Stamford City of history

Stamford continued to rely on its small industries until the founding of the Stamford Manufacturing Company in 1844.

With the opening of the railroad in 1848, Stamford became accessible to outsiders.

The population in 1868 stood at 9,700 people; that year a second railroad line opened, this time connecting the city with New Canaan.

Samuel H. Cohen, Stamford's first Jewish attorney, was appointed probate judge in 1876.

In 1881 the Connecticut General Assembly created the Storrs Agricultural School from land and funds donated by Augustus and Charles Storrs.

The first worship services were held in an attic on Cedar St In 1887 David Cohen, a new arrival, reports that the first High Holy Day services were held in Stamford in Jacob Rosenblum's tenement flat on Stillwater Ave.

In 1891 a cemetery association was chartered with the name of Agoodat Solima and purchased land on West Hill Rd.

Judge John Clason, sometimes spelled "Clayson," donated money to found Stamford Hospital in 1892.

The old Stamford Advocate building on Atlantic Street, which has been beautifully restored, was built in 1894 to resemble a Neo-Italian Renaissance palazzo.

There was a significant migration: Stamford's black population, like its foreign born population, expanded after 1900.

In addition to operating its museum in Stamford, the Stamford Historical Society, founded in 1901, maintains the Hoyt Barnum House, constructed late in the 17th century.

The only purpose-built town hall still in existence is the Beaux-Arts style Old Town Hall, constructed to replace the one that burned down in February, 1904.

Agudath Sholom was issued and ground was broken for the first synagogue, completed 1908.

The Hoyt family, having been among the original settlers of Stamford, could hardly have been able to document the cost basis of the land. It's 1909, Herman Henneberger and his son-in-law Henry Jevne, in one of Stamford's largest cash transactions, purchased approximately 180 acres from the heirs of Alfred Hoyt.

The Bartlett Arboretum incorporates the original 30 acres of land acquired in 1913 by Doctor Francis A. Bartlett and used by him as a research center.

By 1916, the number of employees reached an all time high of 6500, and world wide sales of their products was estimated at 76 million dollars.

In 1926, Stamford created a Town Plan Commission and hired Herbert S. Swan of New York to prepare a plan for the city.

The wonderfully restored 1927 Palace Theatre is home to the Stamford Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, Connecticut Grand Opera, and the New England Lyric Operetta.

There was a referendum on the question in May 1932. It was Republican Mayor William W. Graves who in 1928 got elected on a platform calling for Charter Revision.

During the boom year of 1929, over $5 million worth of building permits were issued.

It was the thirties, it was the time of the great Depression, the new industries could not absorb the number of unemployed, tax revenues were declining, and the Town Board of Finance had to cut the school budget by $200,000 in 1932.

The Peoples National Bank was the only bank in town to fail, its assets and liabilities were taken over in 1933 by the First National Bank and Trust Company with no loss to depositors.

But the decade of the thirties was not one of growth, and by 1934 the number of industrial firms had dropped by one third, and the value of manufactured goods was down to 20 million dollars per year.

On January 1st 1935, Democrat Alfred N Phillips Jr. took office as Stamford's first strong mayor.

The Parkway was opened in 1938 by Governor Wilbur Cross, Congressman Schuyler Merritt, and United States Attorney General, Homer S. Cummings.

Action was postponed by the start of World War II. In June of 1941 Stamford celebrated it's 300th anniversary.

The Charter Consolidation Inquiry Commission, formed by the state legislature before the war, reported back in 1946.

Stamford incorporated as a city late by East Coast standards: in 1949, the city absorbed the surrounding communities to become the city of Stamford.

Temple Sinai, a Reform congregation founded in 1954, has a synagogue complex on Lakeside Drive.

The Bi-Cultural Day School founded in 1956 is renowned for its full curriculum from kindergarten through grade eight.

First Presbyterian Church, built in the shape of a fish to commemorate the early Christian symbol for Christ, was designed by Wallace K. Harrison in 1958.

Julius Wilensky was elected and served as the first and only mayor of the Jewish faith of The City of Stamford, 1969–73.

Chabad is constructing a school complex on High Ridge Rd., and The Fellowship of Jewish Learning, founded 1973, is a liberal congregation sharing a meeting house on Roxbury Rd.

The Jewish Historical Society of Lower Fairfield County was founded in 1983 in Stamford.

But by the end of 1997, the situation had reversed, and Stamford had experienced a "mini-boom" with the occurrence of more than three million square feet of new, expanded or renovated construction.

The Tulley Health Center, now affiliated with Stamford Hospital as part of the Stamford Health System, has replaced what was formerly St Joseph Medical Center, which closed in 1998.

United States rank in 2000: 1st (CMSA)

Opened in April 2001, the new $9.5 million Environmental Education Center (funded through corporate, private, and state contributions) boasts new classrooms and high-tech educational equipment, plus a new main entrance, larger gift shop, and 180-seat food-service area.

The following is a summary of data regarding the Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk NECTA metropolitan area labor force based on 2004 annual averages.

Well underway by 2005, the Mill River Corridor Project involves the creation of approximately 19 acres of new parkland along both sides of the Rippowam River and extending into downtown.