states ( Vermont , New Hampshire , and Maine ) contain some areas that are unincorporated and unorganized, not part of any town, city or plantation. Maine has significantly more such area than the other two states. While these areas do exist, their importance should not be overstated. They are certainly

20856-551: The society meeting, as was the inevitable subject of taxation. Although the village parish did not have the right to send a representative to the state legislature, it did have complete charge of both local education and military training. The first minister, Mr. Robert Sturgeon , was also Wilton's first schoolmaster. As soon as the first meetinghouse was built in 1726, Wilton had a "center" of town, although other areas such as Belden Hill, Drum Hill, Pimpewaug and Chestnut Hill had already been settled by self-sufficient farmers. By 1738

21014-516: The state's eight counties. Connecticut's eight historical counties continue to exist in name only, and are no longer considered for statistical purposes. Fairfield County's Gold Coast helped rank it sixth in the U.S. in per-capita personal income by the Bureau of Economic Analysis in 2005, contributing substantially to Connecticut being one of the most affluent states in the U.S. Other communities are more densely populated and economically diverse than

21172-688: The streams and the Gilbert and Bennett Manufacturing Co. began producing wire sieves in 1834. Before the Civil War , the anti-slavery movement was strong in town. Wilton served as one of the stops on the Underground Railroad , a loosely organized escape route to Canada for runaway slaves, primarily at the house of William Wakeman , "an earnest abolitionist and undergrounder for many years." The Civil War itself had little impact on Wilton, although local businesses profited from wartime spending. The coming of

21330-487: The summer of 1779, General William Tryon sought to punish Americans by attacking civilian targets in coastal Connecticut with a force of about 2,600 British troops. New Haven was raided on July 5, Fairfield was raided on the 7th and burned. Norwalk was raided on July 10 and burned on the 11th. Norwalk militia leader Captain Stephen Betts put up resistance to the invaders, but was overwhelmed by the powerful British raiders and

21488-452: The three northern New England states. In Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, almost every city has at least 10,000 people, and all but a few have at least 20,000. In Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, however, there are a number of cities with fewer than 10,000 people, and there are five (three in Maine and two in Vermont) with fewer than 5,000. Over time, some of the distinctions between

21646-399: The time of the 2000 Census, Maine had 22 cities, 434 towns, and 34 plantations, for a total of 490 organized municipalities. Also since the 2010 Census, Sanford adopted a new charter that included designation as a city.) Massachusetts contains 351 municipal corporations, consisting of cities and towns. These 351 municipalities together encompass the entire territory of Massachusetts; there

21804-444: The town of Winchester for many years, making it more of a special-purpose district than a true municipality. Winsted is no longer recognized by the Census Bureau as an incorporated place, although data is tabulated for a Census Designated Place that is coextensive with that of the original city. As of the 2020 census, Maine contains 485 organized municipalities, of which 23 are incorporated as cities, 430 are incorporated as towns, and

21962-612: The town of Brookfield was incorporated from parts of Newtown, Danbury, and New Milford , with Fairfield County gaining territory from Litchfield County. Other early county inhabitants include: During the Revolutionary War, Connecticut's prodigious agricultural output led to it being known informally as "the Provisions State". In the spring of 1777, the British Commander-in-Chief, North America General William Howe , in New York City, ordered William Tryon to interrupt

22120-503: The town of Norwalk. A copy of the petition is framed and on display in the Town Hall. (See also: Benjamin Hickox ) The Wilton Parish, organized as an ecclesiastical society, dealt with many problems of a secular nature as well. It dealt with such things as communal flocks, pounds for animals, and the regulation of the trades and taverns. The state of the roads was a constant source of comment in

22278-496: The town's colonial landmarks, and the reservation of almost 1,000 acres (4 km) of open space for active and passive recreational use. The Cannondale Historic District , in north-central Wilton, retains its historic character and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. The first written records of the areas that are now Wilton date back to 1640, when Roger Ludlow and his friends purchased land from

22436-480: The town's voters endorsed spending $ 23 million through municipal bonds to preserve land. South Norwalk Electric and Water (SNEW) has a reservoir on the western side of town with about 350 acres (1.4 km) of land, along with another 25 acres (100,000 m) adjacent in New Canaan. In the fall, hunters with bows and arrows—no more than 10 at a time—are allowed to hunt deer on the Wilton property, in order to keep down

22594-619: The town. The nearby Merritt Parkway ( Route 15 ) serves the town via the Route 33 exit (Exit 41, signed for Wilton/Westport) and the Route 7 exits (Exits 39B & 40B, signed for Danbury). The town has two railroad stations: Wilton near the town center and Cannondale . Both are served by Metro-North Railroad 's Danbury Branch , which provides direct commuter train service south to Norwalk (15 minutes), Stamford (25 minutes), and New York City's Grand Central Terminal (90 minutes); and north to Danbury (33 minutes), New Haven, and Boston. Wilton

22752-621: The usual town structure, sometimes in areas where it was probably not contemplated that towns would ever develop. Over time, those located in more populated areas were, in general, annexed to neighboring towns or incorporated as towns in their own right. No such areas exist today in Massachusetts, Connecticut or Rhode Island, but some remain in New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. All three of the northern New England states contain some town-sized unorganized entities, referred to as "unorganized townships" (sometimes, just "townships") or "unorganized towns". Most of these are areas that were drawn up on maps in

22910-451: The village they live in. However, villages or CDPs have no existence as general-purpose municipalities separate from the town (if they even have any legal existence at all), and are usually regarded by local residents as a part of the town in which they are located, less important than the whole. It is possible for a Connecticut borough or Vermont village to become a city. In Connecticut, cities overlay towns just as boroughs do, and, just like

23068-552: Was 1,410 inhabitants per square mile (540/km ). There were 339,466 housing units at an average density of 542 per square mile (209/km ). The racial makeup of the county was 79.31% White , 10.01% Black or African American , 0.20% Native American , 3.25% Asian , 0.04% Pacific Islander , 4.70% from other races , and 2.49% from two or more races. 11.88% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 17.6% were of Italian , 12.4% Irish , 6.5% German and 6.4% English ancestry. In 2010, 66.2% of Fairfield County's population

23226-464: Was 11th in the United States terms of industrial goods produced, and Fairfield County contained the city with the most total worth of products made, Bridgeport. One-fifth of Connecticut's population was employed in manufacturing, the state's largest industry which generated most of its wealth. Bridgeport in 1905 produced 20% of America's corsets. The 2nd largest city in Connecticut behind New Haven by 1910, Bridgeport's population grew by 50,000 people during

23384-586: Was a town for the first two centuries of its existence. The entire land areas of Connecticut and Rhode Island had been divided into towns by the late 18th century, and Massachusetts was almost completely covered early in the 19th century. By 1850, the only New England state that still had large unincorporated areas was Maine ; by the end of the 19th century, most areas in Maine that could realistically be settled had been organized into towns. Early town organization in Vermont and much of New Hampshire proceeded in

23542-738: Was adopted before the establishment of a Baptist church in the state. Jefferson replied in a letter to Dodge and the other members of the Danbury church on January 1, 1802, in which he stated that the First Amendment to the United States Constitution provided "a wall of separation between church and State " that protected them. An agricultural region, the first railroad was the Housatonic Railroad , construction started 1836 and ended 1840, extending from Bridgeport to New Milford originally, connecting Litchfield County crops to

23700-497: Was an African American named Cato Treadwell (1762–1849), who served three years in the 2nd Brigade of the Connecticut Line . In 1777, British forces passed through Wilton after raiding nearby Danbury . Several homes were burned along Ridgefield, Belden, Danbury, and Dudley roads, but the town remained intact. About 52 Revolutionary veteran graves are still identifiable in Wilton cemeteries. In 1802, despite Norwalk's objections,

23858-583: Was due to its growing population and industry as the old courthouse erected 1794 was no longer adequate. The first hospital in the county, and the 3rd hospital in Connecticut behind Hartford and New Haven Hospitals , Bridgeport Hospital was founded in 1884 along with Fairfield County's first nursing school. It would be soon followed by Danbury Hospital (1885), Norwalk Hospital (1893), Stamford Hospital (1896) Greenwich Hospital (1903), St. Vincent's Hospital in Bridgeport (1903), and Park City Hospital in Bridgeport (1926), which closed in 1993. By 1900,

24016-505: Was forced to retreat. David Sherman Boardman (1786–1864) was a prominent early lawyer and judge in this and neighboring Litchfield County. On October 7, 1801, Neheemiah Dodge and other members of the Danbury Baptist Association wrote a letter to then-president Thomas Jefferson expressing their concern that as Baptists they may not be able to express full religious liberty in the state of Connecticut whose "ancient charter"

24174-880: Was most active in Darien , but had small chapters in Norwalk, Stamford, and Bridgeport. The Klan has since disappeared from the county. The county's first institution of higher learning was Western Connecticut State University, founded in Danbury in 1903 (known by its acronym, WCSU), followed by the University of Bridgeport in 1927, Fairfield University in neighboring Fairfield in 1947 and Sacred Heart University. Nearly one-third of Fairfield County's population lived within Bridgeport's city limits in 1950, 31.5%. The city began to decline in population as families moved into nearby suburbs, such as Fairfield , leading to widespread residential development. Bridgeport slowly began to loose jobs and large corporations moved into southern states or outside

24332-472: Was non-Hispanic whites and 10.8% of the population was black. Asians were 4.6% of the population. Hispanics now constituted 16.9% of the population. As of 2000, 76.2% spoke English , 11.0% Spanish , 2.0% Portuguese , 1.7% Italian and 1.1% French as their first language. Some of the last group were Haitians, although other Haitians would identify Haitian Creole as their first language. There were 324,232 households, out of which 34.20% had children under

24490-583: Was previously served by a station called South Wilton (1852–1971) and Kent Road (1976–1994) and by the Georgetown station from 1852–1970. The town is served by the 7 Link bus route of the Norwalk Transit District that runs between Norwalk and Danbury along the Route 7 corridor. A commuter shuttle bus during rush hours is also available between South Wilton and the South Norwalk railroad station on

24648-402: Was razed and rebuilt it with modern skyscrapers, and several major corporations moved their headquarters to Stamford, creating one of the largest corporate concentrations in the United States. Originally a more moderate plan, entire downtown blocks and streets were demolished in slow phases and replaced with office towers, residential towers and the Stamford Town Center shopping mall courtesy of

24806-442: Was settled as a "plantation" (in colonial Massachusetts, the term was synonymous with town) as early as 1636, but the city of Springfield was not established until 1852. The oldest cities in New England date to the last few decades of the 18th century, (e.g. New Haven, Connecticut , was chartered as a city in 1784). In New England, cities were not widespread until well into the 19th century. New Hampshire did not have any cities until

24964-431: Was very informal, generally connected to local church divisions. By 1700, colonial governments had become more involved in the official establishment of new towns. Towns were typically governed by a town meeting form of government, as many still are today. Towns originally were the only form of incorporated municipality in New England. The city form of government was not introduced until much later. Boston , for instance,

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