Calf Pasture Beach is a historically significant park and

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shel ...

Norwalk, Connecticut , image_map = Fairfield County Connecticut incorporated and unincorporated areas Norwalk highlighted.svg , mapsize = 230px , map_caption = Location in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Fairfield County and ...

. The area of the park lands (including adjacent Shady Beach Park and Taylor Farm Park) is approximately .45 square miles. The beach is accessible by road or by public transit;

Norwalk Transit District The Norwalk Transit District is the primary provider of public transportation services in Norwalk, Connecticut, United States, and surrounding communities. The local Norwalk fixed-route bus transit system, known as WHEELS, is the primary servic ...

provides direct bus service to the park and the East Norwalk Metro-North station is about one mile to the north along Calf Pasture Beach Road, Gregory Boulevard, and East Avenue. East Avenue also provides access to

I-95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from US Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the Canadia ...

at exit 16.

History

The area now known as Calf Pasture was used by

Connecticut colony The ''Connecticut Colony'' or ''Colony of Connecticut'', originally known as the Connecticut River Colony or simply the River Colony, was an English colony in New England which later became Connecticut. It was organized on March 3, 1636 as a settl ...

settlers in the 17th century as grazing land for cows. Deborah Wing Ray, Gloria P. Stewart (1979) (3rd printing 2004). ''Norwalk: being an historical account of that Connecticut town''. Norwalk, CT: Norwalk Historical Society. The beach was used for disembarkation and encampment during the Tryon raid of the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

in 1779. After having conducted retribution raids at

New Haven New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

and Fairfield,

William Tryon Lieutenant-General William Tryon (8 June 172927 January 1788) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator who served as governor of North Carolina from 1764 to 1771 and the governor of New York from 1771 to 1777. He also served durin ...

led 2,600 British troops by boat to Norwalk at approximately 5:00 p.m. on July 10, 1779. They landed near the Round Beach island at the Calf Pasture peninsula where they spent the night. The next day they set off on the burning of Norwalk that left only 6 houses standing after the raid.

History of Norwalk, Connecticut The history of Norwalk, Connecticut ranges from pre-contact cultures and Native Americans to the 21st century. Population Pre-Contact During an era when Native Americans had discovered the New World, Native Americans had unquestionably i ...

In 1917 the Norwalk City legislature authorized the city to acquire and create a park at Calf Pasture Beach. Property condemnation to acquire the land was started in 1919. In 1922 the descendants of the Betts, Marvin, and Taylor families, who owned much of the adjoining property, donated their lands to the city. The park formally opened in 1924 while work on buildings and nearby roads was still underway.Deborah Wing Ray, Gloria P. Stewart (1979) pp. 187-189 Additional buildings and sidewalks were constructed at Calf Pasture in 1935 with funding provided by the

Federal Emergency Relief Administration The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) was a program established by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933, building on the Hoover administration's Emergency Relief and Construction Act. It was replaced in 1935 by the Works Progress Adm ...

.Deborah Wing Ray, Gloria P. Stewart (1979) p. 192 Many of the buildings and sidewalks were washed away during the hurricane of September 1938. They were then replaced by

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

workers.Deborah Wing Ray, Gloria P. Stewart (1979) p. 197 Shady Beach was acquired in the 1960s.Deborah Wing Ray, Gloria P. Stewart (1979) p. 213 From 2000 to 2006 the Kayak for a Cause charitable fundraising event was held at Calf Pasture Beach. In 2007 that event was held at Veterans Park (also in East Norwalk) on the Connecticut shore. In 2008 it returned to Calf Pasture Beach. All of the park facilities (Calf Pasture Beach, Shady Beach, and Taylor Farm) are still owned and maintained by the City of Norwalk.

Facilities

The Calf Pasture Beach area has a large guarded

, a fishing

pier image:Brighton Pier, Brighton, East Sussex, England-2Oct2011 (1).jpg, Seaside pleasure pier in Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th century. A pier is a raised structure that rises above a body of ...

, a tree shaded

playground A playground, playpark, or play area is a place designed to provide an environment for children that facilitates play, typically outdoors. While a playground is usually designed for children, some are designed for other age groups, or people ...

, a small unpaved

boat ramp A slipway, also known as boat ramp or launch or boat deployer, is a ramp on the shore by which ships or boats can be moved to and from the water. They are used for building and repairing ships and boats, and for launching and retrieving small ...

(suited to cartop boat launches, not trailers), sand volleyball courts, bocce courts, a

skateboard park A skatepark, or skate park, is a purpose-built recreational environment made for skateboarding, BMX, Freestyle scootering, scootering, wheelchairs, and aggressive inline skating. A skatepark may contain half-pipes, handrails, funboxes, vert r ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

diamonds (with lighting for nighttime games), accessible restrooms, and a restaurant maintained by Ripka Beach Cafe. During the spring and autumn seasons the parking lot at Calf Pasture Beach is used for

kart racing Kart racing or karting is a road racing variant of motorsport with open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on kart circuit, scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are als ...

. Adjacent Shady Beach Park offers an unmonitored beach, shaded picnic tables, grills, and additional restroom facilities. Adjacent to Shady Beach is Taylor Farm Park, with a tidal pool and grassy and wooded areas for dogwalking. Taylor Farm Park is the site of an annual Greenwich Kennel club dog show.

Sailboat A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails and is smaller than a sailing ship. Distinctions in what constitutes a sailing boat and ship vary by region and maritime culture. Types Although sailboat terminology ...

s and

kayak A kayak is a small, narrow watercraft which is typically propelled by means of a double-bladed paddle. The word kayak originates from the Greenlandic word ''qajaq'' (). The traditional kayak has a covered deck and one or more cockpits, each se ...

s can be rented within the park at th
Norwalk Sailing School
which also offers a small craft safety training program.Norwalk Sailing School
/ref> Calf Pasture Beach is a major landmark along the Norwalk Islands Canoe/Kayak Trail. Boater safety courses are offered at the Dominic Lametta training center a
U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 72
at Calf Pasture. The annual

4th of July Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music) In music a fourth is an interval spanning four staff po ...

fireworks show in Norwalk is held at Calf Pasture Beach.

References

External links

{{commons category
CT DEP: Calf Pasture Beach
* http://www.norwalkkartingassociation.net/ * http://norwalksailingschool.org/ * http://a0140702.uscgaux.info/ * http://www.greenwichkc.org/ * https://web.archive.org/web/20080309214241/http://www.westportoutfitters.com/ Geography of Norwalk, Connecticut Long Island Sound Parks in Fairfield County, Connecticut

Beaches of Connecticut {{Beaches of the United States Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, ...

Peninsulas of Connecticut Landforms of Fairfield County, Connecticut Works Progress Administration in Connecticut Tourist attractions in Norwalk, Connecticut