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Mill River Park is a 12-acre urban park located in Stamford,
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, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
, which separates
Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...
from the
West Side West Side or Westside may refer to: Places Canada * West Side, a neighbourhood of Windsor, Ontario * West Side, a neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia United Kingdom * West Side, Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland * Westside, Birmingham E ...
.


History

The park's history began in 1998, when landscape architecture firm
Sasaki Associates Sasaki is a design firm specializing in Architecture, Interior Design, Urban Design, Space Planning, Landscape Architecture, Ecology, Civil Engineering, and Place Branding. The firm is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, but practices on an i ...
was commissioned to draft a plan to reclaim the area along a segment of the
Rippowam River The Rippowam River is a river in Fairfield County, Connecticut and Westchester County, New York (United States). It drains a watershed area of and flows for from Ridgefield to Long Island Sound, which it enters in Stamford's harbor. Stream ...
known as Mill River as a
public park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a municipal park (North America) or a public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park in cities and other incorporated places that offer recreation and green space to re ...
. In July 2007, the city government of Stamford released a master plan for the redevelopment of the area. The plan entailed three stages: the first stage, where the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...
would remove a
dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...
along the river and decrease the river's
floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...
, a second stage for the construction of programming elements and walkways, and a third stage for additional amenities. The width of the Mill River was to be narrowed to less than half of its then-expanse, which would expand the park's area and provide space for more amenities. The master plan outlined the construction of a
carousel A carousel or carrousel (mainly North American English), merry-go-round (List of sovereign states, international), roundabout (British English), or hurdy-gurdy (an old term in Australian English, in South Australia, SA) is a type of amusement ...
, fountain,
ice rink An ice rink (or ice skating rink) is a frozen body of water and/or an artificial sheet of ice created using hardened chemicals where people can ice skate or play winter sports. Ice rinks are also used for exhibitions, contests and ice shows. The ...
, and a network of trails connecting a greenway with the Kosciuszko, Southfield, and Scalzi parks. Removing the dam will also allow fish to swim up from Long Island Sound. As of 2007, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had spent $800,000 on preliminary studies, planning, and design. In 2009, an $8 million restoration of the Mill River, $5 million of which was federally funded, began. It was followed by a second $12-million phase, which consisted primarily of installing infrastructure such as lighting, benches, and plantings. Mill River Park was expanded in an $8.5 million project, including $4 million in federal funding earmarked in 2007, with the city government financing the rest of the cost. The federal funding was to pay for removing the Mill River dam and dredging.Porstner, Donna, "Stamford to get $7M from feds", ''The Advocate'' of Stamford, Connecticut, December 20, 2007, Stamford edition, page 1 As of 2013, the master plan for Mill River Park is projected to cost $60 million and to encompass 28 acres. 12 acres of the Mill River Park opened in May 2013. In 2017, the park inaugurated the indoor carousel, and the ice skating rink and fountain were added in 2018. The Whittingham Discovery Center, a building for educational programming described by the
Stamford Advocate ''The Advocate'' is a seven-day daily newspaper based in Stamford, Connecticut. The paper is owned and operated by Hearst Communications, a multinational corporate media conglomerate with $4 billion in revenues. ''The Advocate'' circulates in S ...
as "part museum, part-classroom, part community space", opened in June 2022.


Notable flora and fauna

The Mill River Park was formerly home to a grove of
cherry trees A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The na ...
, which were presented to the city on April 27, 1957, by Junzo Nojima, a native of Japan who had settled in the city in 1926, and in 1932 became the first Japanese man to own a restaurant in the state (K&J Three Decker Restaurant on Atlantic Street). Nojima gave the city 120 trees, and for three years he watered each one until they took root. He gave the city instructions on how to care for them, but when they were overlooked, he began tending the trees himself. On Arbor Day, April 27, 2007, the city celebrated the 50th anniversary of the gift with a ceremony at the park. The cherry trees were removed in March 2009, as part of the renovations in the park's construction, but seeds from a select few were transferred to a nursery, and were planted in the fall of 2012.


References

{{Reflist 2013 establishments in Connecticut Geography of Stamford, Connecticut Parks in Fairfield County, Connecticut Protected areas established in 2013 Tourist attractions in Stamford, Connecticut