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Welcome to Fairfield
Fairfield County
Connecticut
School Information
Detailed Town Statistics
Summary Town Statistics
Fairfield, Connecticut
Fairfield is a town located in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It is situated along the Gold Coast of Connecticut. Fairfield is a town of many neighborhoods, two of which -- Southport and Greenfield Hill -- are notably affluent. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 57,340. In July 2006, Money Magazine ranked Fairfield the ninth "best place to live" in the United States, and the best place to live in the Northeast.
It considers itself the "dogwood capital of the world."
Fairfield is home to Fairfield University and Sacred Heart University.
The television sitcom "Who's the Boss?" took place in Fairfield; in certain episodes, particular streets and even neighboring Bridgeport were mentioned. An episode of the Food Network show "Rachael Ray's Block Party" was filmed in Fairfield, as were portions of several episodes of "Ham on the Street."
Fairfield is also the home of Lewis the cat, a feline who attacked several neighbors before the police put a restraining order on him.
History
Founding
In 1639 soon after the Pequot War, Roger Ludlow, a founder of the colony of Connecticut, led a small group of men and a herd of cattle to a place known to the local Paugausetts as Unquowa. They established a settlement that was named for the acres of salt marsh that bordered the mainland shore across from Long Island.
Revolutionary War
When the Revolutionary War began in the 1770s, Fairfielders were caught in the crisis as much as if not more than the rest of their neighbors in Connecticut. In a predominantly Tory section of the state, the people of Fairfield were early supporters of the cause for independence. Throughout the war, a constant battle was being fought across Long Island Sound as men from British-controlled Long Island raided the coast in whaleboats and privateers. Gold Selleck Silliman, whose home still stands on Jennings Road, was put in charge of the coastal defenses.
In the spring of 1779, he was kidnapped from his home by Tory forces in preparation for a British raid on Fairfield County. His wife watched from their home as, on the morning of July 7, 1779, approximately 2,000 enemy troops landed on Fairfield Beach near Pine Creek Point and proceeded to invade the town. When they left the following evening, the entire town lay in ruins, burned to the ground as punishment for Fairfield's support of the rebel cause. Ten years later, President George Washington noted after traveling through Fairfield, that " the destructive evidences of British cruelty are yet visible both in Norwalk and Fairfield; as there are the chimneys of many burnt houses standing in them yet."
Fairfield recovered slowly from the burning, but soon after the end of the war its houses and public buildings had all been rebuilt.
Twentieth century
World War I brought Fairfield out of its agrarian past by triggering an unprecedented economic boom in Bridgeport, the center of a large munitions industry. The prosperity created a housing shortage in the city, and many of the workers looked to Fairfield to build their homes. The trolley and later the automobile made the countryside accessible to these newly rich members of the middle class, who brought with them new habits, new attitudes, and new modes of dress. The prosperity lasted through the twenties.
By the time of the stock market crash in 1929, the population had increased to 17,000 from the 6,000 it had been just before the war. Even during the Depression, the town kept growing.
The opening of the Connecticut Turnpike in the 1950s brought another wave of development to Fairfield and by the 1960s the town's residential, suburban character was firmly established.
Arts & Entertainment
The Fairfield Community Theatre Foundation not only runs the downtown, two-screen moviehouse for independent and second-run films, but operates educational programs for young people who also volunteer at the moviehouse. More information including what movies are currently playing, is available at the foundation's Web site.
The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts on the campus of Fairfield University opened in 1990 and includes events such as popular and classical music, dance, theatre, programs for young audiences, and the Open VISIONS Forum lecture series featuring present eminent opinion-makers, artists, authors, learned contributors to the humanities and sciences and civic and political commentators. It houses the 740-seat Kelley Theatre, the 150-seat Lawrence A. Wien Experimental (Black Box) Theatre, and the Thomas J. Walsh, Jr. Art Gallery. The Quick Center has become known as one of the finest concert halls in the country and was recognized as the "cultural epicenter of Fairfield County" by Westport Magazine.
The PepsiCo Theatre, a renovated 1922 carriage house on the campus of Fairfield University, is the home to the Theatre Program of the Department of Visual and Performing Arts and Theater Fairfield, the resident production company of the University. The PepsiCo Theatre is also home to Shakespeare Ventures, a professional theatre company.
WSHU Public Radio
Famous residents, past and present
James Blake, professional tennis player
Faith Hill and Tim McGraw have a country house in Southport.
Don Imus, radio personality, past resident in Southport
Eliot A. Jardines, Assistant Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Open source intelligence
Leonard Bernstein, conductor, composer, musician
Susan Cooper, author of the acclaimed children's sequence The Dark is Rising.
Justin Long, actor and a native
John Mayer, Grammy-winning singer-songwriter
John Byrne, legendary Comic Book creator.
Patrick O'Boyle, international speed skater
Jason Robards, actor
Henry Fairfield Osborn, late scientist, eugenicist and a native
Meg Ryan, actress and a native
Raviv "Ricky" Ullman, star of hit Disney Channel show "Phil of the Future"
Hume Cronyn, actor
Franco Ventriglia, opera singer and a native
Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, founding members of Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club
J.J. Henry, PGA golfer, 2006 Ryder Cup team member, and a native
Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, former town resident
Linda Kozlowski, actress and a native
Richard Rodgers, composer
Robert Penn Warren, author and poet
Michael Weatherly, actor and a native
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Fairfield, Connecticut.
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