Darien, Connecticut

Darien ( ) is a coastal town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. With a population of 21,499 and a land area of just under , it is the smallest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast.

Situated on the Long Island Sound between the cities of Stamford and Norwalk, Darien is a commuter town for New York City. There are two railroad stations in Darien, Noroton Heights and Darien, linking the town to Grand Central Terminal.

History

According to early records, the first clearings of land were made by men from the New Haven and Wethersfield colonies and from Norwalk in about 1641. It was not until 1739, however, that the Middlesex Society of the Town of Stamford built the first community church, now the First Congregational Church of Darien, which stands on the original site at the corner of Brookside Road and the Boston Post Road.

Tories raided the town several times during the American Revolution; at one point, they took 26 men in the parish prisoner for five months, including the Reverend Moses Mather, pastor of the parish. The Loyalist-Patriot conflict in Darien is the setting for the novel ''Tory Hole'', the first book by children's author Louise Hall Tharp. Middlesex Parish was incorporated as the Town of Darien in 1820.

According to the Darien Historical Society, the name Darien was decided upon when the residents of the town could not agree on a name to replace Middlesex Parish, many families wanting it to be named after themselves. Some proposed naming the town "Belleville" in honor of Thaddeus Bell, a veteran of the revolutionary war. He apparently rejected the honor while supporting the Darien option. A sailor who had traveled to Isthmus of Darien, then part of the Spanish Empire, suggested the name Darien, which was eventually adopted by the people of the town. The town name is pronounced (like "Dairy-Ann"), with stress on the last syllable, and has been referred to as such at least as far back as 1913.

Darien was mostly white Protestant through the middle of the twentieth century, but by the twenty-first century it had become a multi-ethnic town with residents of many religions and backgrounds. One of seven households report speaking a language other than English at home. The town's exclusive policies in the early 20th century were similar to other segregated suburbs of the time, including Beverly Hills, California, and Tuxedo Park, New York. There were events involving anti-Black racism and anti-Semitism in the 1930s and 1940s, with Darien being a prototypical sundown town.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which is land and , or 13.41%, is water.

Darien is bordered on the west by Stamford, on the north by New Canaan, and on the east by Norwalk. On the south it faces Long Island Sound and the North Shore of Long Island. It is part of the Connecticut panhandle jutting into New York state. Highways include Interstate 95. It also has two Metro-North Railroad stations for commuter trains into New York City, Noroton Heights and Darien.

Sections of Darien

* Downtown Darien
* Ox Ridge
* Noroton Heights, a neighborhood that historically "housed the European immigrants who serviced the old estates". Noroton Heights' densely populated streets contain "modest Capes and colonials" along with other house styles.
* Long Neck Point
* Tokeneke

Climate

Darien has a humid continental climate, similar to that of New York City, with warm to hot summers and cold winters. The highest recorded temperature was 103 °F (39 °C) in July 1966, while the lowest recorded temperature was −15 °F (−26 °C) in 1968. Snowfall is generally frequent in winter while average precipitation is most common in September.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 19,607 people, 6,592 households, and 5,385 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 6,792 housing units at an average density of 203.9 inhabitants/km² (528.3 persons/sq mi). The racial makeup of the town was 95.97% White, 0.45% African American, 0.04% Native American, 2.42% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.30% from other races, and 0.80% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.19% of the population. In 2019, the median household income was $232,523 and the per capita income for the town was $116,564.

Arts and recs

Annual events

*May – Memorial Day Parade.
*June – Weed Beach Fest.
*October – Downtown Halloween Parade.

Library

Darien's library was founded in 1894. Andrew Carnegie offered funds for a library, and was rejected. The Darien Library is the most heavily utilized library in Connecticut.

Landmarks

* Frederick J. Smith House, by Richard Meier, was complete in 1967.
* Stephen Tyng Mather Home is a National Historic Landmark, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Parks and recreation

The Darien Ice House is an ice rink.

Founded in 1928, Noroton Yacht Club runs the largest junior sailing program in the United States.

In 2023, the town of Darien finalized the purchase of Great Island, a 60-acre property on Long Island Sound, for $85 million.

Government

Elected bodies in the town government are a five-member Board of Selectmen, a nine-member Board of Education, a seven-member Board of Finance, a six-member Planning and Zoning Commission, three-member Board of Assessment Appeals, and a 100-member, nonpartisan Representative Town Meeting. The town has several elective offices as well: the town clerk, probate judge, registrar of voters, tax collector and treasurer."Darien Government Guide: 2006", a brochure published by the League of Women Voters of Darien The Board of Finance approves financial measures, including the town budget; the Board of Education controls the town's public schools; the Representative Town Meeting is the main legislative body of the town.

United States Congress

Connecticut General Assembly

Connecticut State Senate

Connecticut House of Representatives

Education

Darien is served by the Darien Public Schools, and Darien High School was ranked No. 1 in the "U.S. News Best High Schools in Connecticut" in 2019. The school also ranked in the top 150 in the national rankings, and in the top 50 in STEM high schools in the United States. Darien has five elementary schools: Hindley School, Holmes School, Ox Ridge School, Royle School, and Tokeneke School. A $27 million addition was completed in 2000 to the town's middle school, Middlesex Middle School, and a new $73 million campus for Darien High School was completed in the fall of 2005. Darien sports teams go by the name of the "Blue Wave".

Pear Tree Point School, originally named Plumfield School, was a private school on Long Neck, educating students in pre-kindergarten through Grade 5. The school was closed in summer 2018.

Media

Darien is served by a local print/online weeklies, the '' Darien Times'', four exclusively online local news websites, Darienite, HamletHub Darien, the Darien Patch, and The Daily Voice, Darien. A monthly magazine known as ''New Canaan and Darien Magazine'' is also published covering Darien, New Canaan, and Rowayton (a section of the city of Norwalk). ''Sound Watch Magazine''. is another monthly publication, founded in 2019, dedicated to local news and history of the area. Most public meetings are filmed and broadcast live, and recorded for later broadcast by Cablevision's Channel 79 Government Access.

Film

Films at least partially filmed in Darien with release date include:

* ''Gypsy'' (2017)
* '' Hope Springs'' (2012)
* '' Hello I Must Be Going'' (2012)
* '' My Soul to Take'' (2010)
* '' Birds of America'' (2008)
* '' Revolutionary Road'' (2008)
* '' The Big Wedding'' (2013)
* ''The Life Before Her Eyes'' (2007)
* '' The Stepford Wives'' (2004)
* '' Cannonball Run II'' (1984)
* '' The Stepford Wives'' (1975)
* '' Gentleman's Agreement'' (1947) – based on a book by Laura Hobson that portrayed Darien as a restricted community that excludes Jews.
* '' The Perfect Date'' (2019) – a young man obsessed with getting into Yale pretends to be from Darien to impress a wealthy Greenwich woman.

Infrastructure

Emergency

Ambulance

An ambulance service, known as "Darien EMS – Post 53" is the only ambulance service in the nation staffed and run entirely by high school student volunteers, covers one of the deadliest stretches of Interstate 95, and responds to over 1,500 emergency calls annually. The Explorer post is chartered under the Connecticut Yankee Council, and is considered a scouting unit. The service provides emergency care at no cost to the patient, funded entirely by private donations from town residents. Teenagers are allowed to perform patient care because Connecticut is one of the few states in the nation which allows emergency medical technicians to be certified at age 16. The town is served by two train stations, Noroton Heights and Darien station. The Connecticut Turnpike (Interstate 95) and Post Road (U.S. Route 1.) pass through Darien. Interstate 95 has rest stops in Darien for the southbound and northbound lanes.

Notable people

File:KensettJohnLongNeckPoint.gif, ''Long Neck Point from Contentment Island'' by John Frederick Kensett, collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, depicting the area where Andrew Carnegie spent some summers
File:KensettJohnFrederickShoreOfDarien.gif, ''Shore of Darien, Connecticut'' by John Frederick Kensett

See also

* List of sundown towns in the United States

References

Further reading

*

External links

*

{{authority control

Populated coastal places in Connecticut
Sundown towns in the United States
Towns in Connecticut
Towns in Fairfield County, Connecticut
Towns in the New York metropolitan area
Towns in Western Connecticut Planning Region, Connecticut