Stamford, Connecticut was inhabited by Siwanoy Native Americans, prior to European colonization beginning in the mid-17th century. Stamford grew rapidly due to industrialization in the late-19th and early-20th century, and continued to grow rapidly throughout much of the mid-20th century. During the late-20th century, Stamford underwent a period of urban renewal which saw much redevelopment in its downtown. Stamford's population has continued to grow throughout the 21st century, with redevelopments in its downtown and the South End.
Colonial history Stamford was known as Rippowam by the Siwanoy Native American inhabitants to the region, and the very first European settlers to the area also referred to it that way. On July 1, 1640, Nathaniel Turner of the New Haven Colony signed an agreement to purchase the land comprising present-day Stamford, Darien, western New Canaan, and Pound Ridge and Bedford in present-day New York with Siwanoy Sagamores, Wascussee, and Ponus. The land was acquired by the New Haven colony for 12 coats, 12 hoes, 12 hatchets, 12 glass mirrors, 12 knives, two kettles, and four fathoms of white wampum. However, the Siwanoy parties to the agreement may not have fully understood the agreement, as that they did not buy nor sell land, and linguistic differences may have prevented them from fully understanding the deal. The deed was modified in 1655, 1662, and 1701, with each modification adding payments to the descendants of Ponus, but did not provide any clarifications as to the land deal itself.
The first European colonists, Reverent Richard Denton of Wethersfield and his family, settled the area in mid-May 1641. Later on in the spring, 29 Puritan families from Wethersfield moved to the area. The group had formed "The Rippowam Company" on October 19, 1640, to purchase the area from the New Haven Colony, and to settle it under the New Haven Colony's jurisdiction. The name of the settlement was changed to Stamford on April 6, 1642, after the town in Lincolnshire, England, where more than 80% of New England's original English settlers hailed from. Denton and his family, alongside 17 other families, would leave Stamford for Hempstead, on Long Island, in 1644.
In 1642, Captain John Underhill settled in Stamford and the following year represented the town in the New Haven Colony General Court.
Stamford was included in the creation of a New Haven confederation called the United Colonies of New England, alongside New Haven, Guilford, Milford, as well as Southold on Long Island. Shortly after the restoration of Charles II of England, in a session of the Connecticut General Court held on October 9, 1662, the former New Haven "plantations" of Stanford (sic), Greenwich, Guilford, and even Southold were to be recognized as Connecticut Colony towns with constables sworn in.
During the 1640s, a mill was built on the Rippowam River, and a wooden meeting house was built. The first public schoolhouse was built in Stamford in 1671, and has been described by a local historian as a "crude, unheated wooden structure only ten or twelve feet square". It was built when settlers tore down their original meeting house, which they had outgrown after three decades, and used some of the timbers to put up a school near the Old Town Hall on Atlantic Square. On the nearby common they built a new meeting house, which also served as the Congregational church.
As Stamford expanded throughout the late 17th century, people settled farther and farther from the settlement's center, and had to travel farther to access public services. The predecessor to the Boston Post Road, originally called King's Highway or County Road, was built in 1673. As a result, in 1680, people who settled in the far northern reaches of Stamford split off into the town of Bedford. A treaty in 1683 between Connecticut and New York set an agreed-upon border north of Stamford's main road, resulting in part of the settlement falling under New York's jurisdiction.
Following the resignation of local Reverend John Bishop, Reverend John Davenport assumed the role of Stamford's spiritual leader in 1694. Davenport, who ruled until his death in February 1731, governed in a conservative style, and under his rule, Stamford accepted few new inhabitants. Following Davenport's death, the Congregational Church lost control over local town meetings, and in 1737, the Canaan and Middlesex Parishes split off from Stamford to form new settlements. Further religious fractures emerged in subsequent years with the establishment of an Anglican church in Stamford in 1742, Baptist churches in 1773 and 1790, a Methodist church in 1788, and a New Light preacher resulting from the First Great Awakening.
One of the primary industries of the small colony was merchandising by water, which was possible due to Stamford's proximity to New York.
Revolutionary War
420 residents of Stamford engaged in military service on behalf of the Patriot cause during the American Revolutionary War, with 165 serving in the Continental Army and the rest doing so as militiamen; 22 of them died during the war. Stamford was not affected by the conflict to the extent of neighboring towns in Connecticut, several of which were raided or burnt by British forces. During the Revolutionary War, Fort Stamford was built as part of a ring of forts (others at New Castle, New York and White Plains, New York) ordered by General George Washington to aid in the defense of Connecticut from Loyalist raids. Fort Stamford was designed by Rufus Putnam, and General David Waterbury oversaw the construction in 1781. At its peak, the fort was home to 800 soldiers.
19th century Starting in 1825, Stamford was served by steamboat service to New York by the Stamford Steamboat Company. The service ran three times a week, and carried local produce and about 500 passengers.
The densely settled portion of Stamford incorporated as a borough in 1830.
In 1838, William Betts founded Betts Academy, a private all-boys academy in Stamford, which operated until it burned in 1908.
Train service began in Stamford in 1848, and regular service along the New Haven Line began on January 1, 1849. The introduction of train service in Stamford improved access to the city, helped develop its industry, and attracted immigrants. Stamford's population grew from about 5,000 in 1850 to 11,000 in 1880. Stamford's first major wave of immigration originated largely from Ireland, and Irish immigrants worked in the city's mills, as day laborers, gardeners, and coachmen. During this time, a sizeable Irish-American community called "Dublin" formed near the city's railroad tracks. However, some of Stamford's Protestant residents displayed prejudice against the city's Irish-American community, and believed that they were subservient to the Pope. A Catholic church, the Basilica of Saint John the Evangelist, was built in Stamford in 1851. The church relocated to a larger building along Atlantic Street that was completed in 1886.
Stamford's first school with defined grades, the Centre School, opened on Broad Street, near the location of Stamford's original schoolhouse, in 1852. The original Centre School building, which was made of wood, burned, and was replaced by a brick building in 1867.
A private all-girls school, called Catherine Aiken, opened in Stamford in 1855. At one point Georges Clemenceau taught French at the school, and married a student from the school, Mary Plummer. The school closed in the 1890s.
By the 1860s, competition from train service forced steamboat service in Stamford to shutter.
In 1873, Stamford's Town School Committee created Stamford High School, to be housed in a room of the Centre School. Originally, students had to pass an examination to gain admission into the high school.
King School, another private all-boys school, opened in 1876. The school still exists in Stamford today, although it is now coeducational.
Starting in 1866, there had been discussions about creating a horse-drawn streetcar company to service Stamford, Connecticut. A charter for such a company was secured in 1870, but it expired before any plans could be made.
A new charter such a service was licensed in 1886, creating the Stamford Horse Railroad Company. Beginning on January 31, 1887, horse-drawn streetcars began running in Stamford. After going bankrupt in December 1888, the company was reorganized as the Stamford Street Railroad Company, and received approval to run electric streetcars.
In 1890, a local chapter of the Ancient Order of Hibernians was established in Stamford, named after Irish-American Civil War general Philip Sheridan.
In 1893, the central and denser portions of Stamford incorporated as a city.
Beginning in 1894, electric streetcars began servicing Stamford. Horse-drawn streetcars were phased out during the 1890s.
The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad acquired a controlling stake in the Stamford Street Railroad Company on or about April 1, 1895.
In 1896, a dedicated building for Stamford's high school was built, located on Forest Street.
Starting in the late 19th century, New York residents built summer homes on the shoreline, and even back then there were some who moved to Stamford permanently and started commuting to Manhattan by train, although the practice became more popular later.
20th century
On Memorial Day, 1901, a cannon from the was placed in West Park (now Columbus Park) as a memorial to Civil War veterans. Cast at West Point in 1827, the cannon had also been used on the . The artillery piece sat in the park until 1942 when it was hauled away for scrap.Bull, Bonnie K., Stamford "Images of America" series of books, Arcadia Publishing: 2004. Retrieved from Google Books on March 8, 2008
In 1904, the Town Hall burnt down. A new building in the Beaux Arts style was constructed from 1905 (when the cornerstone was laid) to 1907 in the triangular block formed by Main, Bank and Atlantic streets. The building was eventually named Old Town Hall and held the mayor's office until about 1961, when Mayor William Kennedy moved to the Municipal Office Building which formerly stood further south on Atlantic Avenue. Nearly all municipal offices were moved to 888 Washington Boulevard in 1988.Dalena, Doug, "100 years ago, Old town hall had something new to offer", article in The Advocate of Stamford, page 1, Stamford and Norwalk editions
On September 26, 1905, the Consolidated Railway Company (the Connecticut Company) acquired the assets of the Stamford Company.
On February 19, 1919, at the site of the present Cove Island Park, in the Cove section of Stamford, the Cove Mill factory of the Stamford Manufacturing Company burned to the ground in a spectacular conflagration.
State Trade School, a vocational school now known as J.M. Wright Technical High School, opened in 1919 on Schuyler Avenue.
The current building of Stamford High School, located on Strawberry Hill Avenue, was completed in 1928.
Stamford is the birthplace of the electric dry shaver industry. By 1940 Colonel Jacob Schick employed almost 1,000 workers at the Schick Dry Shaver Company on Atlantic Street. "About the Avon" web page at web site for the Avon Theatre, accessed 28 June 2006
Ku Klux Klan in Stamford