![PostcardStamfordCTNorotonRiver1911](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/PostcardStamfordCTNorotonRiver1911.jpg)
The Noroton River is a
[U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data]
The National Map
accessed April 1, 2011 stream flowing into Holly Pond and forming most of the border between
Stamford and
Darien,
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 ...
, United States. The river's headwaters are in
New Canaan, Connecticut
New Canaan () is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 20,622 according to the 2020 census.
About an hour from Manhattan by train, the town is considered part of Connecticut's Gold Coast. The town is bounde ...
. It is the largest flowing body of water between the
Mill River/Rippowam River to the west and the
Fivemile River to the east, although Stony Brook and the Goodwives River in Darien are not much smaller.
Pollution runoff from
Interstate 95
Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from U.S. Route 1, US Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Miami, Florida, to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between M ...
flows down the Noroton River into Holly Pond. In 2009, the Stamford and Darien local governments asked the federal government for an $11.7 million grant to fund 65 percent of an $18 million project for "dredging and ecosystem restoration" in the pond and river, including "construction of wetlands, bioswales and other restoration structures".
Two restaurants are located at the mouth of the river, where
U.S. Route 1
U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, making i ...
(known as the Boston Post Road on the Darien side and East Main Street on the Stamford side) crosses it. Both feature windows offering diners a view of the river. The restaurant on the north side is in Stamford. On the south side, the current Giovanni's II Steakhouse is the most recent business to occupy a lot where restaurants have been sited since the early 20th century.
Geography
To the west of the river are the
Glenbrook and
Springdale sections of Stamford; to the east are the
Noroton and
Noroton Heights sections of Darien. At its southern end, the stream forms a small valley between Noroton Hill to the west and Hollow Tree Ridge to the east. Farther north, in New Canaan, Ponus Ridge is to the east.
Crossings
North from the mouth of the river (Stamford-Darien border):
*
U.S. Route 1
U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, making i ...
—
Boston Post Road
The Boston Post Road was a system of mail-delivery routes between New York City and Boston, Massachusetts that evolved into one of the first major highways in the United States.
The three major alignments were the Lower Post Road (now U.S. Ro ...
(in Darien), East Main Street (in Stamford)
*
Interstate 95
Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from U.S. Route 1, US Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Miami, Florida, to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between M ...
* Maple Tree Avenue (Stamford)/West Avenue (Darien)
*
Connecticut Route 106
Route 106 is a state highway in southwestern Connecticut, running from Stamford to Wilton.
Route description
Route 106 begins at a junction with I-95 (exit 9) and US 1 in the East Side of Stamford as Courtland Avenue then turning right on ...
—Glenbrook Road (Stamford)/Middlesex Road (Darien)
* Camp Avenue
* Woodway Road
In New Canaan:
*
C.T. Route 15 —
Merritt Parkway
The Merritt Parkway (also known locally as "The Merritt") is a limited-access parkway in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Fairfield County, Connecticut, with a small section at the northern end in New Haven County, Connecticut, New Haven County. ...
* Jelliff Mill Road (named after Jelliff Mill, where a dam of the river creates Jelliff Mill Pond
* Indian Waters Drive
* Frogtown Road
* Wahackme Road (where the river goes through a bird sanctuary)
* Greenley Road
* West Road
* Country Club Road
History
Before the 20th century
The
Siwanoy
The Siwanoy () were an Indigenous American band of Wappinger people, who lived in Long Island Sound along the coasts of what are now The Bronx, Westchester County, New York, and Fairfield County, Connecticut. They were one of the western bands of ...
sachendom of the
Wappinger
The Wappinger () were an Eastern Algonquian Munsee-speaking Native American people from what is now southern New York and western Connecticut.
At the time of first contact in the 17th century they were primarily based in what is now Dutches ...
tribe had settled the area before the English came. At the mouth of the river, Indians had a village named "Noroaton".
The area surrounding the river became part of Stamford in the 17th century. In the 1680s, one of the earliest settlements of the English in Darien was founded near the east side of the river, on "Noroton Cove" (the former name of Holly Pond). The settlement included a sawmill built by a dam on the river, just north of where Interstate 95 now crosses it.
["In Search of the Past: A self-Guided Tour of Darien" by Patricia Q. Wall, a 20-page booklet published by the Darien Historical Society in 1986.]
During the
Revolutionary War, Stephen Weed was released from the infamous Sugar House Prison in New York City in a prisoner exchange. The New Canaan resident then built a stone fort near his home on the east side of the stream, just south of where Frogtown Road crosses the Noroton.
[Duff, Beth Longware]
"Streete Signs", article, ''New Canaan/Darien & Rowayton'' magazine, January 2008 (the article quotes Charles Morton), retrieved September 26, 2010
/ref> "He steadily insisted that the British would raid the parish and that this line of march would be up the Noroton River valley," according to Charles P. Morton's ''Landmarks of New Canaan'', published by the New Canaan Historical Society in 1951. To the south, Middlesex Parish (which later became the town of Darien) had been raided several times during the Revolution. Weed manned the fort as a precaution against a possible attack for nine years, long after the war was over.[
In 1912, a ''New York Times'' article on recreational summer streetcar trips recommended taking in the view at the Noroton River bridge:
::Stand on the bridge over the Noroton at Stamford and take in the first of a series of beautiful pictures that everywhere meet the tourist's gaze. Here is historic interest again, many Revolutionary incidents having taken place around the neighborhood.
The "Revolutionary incidents" in Noroton during the American Revolution were raids by Tories based on Long Island, across the sound, sometimes resulting in fatalities—the incidents that terrified Stephen Weed in the late 18th century. The trolley stopped at the Noroton River, where passengers needed to disembark, walk across the bridge and take another trolley car because there was no through connection at the time. In December 1914, the Darien and Stamford governments agreed to help finance a widening of the bridge taking the Post Road over the Noroton River so that an electric streetcar line could operate over it. The gap in streetcar service was the last one between New York City and Boston.
The Phillips family, heirs of ]Charles Henry Phillips
Charles Henry Phillips (1822 – 1888) was an English pharmacist who is universally known for his invention ''Phillips' Milk of Magnesia''.
Early days
He moved from England to an estate at 666 Glenbrook Rd. in Glenbrook, a section of Sta ...
, who created Phillips Milk of Magnesia
Magnesium hydroxide is the inorganic compound with the chemical formula Mg(OH)2. It occurs in nature as the mineral brucite. It is a white solid with low solubility in water (). Magnesium hydroxide is a common component of antacids, such as milk ...
, long had a Tudor-style mansion on a four-acre lot along the Noroton River in Glenbrook (where the first Milk of Magnesia factory was located). In the mid-1980s, the property was converted into a condominium development called "River Walk".
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
, working with a landscape architect, Frank Okamura, reshaped a portion of the river running through a 13-acre New Canaan estate for which Wright designed the Rayward-Shepherd House (built between 1956 and 1968).
Flooding on August 19, 1955, caused seven Darien families to be evacuated from their homes along the river. On October 16, two days of heavy rain caused the river to again flood, weakening the roadbed of the New Haven Line
The Metro-North Railroad New Haven Line is a commuter rail line running from New Haven, Connecticut to New York City. It joins the Harlem Line at Mount Vernon, New York and continues south to Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. The New Haven ...
and causing 20 cars of a freight train (but not the engine) to derail on the Stamford side of the river just after midnight. None of the six-member crew was hurt. After the flooding, one of a number of floods in the Northeastern United States caused by the same rains, the river "twisted madly through a 120-foot gap in the roadbed" of the New Haven Line near Glenbrook.[Dean, Clarence]
"Connecticut's Flooded Valleys Offer Scene of Havoc From Air"
October 18, 1955, ''New York Times'', retrieved September 26, 2010
See also
*List of rivers of Connecticut
Most of Connecticut's rivers flow into Long Island Sound and from there the waters mix into the Atlantic Ocean. A few extremely eastern rivers flow into Block Island Sound. The list is arranged by drainage basin from east to west, with respective t ...
References
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Darien, Connecticut
New Canaan, Connecticut
Rivers of Fairfield County, Connecticut
Geography of Stamford, Connecticut
Rivers of Connecticut