Westover is an affluent section of Stamford, Connecticut, United States. With a median household income of $186,607, it is one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the city, along with

Shippan Point Shippan Point (or Shippan) is the southernmost neighborhood in Stamford, Connecticut, Stamford, Connecticut, United States, located on a peninsula in Long Island Sound. Street names such as Ocean Drive West and Lighthouse Way reflect the neighbor ...

and

North Stamford North Stamford is an affluent section of Stamford, Connecticut, United States, north of the Merritt Parkway. Mostly woody and hilly, it is the least densely populated, and highest income section of the city with a 2018 median household income of $ ...

. The neighborhood is bordered by

Mianus River State Park Mianus may refer to: *Mianus River The Mianus River is a river in Westchester County, New York, and Fairfield County, Connecticut, in the United States. It begins in the town of North Castle, New York (east of Armonk) in a series of ponds at ...

to the west, the

Merritt Parkway The Merritt Parkway (also known locally as "The Merritt") is a limited-access parkway in Fairfield County, Connecticut, with a small section at the northern end in New Haven County. Designed for Connecticut's Gold Coast, the parkway is known ...

to the north, Stillwater Road to the east, and Palmer Hill Road to the south. The neighborhood contains a mix of pre-war estates and large homes, as well as more modest homes.

History

During the Revolutionary War, Fort Stamford was constructed in what is now Westover to aid in the defense of Connecticut from loyalist raids. At its peak, the fort was home to 800 soldiers. During the February 26, 1779 raid on

Greenwich Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

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 ...

, General

Israel Putnam Israel Putnam (January 7, 1718 – May 29, 1790), popularly known as "Old Put", was an American military officer and landowner who fought with distinction at the Battle of Bunker Hill during the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783). He als ...

rode to Fort Stamford to rally reinforcements. Troops from the fort successfully defended Stamford in a battle near Palmer's Hill and the

Mianus River The Mianus River is a river in Westchester County, New York, and Fairfield County, Connecticut, in the United States. It begins in the town of North Castle, New York (east of Armonk) in a series of ponds at about altitude. Flowing northeast ...

at the southern end of the neighborhood. In later years, residents of the neighborhood began referring to Fort Stamford as "Fort Nonsense." Westover was originally home to several large estates, such as the Treetops Estate of Libby Holman, the Goodbody Estate of the Goodbody family, and the Fortland Farm estate of the Ogden family. Westover Road was converted from a dirt road to a Macadam road in 1915.

Landmarks

Westover is the home of Fort Stamford, a Revolutionary War era fortification. The Fort Stamford site also includes the Goodbody Garden, an Italianate formal garden from the former Goodbody Mansion which stood on the site until 1970s. The neighborhood is home to the Treetops Estate of actress and torch singer

Libby Holman Elizabeth Lloyd Holman (née Holzman; May 23, 1904 – June 18, 1971) was an American socialite, actress, singer, and activist. Early life Elizabeth Lloyd Holzman was born May 23, 1904, in Cincinnati, Ohio, the daughter of a lawyer and stockbrok ...

Notable people

had an estate in Westover, see Treetops (state park). *

Louis Schanker Louis Schanker (1903 – May 7, 1981) was an American abstract artist. Early life He grew up in an Orthodox Jewish environment in the Bronx, New York. His parents, Sam, a tailor, and Fannie Schanker, were of Romanian descent. He had five sibl ...

, abstract artist *Marcus Goodbody, founder and chairman of Goodbody & Co. * Robert Tuttle Morris, notable surgeon and writer *

Albert DeSilver Albert DeSilver (August 27, 1888 – December 7, 1924) was a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). DeSilver graduated from Yale in 1910, where he was a member of Skull and Bones, and then earned a law degree at Columbia La ...

, founding member of the ACLU *

Edmund Wilson Edmund Wilson Jr. (May 8, 1895 – June 12, 1972) was an American writer and literary critic who explored Freudian and Marxist themes. He influenced many American authors, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose unfinished work he edited for publi ...

, American author *John Fowler, drummer of

glam metal Glam metal (also known as hair metal or pop metal) is a subgenre of heavy metal that features pop-influenced hooks and guitar riffs, upbeat rock anthems, and slow power ballads. It borrows heavily from the fashion and image of 1970s glam ...

band Steelheart *Peter F. Yacavone, President and Vice-Chairman of the

Great Northern Paper Company Great Northern Paper Company was a Maine-based pulp and paper manufacturer that at its peak in the 1970s and 1980s operated mills in Arkansas, Georgia, Maine, and Wisconsin and produced 16.4% of the newsprint made in the United States. It was also ...

References

{{coord, 41.082, -73.571, type:city_region:US-CT, display=title Geography of Stamford, Connecticut Neighborhoods in Connecticut