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Welcome to Stamford
Fairfield County
Connecticut
School Information
Detailed Town Statistics
Summary Town Statistics
Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 120,045. Stamford is part of the New York metropolitan area.
For the first half of 2004, Stamford was the safest city in the United States with population over 100,000, according to the FBI. Factors that may contribute to the relatively low crime rate are an unemployment rate generally lower than the region, high housing prices that skew the city's demographics away from large numbers of urban poor. Crime in the New York metropolitan area in general has diminished since the 1980s and is lower than many other major U.S. metropolitan areas today. In 2005, Stamford was voted "The Best City to Reside In" by the magazine United States Living.
The city has one hospital, Stamford Hospital.
The city is run by Mayor Dannel Malloy and the first family who reside on Ocean Drive West participate in all types of city related work.
History
Stamford was known as Rippowam by the Native American inhabitants to the region, and the very first European settlers to the area also referred to it as such. The name was later changed to Stamford after a town in Lincolnshire, England. The deed to Stamford was signed on 1 July 1640 between Captain Turner of the New Haven Colony and Chief Ponus. By the Eighteenth century, one of the primary industries of the town was merchandising by water, which was possible due to Stamford's proximity to New York.
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. Stamford incorporated as a city in 1893.
A massive urban redevelopment campaign (starting in the 1960s and gaining steam in the 1970s) resulted in a downtown with many tall office buildings. The F.D. Rich Co. was the city-designated urban renewal developer of the downtown in an ongoing redevelopment project that was contentious, beginning in the 1960s and continuing through the 1970s. The company put up the city's tallest structure, Landmark Building, and the GTE building (now One Stamford Forum). Over the years, other developers have joined in building up the downtown, a process that continued, with breaks during downturns in the economy, through the 1980s, 1990s and into the new century.
Twenty-first Century
In the early afternoon of August 3, 2006, one of the hottest days of the year when air conditioning raised electricity consumption, downtown Stamford experienced a blackout after underground electricity cables on Summer Street overheated and caught fire. Many offices were forced to close down. A concert (part of the Alive @ Five series) with Hootie & the Blowfish continued at Columbus Park early that evening, but many restaurants had to throw out their food beforehand.
Neighborhoods
Stamford made up of into sections (locally a more common term than "neighborhoods" for these areas), each of which has distinct character owing to the type of business and industry that thrived there at one time, such as the South End with its heavy manufacturing. Other areas include Downtown, North Stamford, Turn of River, Roxbury, Newfield, Belltown, Springdale, Glenbrook, Hubbard Heights, the East Side, Shippan, Shippan Point, the Cove, the West Side, Waterside, Westover, Bulls Head, and Long Ridge, which is home to many blue chip corporations.
North Stamford (zip code 06903) has been nationally ranked as one of the wealthiest areas in America, and has the highest average household income rate in Fairfield County, surpassing areas of extremely weatlthy towns such as New Canaan and Greenwich.
Downtown also has a shopping mall, the Stamford Town Center, which opened in 1982. Ridgeway Center, located about a mile north of downtown, is one of the oldest shopping centers of its type, having been built in the 1940s. It was renovated in 1998.
Economy
Stamford has a cluster of corporate headquarters (many of which moved from New York in the 1980s both to lower their tax bills and to be closer to the homes of their top executives). This includes four Fortune 500 Companies, nine Fortune 1000 Companies, thirteen Courant 100 Companies, numerous divisions of large corporations, as well as a large number of secretive hedge funds. This gives Stamford one of the largest concentrations of corporations in the nation.
Among the larger companies with headquarters in Stamford are World Wrestling Entertainment, Xerox and Pitney Bowes. UBS also has a major headquarters here, boasting North America's largest equities trading floor.
Royal Bank of Scotland announced in October 2005 that it would consolidate its North American headquarters in downtown Stamford and build the largest trading floor in North America (the current largest trading floor is in the UBS building across the street from where the new building is under construction).
Companies also leave Stamford regularly, either to escape the city's traffic problems or relatively high office rental rates (in which case they often move to Norwalk, Westport or farther to the east in Fairfield County), as a result of being acquired by other businesses (in which case they often move out of state), or for other business reasons. International Paper and MeadWestvaco announced in 2006 that they were leaving the city. Pitney Bowes has kept its headquarters in the city but, like many other companies, it moved some of its back-office operations elsewhere (in this case to Shelton). Stamford and Greenwich both rely on businesses moving in from Manhattan or European companies setting up North American headquarters in local buildings.
Libraries
Stamford's public library, the Ferguson Library, is one of the largest in Connecticut. The main library downtown rents space to a Starbucks (with its own doors to the street and to the library), has a used-book store run by Friends of Ferguson Library and shows movies.
The library has branches in South End, Springdale, and the Turn of River sections of the city, it also has a bookmobile that runs daily to different neighborhoods. The Turn of River branch, officially called the Harry Bennett Branch, is the largest library branch in the state. That branch also has a used book store run by Friends of Ferguson Library.
Attractions
Parks and recreation sites
• Cummings Park, a public beach, was once a popular spot for shellfishing. According to a Web page of the Stamford Historical Society: "Halloween Park, later called Cummings Park, was developed in 1906, when Mayor Homer Cummings cast the deciding vote on Halloween Night."
• The 83-acre Cove Island Park, once a farm and then an enormous factory site, offers visitors a choice of beaches as well as picnic grounds and bluffs. It has a small wildlife sanctuary in the southwest corner that might be interesting for bird watchers. SoundWaters Community Center for Environmental Education is located at the northeast part of the park.
• Terry Connors Ice Rink shares a parking lot with Cove Island Park. It offers public ice skating for all ages and ability levels, group lessons and ice hockey.
• Scalzi Park has baseball fields, tennis courts and a baseball stadium named "Cubeta Stadium." Stamford baseball leagues play baseball there. J.M. Wright Technical High School is next to the park.
• Stamford boasts two municipal golf courses. E. Gaynor Brennan Golf Course, also referred to locally as Hubbard Heights, opened for play in 1922. Sterling Farms Golf Course opened in May of 1972, and also has a driving range and six tennis courts.
Arts, science and cultural attractions
Science and nature
• The Stamford Museum and Nature Center on a 118-acre site in the northern end of town, has a collection of works by Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor of Mount Rushmore, who was a Stamford resident for a decade.
• The Fairfield County Astronomy Society was started up in 1956 runs the Stamford Observatory, which has a 20-inch telescope.
• Bartlett Arboretum and Gardens is run by the Bartlett Arboretum Association runs the institution on a 91-acre site.
• SoundWaters Community Center for Environmental Education
Theater and film
• Stamford Center for the Arts: The Palace Theatre, originally opened as a vaudeville house in 1927, reopened as a nonprofit theater in 1983. It was joined in 1992 by the Rich Forum, another downtown venue. Both have been run by the Stamford Center for the Arts.
• Stamford Theatre Works professional theater located in the red barn at the corner of Strawberry Hill Avenue and Fifth Street on the campus of the former Sacred Heart Academy, is in its 19th season in 2006-2007.
• Curtain Call Inc. presents plays and other entertainment at the Sterling Farms Theatre Complex, 1349 Newfield Ave.
Crown Theatres has two movie houses in Stamford with a total of 15 movie screens: Crown Landmark and Crown Majestic. On Feb. 13, 2004, the Avon Theatre Film Center, a nonprofit movie house focusing on classic, alternative and art films, opened in the former Avon Theatre on Bedford Street. In Springdale, the two-screen State Cinema, run by Garden Homes Cinemas of Stamford, has second-run films. The Ferguson Library also shows films.
Music
• Stamford Symphony Orchestra In a typical season, the SSO gives five pairs of classical concerts and three pops concerts at the 1,586-seat Palace Theatre, as well as a concert for elementary school students and a family concert series.
• Connecticut Grand Opera, a not-for-profit, professional opera company performs at the Palace Theatre. On its web site, the CGO claims to offer "the most ambitious opera season of any company between New York and Boston."
Notable people, past and present
Stamford has been home to many famous people, now and in the past. Entertainers who have called the city home include band leader Benny Goodman, Christopher Lloyd, who was born in the city. Bob Crane, star of Hogan's Heroes spent part of his childhood in Stamford.[7] Actor and comedian Gene Wilder and singer Cyndi Lauper are current residents.
Baseball star Jackie Robinson made Stamford his home, and football Hall of Famer Andy Robustelli was born in the city, as was baseball manager Bobby Valentine. Valentine also owns a popular restaurant in downtown Stamford that bears his name. Boxing champion Gene Tunney is buried in town.
Georges Clemenceau, the French premier during World War I taught at a girl's school in Stamford in the 1860s. U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman grew up in the city. U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays is a former resident. John J. McCloy, a prominent advisor to presidents, died in Stamford. William F. Buckley Jr., founder of National Review magazine, is a longtime resident.
Gutzon Borglum, sclupltor of Mount Rushmore, lived in the city for 10 years. Lubomyr Husar, Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Major-Archdiocese of Lviv, and one of the cardinals considered a possible successor to Pope John Paul II in 2005, was educated at St. Basil's College in Stamford.
Robert Jarvik, inventor of the first artificial heart, grew up in the city. Will Shortz, puzzle editor of The New York Times, is current resident and organizes national crossword puzzle championships held in Stamford.
Many professional wrestlers and executives associated with World Wrestling Entertainment reside in Stamford or in neighboring towns, as the city is home to WWE's corporate headquarters.
Rihanna, pop/R&B singer, currently resides in Stamford.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “Stamford, Connecticut”.
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