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Welcome to Monroe
Fairfield County
Connecticut
School Information
Detailed Town Statistics
Summary Town Statistics
Monroe, Connecticut
Monroe is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 19,247 at the 2000 census. The current first selectman is Andrew Nunn.
The town was recently featured in Forbes' "Best Places to Live" feature article. Monroe, like its neighbors, is largely considered a bedroom community of New York City. Monroe's neighbors are Newtown, Easton, Oxford, Shelton, and Trumbull.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 68.2 km˛ (26.3 mi˛). 67.7 km˛ (26.1 mi˛) of it is land and 0.5 km˛ (0.2 mi˛) of it (0.76%) is water.
History
The Monroe Town seal is in the form of a circle with the words "Town of Monroe Connecticut" written in the outer rim of the seal. Inside this outer circle is a profile of a bust of James Monroe, who was the fifth President of the United States, serving from 1817-1825.
The very first Monroe settlers came to the area, the northern limits of what was known as Old Stratford, in the early eighteenth-century because they were running out of farm land. Each successive generation of settlers produced a larger population of farmers with a need for more and more land. Many of these settlers were second and third generation Native Americans. Their founding ancestors had purchased, charted and begun to layout roads and clear land in the late seventeenth-century. There are several towns that were established from the "Mother Town" of Stratford, or Cupheag, which was incorporated in 1639. On May 17, 1671, Stratford purchased from the Paugusset Indians the territory which includes Monroe, Bridgeport, Trumbull and Shelton, in what is known as "The White Hills Purchase", and officially annexed it to the Township of Stratford.
On the National Register of Historic Places
• Daniel Basset House — 1024 Monroe Turnpike (added September 23, 2002)
• Monroe Center Historic District — CT 110 and CT 111 (added September 19, 1977)
• Stevenson Dam Hydroelectric Plant — CT 34 (added October 29, 2000)
• Thomas Hawley House — 514 Purdy Hill Rd. (added May 11, 1980)
Notable people from Monroe
• Mike Gminski, former Duke basketball standout and NBA player.
• Ed Warren and wife Lorraine Warren, renowned paranormal researchers.
Trivia
Home to renowned paranormal researchers Ed and Lorraine Warren. The ghost, the "White Lady", of Union Cemetery has also been seen in Monroe, most commonly around Stepney Cemetery.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “Monroe, Connecticut”.
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