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Stamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 117,083.

For the first half of 2004, Stamford was the safest city in the United States with population over 100,000, according to the FBI. Given Stamford's urbanness, and diversity this is an extraordinary accomplishment; however, crime in the nearby New York metropolitan area in general has diminished greatly since the 1990s and is actually lower than many other major U.S. metropolitan areas today.

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. The land that now forms the city of Stamford was bought for 12 coats, 12 hoes, 12 hatchets, 12 glasses, 12 knives, four kettles, and four fathoms of white wampum. The deed was renegotiated several times until 1700 when the territory was given up by the Native American inhabitants for a more substantial sum of money.

One of the primary industries of the small colony 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.

Stamford is the birthplace of the electric dry shaver industry. By 1940 Colonel Jacob Schick employed almost 1,000 workers at the Schick Dry Shaver Company on Atlantic Street.* "About the Avon" web page at web site for the Avon Theatre, accessed 28 June, 2006

Downtown development

Despite its age, Stamford has very few historic buildings. This can be attributed to a massive urban redevelopment campaign (starting in the 1960s and gaining steam in the 1970s) that changed the face of the downtown, giving it its distinctive look as a modern, very urban-looking business district with a high skyline.

The few historic buildings include Old Town Hall (1905, currently unoccupied) and Hoyt Barnum House (1699) And the old Yale and Towne building (1869) it was once a lock company (the city seal has the two keys from it).

The F.D. Rich Co., a construction company founded by F.D. Rich Sr., an Italian stonemason (with an Americanized name) several decades before, was the city-designated urban renewal developer of the downtown,

The redevelopment was contentious, with groups of residents suing to prevent the demolition of nine city blocks and the displacement of 400 businesses and 110 families.* New York Times article, "Commercial Property/Stamford, Conn.: A Pioneer Business Park That Confounded Critics," by Eleanor Charles, Sept. 26, 1999 Page accessed on 23 June, 2006

After building High Ridge Park, a suburban corporate campus, in the 1960s, the company put up the city's tallest structure, Landmark Building, and the GTE building (now One Stamford Forum). The Stamford Marriott, with a revolving restaurant dining room at the top, overlooking Long Island Sound, is another F.D. Rich landmark that changed the look of Downtown.

F.D. Rich Co. also built the Stamford Town Center mall, 4, 6, 8 and 10 Stamford Forum, 300 Atlantic Street and 177 Broad Street. When real estate prices collapsed in the 1980s, the company had to sell nearly all of its properties, although it continues to rent space in Landmark Square.

Many of the buildings along Tresser Boulevard, parallel to Interstate 95, had little but garage entrances and exits accessing the street, although they presented a modern, glittering glass facade to travelers along the highway. The Rich family (which still owns F.D. Rich Co.) was criticized for creating pedestrian-unfriendly streets, and Tresser Boulevard became notorious among many architecture and urban design critics.

"The streets were never meant to be for pedestrians," Robert N. Rich told a reporter for the New York Times in 1999, when he headed the company. "GTE came here because they were bombed in New York. Crime was a problem in the city. That's why the buildings were designed to be impenetrable."

Over the years, other developers have joined F.D. Rich Co. in building up the downtown, including Antares, which has built some of the large condominium projects, and W&M Properties, which built and owns Metro Center, a prominent building just south of the Stamford train station where Thomson Corporation, officially a Canadian company, has its operational headquarters.

F.D. Rich Co., still headquartered in the Landmark building, sold nearly all of its Stamford buildings (including the Landmark) in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The company recently built a hotel at the corner of Summer and Broad streets. The Rich Forum, a downtown performing arts center, is named after F.D. Rich.

Geography and climate

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 134.9 km² (52.1 mi²). 97.8 km² (37.8 mi²) of it is land and 37.1 km² (14.3 mi²) of it (27.52%) is water.

Neighborhoods

Stamford is broken into sections, 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 North Stamford (zip code 06903) known for its wealth, Turn of River, Roxbury, Newfield, Belltown, Springdale, Glenbrook, Hubbard Heights, Shippan, also known as "Shippan Point", the Cove, Westover and Long Ridge, which is home to many blue chip corporations.

Downtown also has a shopping mall, the Stamford Town Center, opened 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.

Crime

According to a 2004 FBI report, Stamford is the 4th safest city in the United States with population over 100,000. According to the same report for the first half of 2005, Stamford was the safest city in the United States with population over 100,000. The low crime rate has been attributed to effective policing. The crime has gone up dramatically since the death of Flannigan Joseph. There has been a string of shootings and robberies on Stamford's westside in the past 5 months.

Economic disparity

While Stamford's proximity to New York City and low crime rate make it an attractive community in which to reside, the city suffers from a certain amount of economic skewing. High property values, expensive rents, and numerous low-income housing projects mean that the majority of residents of Stamford are either very rich or very poor. This condition is very similar to what one finds in Manhattan. This phenomenon of economic skewing is widespread throughout Fairfield County, and indeed throughout Connecticut, a state with the dubious distinction of possessing both the richest and poorest citizens in the nation.

Surrounded by the old-money towns of Greenwich, New Canaan, Darien, and Westport, Stamford is generally considered a haven of the newly rich, as the modern, spacious homes built in North Stamford can attest.

Housing

Housing in Stamford is varied. The downtown area and the neighborhoods immediately north of it, especially along Strawberry Hill Avenue, have numerous high-rise apartment and condo buildings. Condos dominate in Glenbrook and The Cove, while Westover, Shippan and North Stamford are almost exclusively covered by expensive single-family housing. Urban decay in Stamford is nowhere close to what has been achieved in other Connecticut cities; however, parts of the South End, the West Side and Waterside are known for poverty and overcrowded housing.

Economy

The downtown area of Stamford has a cluster of modern commercial buildings, some of which are corporate headquarters (many of which moved from New York in the 1980s both to lower their tax bill and to be closer to the homes of their top executives). This includes four Fortune 500 Companies, nine Fortune 1000 Companies, and thirteen Courant 100 Companies, as well as numerous divisions of large corporations, such as GE Commercial Finance, a division of General Electric. This gives Stamford one of the largest concentration of corporations in the nation. UBS AG, International Paper, and Purdue Pharma are some of the companies headquartered downtown. Pitney Bowes has its headquarters in South End, World Wrestling Entertainment and Clairol on the East Side, Xerox, Hyperion, and GE Commercial Finance on Long Ridge Road, several miles north of downtown. 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 across the street from the future site of RBS, at the U.S. headquarters of UBS AG. Comcast's OLN also holds it's NHL studios in Stamford. Stamford is also the home of World Wrestling Entertainment, the largest sports entertainment company in the world.

Education

Stamford has branches of the University of Connecticut, University of Bridgeport and Sacred Heart University. The University of Connecticut's campus is located in a large modern building in downtown that opened in 1998 after extensive renovations to an abandoned former Bloomingdales store. The other two are located in small office parks in Springdale. All are commuter campuses.

At one time, Stamford had a well-funded public education system. However, budget cuts by the city's Board of Finance in recent years have put a strain on the school system. Stamford is a fully integrated school district whose racial balance requirements exceed those of the state of Connecticut. State standards require that a school's racial makeup be within 25% of the community's racial makeup. Stamford's standard is a more strict 10%. Over the years, schools have become unbalanced, leading to a real need for redistricting. Stamford has four high schools, Westhill High School, Stamford High School, Trinity Catholic High School and the Academy of Information Technology and Engineering. Stamford also has several private schools including The King and Low Heywood Thomas School.

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. 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.
  • 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.

Science and nature

In the 20th century, particularly after World War II, educational and cultural institutions were founded or expanded in a range of areas.

  • From its founding in 1936 until 1945, the Stamford Museum and Nature Center (then known as "The Stamford Museum") was in a few rented rooms downtown. It set up the first small planetarium between New York and Boston in 1941, when it had a 6-inch (wide) telescope and a dome made of wood slats and cardboard. In the 1950s the museum had to move again when Interstate 95 was built, and it went to a 118-acre site in the northern end of town.

  • The Fairfield County Astronomy Society was started up in 1956 and ran the new Stamford Observatory. A 20-inch telescope, made with donated materials from numerous businesses, most notably the Perkin-Elmer Corporation (then headquartered in Norwalk) was dedicated on June 13, 1965. Since the relatively large telescope went into operation the astronomy club has conducted research and for a time became the home of the Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers.

  • Bartlett Arboretum and Gardens. In November 1965 the state of Connecticut bought the 64-acre estate of Dr. Francis A. Bartlett, a dendrologist who had planted the site with tree and bush specimens from all over the world. The Arboretum opened to the public for the first time in 1966 and was transferred to the City of Stamford in 2001. Today the Bartlett Arboretum Association runs the institution, and an additional 27 acres have been added to the site, giving it a total of 91 acres.

  • SoundWaters Community Center for Environmental Education

Theater

  • Stamford Center for the Arts: The Palace Theatre, originally opened as a vaudeville house in 1927 and gradually fell into disrepair and disuse, reopened as a restored, 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. In 2005 the Palace Theatre completed a major renovation.

Movie houses

  • 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.

  • Crown Theatres has two movie houses in Stamford with a total of 15 movie screens: Crown Landmark and Crown Majestic.

  • The two-screen State Cinema in Springdale has second-run films and some art films.

  • The Ferguson Library also shows films.

Music

  • Stamford Symphony Orchestra In a typical season, the SSO typically 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.

Organized in 1919, the orchestra closed down after World War II when too many of its European musicians returned home. In 1967 the orchestra was revived and became fully professional by 1974, when Skitch Henderson was appointed music director. Henderson's reign was interupted in January 1975 by a prison sentence for tax evasion. The current music director is Eckart Preu, appointed in June 2005.

  • Connecticut Grand Opera, a not-for-profit, professional opera company founded in 1993, with offices at 15 Bank Street and performances 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."

Distinctive Architecture

CHURCHES

  • The "Fish Church," or the First Presbyterian Church of Stamford, was designed by Wallace K. Harrison, the chief architect of the United Nations buildings in New York City, and opened in 1958. The fish shape is obvious to anyone who drives by, but the floor plan is also fish-shaped. The stained glass windows in the sanctuary contain more than 20,000 pieces of faceted glass. They depict the story of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. The 32-foot-high cross is faced with wood from Canterbury Cathedral. "Brilliant blues, reds and yellows make up the walls -- and seem to fill the air. 'It really is like being inside a jewel,' says Reverend David R. Van Dyke, a co-pastor. 'When I bring people who havent been here before, there's an audible gasp.'" (Life Magazine, April 14, 2005)
*"America's Coolest Churches," Life magazine, April 14, 2005, accessed July 5, 2006.

  • St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church is modeled on a Gothic church in Europe.

VICTOR BISHARAT'S BUILDINGS

Many of the most distinctive buildings in downtown Stamford were designed by the late Victor Bisharat, a Jordanian who received his education at the American University in Beiruit, Lebanon and at the University of California at Berkeley. His Stamford buildings were designed for F.D. Rich Co.[http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=129193, Emporis web site, accessed July 5, 2006

  • St. John's Towers -- The three cylindrical, 17-story towers were finished in 1971.
  • One Stamford Forum-- Looking like an upside-down ziggurat above its three-story parking garage, the building has an enclosed arboretum rising from the ninth floor to the penthouse roof, which is covered by 76 plexiglass domes. Formerly the "GTE building" named after a former tenant, the 13-floor structure is 196 feet (60 meters) high. GTE used to show off the building in numerous magazine advertisements.
  • One Landmark Square -- completed in 1973, the skyscraper became the tallest building between New York City and New Haven. The "Landmark" in its name is no exaggeration. When it was built, the 21-story structure towered over a much lower skyline, but it remains the tallest and one of the most distinctive buildings in downtown Stamford.
  • 1 High Ridge Park -- Completed in the late 1960s, the building looks like a fortress, complete with a moat (previously filled with water, it is now dry). Bridges lead to its entrances. It was built for CBS Research a company worried about its security. Originally the building had few or no windows facing outward and tenants saw the sunlight through atriums and skylights. In the 1970s, after CBS Research left, slit-like window areas were put in the outside walls, letting in some light.
  • 2 High Ridge Park -- The saucerlike building was meant to recall clocks and watches. The building was originally built for General Time, a large clock manufacturer.

OTHER BUILDINGS

  • One Atlantic Street -- Art Deco interiors, with murals in the ground-floor bank, and Art Deco exterior details as well. The red-brick/white marble building at the corner of Broad and Atlantic streets was finished in 1931 and for a long time was the tallest in Stamford.

Communications and media

The headquarters of the Time Warner Cable, Outdoor Life Network and World Wrestling Entertainment reside in Stamford, amongst others. The major daily newspaper is The Advocate, owned by the Tribune Company. The city's magazine is Stamford Plus magazine, published independently.

Radio stations in the city

  • WSTC-AM 1400; 1,000 watts; shares programming with WNLK-AM 1350
  • WEDW-FM 88.5; 2,000 watts, a National Public Radio station

Transportation

Stamford is a transportation hub for smaller communities in Fairfield County and is one of the largest cities on the route between New York City and Boston. It is located on one of the busiest stretches of highway in the nation, and is in the vicinity of six major airports.

Mass transit

Stamford is located on the main branch of the New Haven Line on the Metro-North Railroad, the commuter rail system for metropolitan New York City. Stamford Station is the last express station in the direction of New York City, and thus serves as a major transfer point for faster trains into New York City. Stamford Station is also the terminus of a Metro-North branch line that ends in New Canaan, about 15 miles (24 km) away. There are two smaller local stations in Stamford, Glenbrook and Springdale along the New Canaan Branch.

A major increase in the population of Fairfield County in the 1990s put Metro North service under increasing strain to cope with the increase in commuters. Currently, the system operates at capacity with an express train departing from Stamford Station in both directions of the New Haven line every hour during off-peak hours and every 10 to 15 minutes during peak hours. The antiquated M2 railcars have started to break down more regularly, although there is a large service depot located near Stamford Station. While Metro North, in conjunction with New York State for funding, has replaced all the M1A railcars with newer M7A's on all New York State-only lines, it continues to operate the M2's to Connecticut, as the New York State-only lines run on third-rail, and the Connecticut portion is overhead wired, as it is shared with the Northeast Corridor. In 2005, Connecticut outlined a plan to replace the trains on the New Haven Line, with the M8's scheduled to enter revenue service in 2008.

Stamford Station is also a major Amtrak station and has its own Amtrak ticket counter. Stamford is served by the high-speed Acela trains that run from Washington, DC to Boston. Metroliners also connect Stamford to the rest of the country via Pennsylvania Station in New York City. During the height of the dot com bubble, there was talk of starting a ferry service between Stamford, Long Island, and New York City, but the plans have fallen by the wayside as tax revenue for the city declined.

Airports

Stamford does not have its own airport. However, its location is within an hour of six major airports. International flights come in to John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York and Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey. Commuter and short-haul flights arrive at Westchester County, LaGuardia, and Tweed-Tweed New Haven airports.

Buses

Bus transportation is provided by CT Transit which is run and financed by the Connecticut Department of Transportation. The bus terminus for the city is located under the highway across State Street from Stamford Station. Bus service runs along major arterial roads as well as connecting the city to Darien, Norwalk, Greenwich and Port Chester, New York.

Highways

Stamford is located on one of the busiest road transportation corridors in the United States. Interstate 95, which runs through the southern portion of the city, is the main highway between New York City and Boston. There are four exits in Stamford, two of which service downtown where the highway is elevated to allow traffic to pass underneath.

The Merritt Parkway runs through northern Stamford. It is has been designated a historic road by the State of Connecticut for the art deco design of many of the bridges that pass over it. Due to the low height of the bridges, no trucks of any kind are allowed on the road, so it serves little commercial transportation use. However, it is used heavily by commuters into Stamford, Greenwich, and New York.

Demographics

As of the census² of 2000, there were 117,083 people, 45,399 households, and 28,964 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,197.5/km² (3,101.9/mi²). There were 47,317 housing units at an average density of 484.0/km² (1,253.6/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 69.79% White 65.4% of Whites were of Italian origin, 15.39% Black or African American, 0.21% Native American, 5.00% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 6.50% from other races, and 3.07% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 16.77% of the population.

There were 45,399 households out of which 28.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.5% were married couples living together, 11.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.2% were non-families. 28.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.54 and the average family size was 3.13.

In the city the population was spread out with 22.1% under the age of 18, 7.4% from 18 to 24, 35.0% from 25 to 44, 21.7% from 45 to 64, and 13.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 93.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.9 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $60,556, and the median income for a family was $69,337. Males had a median income of $48,386 versus $36,958 for females. The per capita income for the city was $34,987. About 5.4% of families and 7.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.7% of those under age 18 and 9.7% of those age 65 or over.

Italians form the largest ethnic group in Stamford. Irish, Polish, Jewish, Puerto Rican, African-American, and Caribbean people also make up a significant portion of the population.

Notable people, past and present

Movies filmed in Stamford

In reverse chronological order:

  • Bottom Floor (2004)
  • Dark Exposures (2004)
  • How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Superlaser (2003)
  • Ethereal Plane, The (2002)
  • Moby Presents: Alien Sex Party (2003)
  • Occupational Hazard (2004)
  • Rock & Roll Superhero (2003)
  • Chooch (2003)
  • Three Long Years (2003)
  • Wrong Number (2001)
  • Beyond the Mat (1999)
  • Scenes from a Mall (1991)
  • Dracula Exotica a/k/a Love at First Gulp (1981)
  • The Horror of Party Beach (1964)
  • The Curse of the Living Corpse (1964)
  • The Cardinal (1963)
  • Boomerang! (1947)
  • The Struggle (1931)
  • The Sporting Duchess (1920)
  • How Molly Malone Made Good a/k/a How Molly Made Good (1915)
  • The Impalement (1910)
  • In the Season of Buds (1910)

Source: Internet Movie DataBase page on Stamford

References

See also

External links

Cities in Connecticut | Fairfield County, Connecticut | Stamford, Connecticut

Stamford (Connecticut) | Stamford (Konetikuto) | Stamford (Connecticut) | Stamford | Stamford (Connecticut) | Stamford (Connecticut) | Stamford (Connecticut) | Stamford

 

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