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    Norwalk
    Norwalk
    Norwalk
    Ebook169 pages1 hour

    Norwalk

    By Lisa Wilson Grant

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    About this ebook

    In vivid historical images, step into Norwalk's past and discover a new part of Long Island history


    Located on the shores of Long Island Sound, Norwalk's close proximity to New York City prompted the building of many summer residences and guest cottages along its coast. In the summer, steamships and trolleys arrived with passengers looking to enjoy the local amusement park, Roton Point. Norwalk's earliest industries included farming as well as mills powered by its rivers. The area has been famous for its pottery, oystering, and hat manufacturing. Over time, this community has endured disasters; it was burned during the American Revolution, and the flood of 1955 wiped out much of the Wall Street area as well as several bridges on the Norwalk River. Norwalk shares vintage images from the mid-1800s through the 1960s, highlighting memorable sites such as Old MacDonald's Farm and the Melton Automobile Museum. The revitalization of Norwalk's downtown areas proves it is possible to respect the past and those that came before through the renewal of historical architecture.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateJun 23, 2014
    ISBN9781439645895
    Norwalk
    Author

    Lisa Wilson Grant

    Lisa Wilson Grant is a lifelong Norwalk resident and has been collecting images for many years. In addition to her own images, she has also included many from local historical societies and private collections. She coauthored Postcard History Series: Roton Point with the Roton Point History Committee.

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      Book preview

      Norwalk - Lisa Wilson Grant

      DAR.

      INTRODUCTION

      In the 16th century, Native Americans inhabited the area we now call Norwalk. These Indians were part of a unique tribe that belonged to a larger group called the Lenape or Delaware Indians, and they spoke a Munsee dialect. They were hunters and gatherers in the fields and forests, they caught fish and shellfish, and they grew corn, pumpkins, and squash. They made jewelry and wampum out of shells. To protect themselves from the Pequots, they would build tall forts, such as the palisade fence that was located in the Fort Point Street area in East Norwalk.

      In 1497, England first claimed property discovered by Sebastian Cabot, and after England saw how successful the Pilgrims were in Plymouth Colony, many Puritans arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony eager to set up new towns. The Great Migration started in the 1630s, and the good lands in eastern Massachusetts quickly became exhausted. After the Pequot War in 1637, three competing English land companies (Connecticut Colony, New Haven Colony, and Massachusetts Bay Colony) sought to quickly purchase land in western Connecticut to accommodate this wave of new immigrants before the Dutch settlers moved eastward from New Amsterdam.

      In February 1640, Roger Ludlow from the Connecticut Colony purchased land on the eastern side between the Saugatuck and Norwalk Rivers for trade goods from the Indians of Norwake, and he himself settled in Fairfield. He was later twice reprimanded by the General Court of Connecticut for founding the settlement in Fairfield instead of the area that is now Bridgeport where he was ordered to and for taking up arms against the Dutch on a matter with the Indians with which the court disagreed. Disgraced, he moved to Virginia and then back to England.

      Capt. Daniel Partrick made the deal in April 1640 with sachem Mahachemo and purchased the lands between the Norwalk River and the Five Mile River. He later moved on to Greenwich, where he met with a violent death a few years later in Stamford by Dutchmen who accused him of treachery with the Indians.

      In 1651, Richard Olmstead and Nathaniel Ely signed a treaty with Runkinheage, Piamikin, and others for the western part of Norwalk. This treaty caused controversy over the Norwalk-Stamford line, which was established in a 1643 treaty with Andrew Ward and Richard Law of Stamford. Piamikin, the sagamore of the Roatons, had signed both agreements for the same land. The disagreements went on for years until finally, in 1673, the general court intervened and determined that Five Mile River was to be the boundary line as per the earlier agreement.

      The first Norwalkers settled in the East Norwalk area, where the first home lots were drawn. East Avenue was the Towne Street, and the town quickly expanded to the Wall Street area, with the Norwalk Green as the center. The original area of Norwalk included rural areas where out-livers formed parishes as they lived a distance from the church in the center of Norwalk. The roads were mainly based on Indian trails. The Norwalk area included half of New Canaan (which was Canaan Parish), Saugatuck, Wilton (which was Wilton Parish), and Lewisboro, New York.

      On July 11, 1779, the Battle of Norwalk became the largest Revolutionary War battle in Connecticut. Earlier, Nathan Hale, an American spy, had set out from Norwalk on an ill-fated mission. Twenty-six hundred British and Hessian troops landed at Calf Pasture. The British set homes on fire at Washington and Water Streets and up Flax Hill. They burned more houses as they marched down West Avenue and Wall Street. This was followed by raids along the local coves, taking not only livestock and household goods but also captives for prisoner exchanges.

      Many mills were erected on Norwalk’s rivers—sawmills, gristmills, and wool and cotton mills. The Winnipauk area developed around the mills, and Silvermine had several, too. Broad River, West Norwalk, and Cranbury were farming districts. Rowayton was a center of a prosperous oyster business on the Five Mile River. Oyster houses also lined the Norwalk Harbor, and by 1880, Norwalk had the largest fleet of steam-powered boats in the world.

      Old Well was a hamlet across the Norwalk Harbor that increased in population with the transition of transportation from the sailing ships in the earlier days to steamships. Renamed South Norwalk, the city really grew when the New York & New Haven Railroad came through in 1849. The Danbury & Norwalk Railroad connected the two towns in 1852.

      There were seven Norwalk potteries through the years and at one time over 45 hat manufacturers, which provided ample employment for the influx of people moving in.

      Norwalk and South Norwalk grew as very distinct, separate cities. Norwalk was uptown and South Norwalk was downtown and there was a lot of antagonism between the two. The reason for this may be that South Norwalk was an area of newcomers, immigrants who were eager to work in a new country, as opposed to Norwalkers, who had deep roots here and attended churches of similar faith. Catholics first met in residences as early as 1828, though St. Mary’s Chapel was not erected in Norwalk until 1851 and St. Joseph’s Parish in South Norwalk in 1895. Consolidation of the two cities took place in 1913, but it was reluctantly done in the opinion of many of the residents at the time.

      In the 1800s, industrialization started to take place—large factories manufacturing goods such as firearms, buttons, shoes, cloth, and hats were increasing in Connecticut and in Norwalk. Workers came up from Chesapeake, Maryland, to work as oystermen. Wealthy owners and managers of businesses lived on Golden Hill overlooking South Norwalk. Immigrants came into Norwalk from many places. One of the largest groups to come here in the early 1900s was the Hungarians; there were also many Eastern European Jews and Italians, among others.

      The Ku Klux Klan made a nationwide resurgence in the early 1920s; there was a Klavern here in Norwalk as well as other surrounding towns. There were meetings held at Highland

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