History of Norwalk, Connecticut

The history of Norwalk, Connecticut.

"General view of the Green, Norwalk, Conn." published in 1855 by Ballou's Pictorial

Purchase

Purchase of Norwalk by Harry Townsend, Works Progress Administration Mural

Norwalk was purchased in 1640 by Roger Ludlow from Chief Mahackemo of the Norwalke Indians (actually the residents of Norwauke village of the Siwanoy subdivision or “sanchemship” of the Algonquin language family).

A copie of a deede of sale made by Norwalke Indians unto Maste Roger Ludlowe, of Fairfield, as followeth, 26, February 1640.

An agreement made between the Indians of Norwalke and Roger Ludlowe: it is agreed, that the Indians of Norwalke, for and in consideration of eight fathoms of wampum, sixe coates, tenn hatchets, tenn hoes, tenn knifes, tenn scissors, tenn jewse-harpes, tenn fathoms tabackoe, three kettles of sixe hands about, and tenn looking glasses, have granted all the lands, meadows, pasturage, trees, whatsoever there is, and grounds betwen the twoe rivers, the ones called Norwalke, and the other Soakatuck, to the middle of sayde rivers, from the sea a days walke into the country; to the sayed Roger Ludlowe, and his heirs and assigns forever, and that no Indian or other shall challenge or claim any ground within the sayed rivers or limits, nor disturb the sayed Roger, his heirs or assigns within the precincts aforesaid.

In withness whereof the parties thereunto have interchangeably sett their hands. Roger Ludlowe.

The deed was marked by Norwalk Indians Tomakergo, Tokeneke, Prosewanenos, Sachem Mahackemo, and witnessed by Thomas Ludlowe

The first settlers arrived from Hartford in 1649. Norwalk was incorporated on September 11, 1651, when the General Court of the Connecticut Colony decreed that “Norwaukee shall bee a townee”.

Account of a colonial traveler's night in town

Maryland physician Alexander Hamilton wrote in his 1744 travel diary about a night in Norwalk, which he passed through from August 29-30. "This town is situated in a bottom, midst a grove of trees. You see the steeple shoot up among the trees about half a mile before you enter the town and before you can see any of the houses."

Hamilton, who brought his slave with him, wrote that when he was at Taylor's inn in Westport ("Saugatick") earlier that day "children were frightened at my negro. Slaves are not so much in use as with us [in Maryland], their servants being chiefly bound or indentured Indians. Betwixt Taylor's and Norwalk, I met a caravan of eighteen or twenty Indians." In Norwalk, Hamilton stayed at a tavern run by one Beelding, "and as my boy was taking off the saddles, I could see one half of the town standing about him, making inquiry about his master."

Yankee Doodle

Historical population of Norwalk[2]
1756	3,050
1774	4,388
1782	4,051
1790	11,942
1800	5,146
1810	2,983
1820	3,004
1830	3,792
1840	3,863
1850	4,651
1860	7,582
1870	12,119
1880	13,956
1890	17,747
1900	19,932
1910	24,211
1920	27,743
1930	36,019
1940	39,849
1950	49,460
1960	67,775
1970	79,288
1980	77,767
1990	78,331
2000	82,951
2002	84,127 (est.)[3]

See also: Yankee Doodle

Connecticut's state song, Yankee Doodle, has Norwalk-related origins. During the French and Indian War, a regiment of Norwalkers was assembled to report as an attachment to British regulars. The group was commanded by Col. Thomas Fitch of Norwalk (son of Connecticut governor Thomas Fitch). Assembling at Fitch’s yard in Norwalk, Fitch’s younger sister Elizabeth, along with other young local women who had come to bid them farewell, were distraught at the men’s lack of uniforms and so they improvised plumes from chicken feathers which they gave to the men for their hats.

As they arrived at Fort Crailo, NY, the British regulars began to mock and ridicule the rag-tag Connecticut troops who only had chicken feathers for uniform. Dr. Richard Shuckburgh, a British army surgeon, added new words to a popular tune of the time, Lucy Locket (e.g., “stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni”, macaroni being the London slang at the time for a foppish dandy).

The modern-day bridge in which I-95 crosses the Norwalk River in Norwalk is named the "Yankee Doodle Bridge"

Revolutionary War

In 1776, American spy Nathan Hale set out from Norwalk by ship (the converted whaleboat Huntington) on his ill-fated intelligence-gathering mission.

Following the townspeople’s pleas for fortifications, in the spring of 1777 six cannon were mounted in salient positions for the defense of Norwalk. Soon afterwards in April, British forces arrived to march on Danbury, the location of an important military depot. Although the British had intended to land at Norwalk, the six cannon forced a last-minute change of plans and unprotected Compo Beach at the mouth of the Saugatuck was selected instead.

Norwalkers carried out one of the war's more spectacular escapades in November, 1778. A flotilla of twenty whaleboats from Norwalk skipped past British warships anchored in Huntington Bay and stealthily discharged its passengers. The raiders made straight for The Cedars, a public inn kept by “Mother Chid,” well-known for harboring Connecticut Tories. Sixteen Tories were taken prisoner and several were killed before the raiders departed.

In 1779 British forces sought to disrupt American naval activity in Long Island Sound. General William Tryon is ordered to cripple the seaports of New Haven, Fairfield, and Norwalk. New Haven was raided on July 5th, Fairfield was raided on the 7th and in retribution for resistance by the townspeople, completely burned. Residents of Norwalk, certain of what lay ahead, began to make provisions for the defense of their town, mostly by hudling up in the upper hills of the city known as “The Rocks.”

2,600 British troops led by General Tryon arrived at Calf Pasture Beach at approximately 5:00 p.m. on July 10, 1779, where they spent the night. At dawn, Gen. Tryon marched his troops up what is now East Avenue while Tryon’s second-in-command Brigadier-general George Garth and his men were ferried across the harbor to what is now approximately the IMAX Theater of the Maritime Aquarium. Tryon did not see resistance until he reached Grumman’s Hill, where he met about fifty Americans commanded by Captain Stephen Betts. Far outnumbered, the Americans were soon forced into retreat.

To signal Tryon that they had arrived, the British set ablaze the building that stood at the present-day intersection of Washington and Water Streets (where Donovan’s restaurant presently stands). Then, the British under Garth began a slow drive down Washington Street, with house to house fighting, burning as they went. A second significant skirmish took place around Flax Hill, with the British being shot at from all sides. However, the British troops had been able to drag along a cannon and were able to fire down on the locals. Eventually, the British prevailed, and began a march down West Avenue and Wall Streets, again burning as they went.

General Tryon, in the meanwhile, was sitting in a rocking chair on Grumman’s Hill, watching Norwalk burn from across the river. Tryon and Garth then rejoined at the area of the Norwalk Green, and then proceeded to clear out the locals taking refuge in “The Rocks". Here, the British dispersed of the local militia (and captured an American cannon) and drove the towns people from the hills. On the march back to the ships, Tryon’s troops almost completely destroyed Norwalk; only six houses were spared. Tryon described the burning in his official dispatch to Henry Clinton:

“After many salt-pans were destroyed, whale-boats carried on board the fleet, and the magazines, stores, and vessels set in flames, with the greater part of the dwelling-houses, the advanced corps were drawn back, and the troops retired in two columns to the place of our first debarkation, and, unassaulted, took ship, and returned to Huntington Bay."

The assault claimed one hundred thirty homes, forty shops, one hundred barns, five ships, two churches, and some flour mills and saltworks. After the Revolutionary War, many residents were compensated for their losses with free land grants in the Connecticut Western Reserve in what is now Ohio; this later became Norwalk, Ohio.

Nineteenth Century

Norwalk is reputed to have been one of the stops on the northward land route of the Underground Railroad. Several trunk lines emanated from New York City, a central point in the escape route, which one passing through Greenwich, Darien, Norwalk, and Wilton. Several era-houses still standing have secret chambers or passageways that could have been used to hide runaways but no documentation exists that identifies one particular house or even one area. However, tradition states that a house at 69 East Avenue was Norwalk’s stop on the Railroad.

"Part of Main Street", 1855 engraving in Baillou's Pictorial

The first major U.S. railroad disaster occurred in Norwalk in 1853. An engineer carelessly neglected to check the open drawbridge signal as his one hundred and fifty passenger train approached the Norwalk River. He only realized the bridge was up within about four hundred feet of the gap, which proved to be insufficient to stop the train. The engineer and the fireman jumped from the train and then the locomotive, two baggage cars (the latter also a car for smokers) and two and a half passenger cars (the third car split when the train finally came to a stop) went plunging off the tracks into the river. Forty-six people drowned or were crushed to death, and an approximately thirty people were more or less severely injured.

In 1868, the Sheffield Island Lighthouse was activated in Long Island Sound off the coast of Norwalk.

Oyster farming in Norwalk peaked from the late 1800s to the early part of the 20th century. By 1880, Norwalk had the largest fleet of steam-powered oyster boats in the world, its fishermen having made the change from sails only a few years before. Although eventually overfishing pushed Norwalk's industry into a decline, a renaissance has been occurring since the later part of the last century, although oyster diseases Dermo and MSX remain a problem for the industry.

Twentieth Century

East Avenue, from a postcard sent in 1909

In 1913, the cities of Norwalk, South Norwalk and the East Norwalk Fire District consolidated into the present day City of Norwalk.

The Palace in South Norwalk was known in the theatrical world as “the theater you play before you play the Palace in New York.” The venue brought topflight entertainment to Norwalk during the roaring twenties. Comics Weber and Fields, Mae West, William S. Hart, and Harry Houdini all played the Palace. In particular, a huge multitude crowded onto the Washington Street Bridge to watch as Houdini was bound, placed in a trunk, and lowered into the Norwalk River. He emerged in minutes and the crowd breathed a loud sigh of relief.

The Ku Klux Klan, which preached a doctrine of Protestant control of America and suppression of blacks, Jews and Catholics, had a following in Norwalk in the 1920s. The Klan had a statewide membership of 15,000 at the peak of its popularity in 1925. By 1926, the Klan was riven by internal divisions and became ineffective, although it continued to maintain small, local branches for years afterward in Norwalk as well as Stamford, Bridgeport, Darien and Greenwich.

Over the weekend of October 14-17, 1955, 12-14 inches of tropical storm rain caused the Norwalk River, along with many other Connecticut rivers, to severely flood From the heavy rains some dams along the Norwalk River broke, sending walls of water surging downstream, knocking out birdges and additional dams. Several lives were lost in addition to millions of dollars worth of damage along the Norwalk River watershed alone. Norwalk's downtown area, located at the point the river flows into the Norwalk Harbor, was particularly devastated, and has yet to fully recover.

In the mid-1970s, under the administration Mayor William Collins, the city government and several local organizations started the South Norwalk Revitalization Project. Its goal was to preserve the historic architecture of South Norwalk ("SoNo") and revitalize the neighborhood, especially on Washington Street and several surrounding blocks. "The Washington Street National Historic District was established, and 32 buildings were placed on the National Register of Historic Places," according to the Web site for the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk.

The government, the Norwalk Redevelopment Agency, the Junior League of Stamford-Norwalk, The Oceanic Society and the Norwalk Seaport Association all worked to start an aquarium focusing on Long Island Sound as a tourist attraction to strengthen the business climate in the neighborhood. The aquarium, now named the Maritime Center at Norwalk, which was opened in 1986, was rounded out with an IMAX movie theater and a boat collection. In 1986, ground breaking ceremonies took place on the site of a former 1860s iron works factory, an abandoned brick building on the SoNo waterfront.

Twenty-first Century

In 2002 Norwalk was the location of the nationally-covered murder trial of Michael Skakel. After a four-week trial, Skakel was convicted on June 7 for the 1975 murder of Martha Moxley.

See also

List of Registered Historic Places in Norwalk, CT

References

Excursion steamer landing at Roton Point (1912 postcard)

External links

• Norwalk Historical Society
• Rowayton Historical Society