Roger Ludlow purchased the areas east of the Norwalk River from ChiefMahackemo of the Norwaake (or Naramauke) Indians in 1640.[6] Norwalk was settled in 1649, incorporated September 1651, and named after theAlgonquin wordnoyank, meaning "point of land", or more probably from the Native American name "Naramauke".[7]
TheBattle of Norwalk took place during the Revolutionary War,[8] and led to the burning of most of the town.[9] In 1836, the borough of Norwalk was created, covering the central area of the town.[10] In 1853, the first ever train disaster in the United Stateshappened over theNorwalk River.[11] During the 19th and early 20th century, Norwalk was a major railroad stop for theNew York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad.[12] Thecity of South Norwalk and the remaining parts of the town of Norwalk were both combined in 1910 to form the current city.[13]
According to theUnited States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 36.3 square miles (94 km2), of which 13.5 square miles (35 km2) (37.24%) are covered by water.
Norwalk's topography is dominated by its coastline along Long Island Sound, the Norwalk River and its eastern and western banks, and theNorwalk Islands.[21] The highest elevation is 315 feet (96 m) above sea level on the fairway of the 16th hole of the Silvermine Golf Course,[22] and the low elevation is sea level on Long Island Sound.
Norwalk, Connecticut – Racial and ethnic composition Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos may be of any race.
As of thecensus of 2010, 85,603 people,[27] 35,415 households,[28] and 21,630 families resided in the city.[29] The population density was 2,358.2 inhabitants per square mile (910.5/km2). The 35,415 housing units had an average density of 975.6 per square mile (376.7/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 68.7% White, 14.2% African American, 0.4% Native American, 4.8% Asian, 9.1% from other races, and 2.8% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 24.3% of the population.[30]
Of the 35,415 households, 27.9% had children under 18 living with them, 47.1% were married couples living together, 11.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 38.4% were not families. About 33.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.5% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size in the city was 2.55, and the average family size was 3.16.[31]
The age distribution was 22% under 18, with 7.3% from 18 to 24, 31.7% from 25 to 44, 31.2% from 45 to 64, and 12.8% were 65 or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 96.2 males.[30]
The median income for a household in the city was $76,161, and for a family was $103,032. Theper capita income for the city was $43,303.[32] About 5.7% of families and 8.4% of the population were below thepoverty line, including 10.2% of those under age 18 and 8.2% of those age 65 or over.[33][34]
Norwalk has voted Democratic for president since1992, when the city voted forBill Clinton.[42] However, between 1928 and 1992, the city only voted Democratic twice:1936[43] and1964.[44]
Norwalk city vote by party in presidential elections[42]
Norwalk has six taxing districts.[53] The First, Second, Third, and Sixth taxing districts are political entities with their respective voters electing officers, holding annual business meetings, approving budgets, and considering other matters, as specified in each of their charters.[54][55] Election of Taxing District Commissioners and Treasurers by voters from the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 6th districts take place in odd-numbered years. The Fourth and Fifth districts are not counted as separate governments, as they constitute the city proper.[56] Each taxing district has its ownproperty tax rate reflecting the mix of services each receives from the city.Secondly, municipal elections of mayor, common council, board of education, and other positions are also held in odd-numbered years at 13 polling places within fivevoting districts around the city. Voting districts are not the same for state and federal elections, which are held on even-numbered years at 12 polling locations.[57]
Norwalk's municipal government is aweak-mayor form of amayor-council government with the mayor of Norwalk elected by its voters.[58] The city's charter gives certain administrative powers exclusively to the council and others jointly to the Council and Mayor. The Common Council is the law-writing body of the City of Norwalk. Norwalk'scommon council consists of fifteen council members, five electedat-large and ten electedby district, two from each district.[59]
Norwalk is represented in theConnecticut General Assembly by five House representatives corresponding to five Connecticut legislative districts and one senator from one Connecticut Senate district.[60][61]
Norwalk Public Schools operates public schools, while the community also has various private schools.
Norwalk was granted a town charter by theConnecticut General Court in 1651. On May 29, 1678, town records mention the establishment of community-supported teaching activities with a passage that reads:"'At a town meeting... voted and agreed to hier a scole master to teach all the children in ye town to lerne to Rede and write; and that Mr. Cornish shall be hierd for that service and the townsmen are to hier him upon as reasonable terms as they can."
The school that was established in the 1670s was located near the Ludlow Square area ofEast Norwalk (near the former Roger Ludlow Junior High School).[62]
Baseball andsoftball are popular amateur sports with active leagues across many age groups in Norwalk. Four baseball fields and 16Little League fields are in the city. Several of the fields, includingCalf Pasture Beach, are illuminated for nighttime play. The fields at the Norwalk Little League team won theLittle League World Series in1952.[63][64]The 14-year-old Babe Ruth League team won the championship in 2008.[65] The Norwalk Biddy Basketball All-Star team Won the state and regional titles and then went on to the world championships in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1986 and placed seventh in the world.
Three golf courses are in the city of Norwalk: Shorehaven Golf Club[68] is a private club in East Norwalk, the Silvermine Golf Club[69] is a private club in Silvermine (part of the course lies in the town of Wilton), and the Oak Hills Park golf course[70] is a public course in West Norwalk.
The cross-town rivalry between the city's two largest high schools,Norwalk High School andBrien McMahon High School, is fierce, particularly for thefootball, basketball,soccer, andfield hockey teams in the fall, as well aslacrosse,baseball, andsoftball teams in the spring. Brien McMahon High School's football team won the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference and Class M State Football championship in 1994. McMahon High School's boys' lacrosse team won the state division 2 lacrosse championship in 2000.
News sources in Norwalk includeNews 12 Connecticut, a regional news channel for southwestern Connecticut and based in Norwalk.[71]The Hour was an independent daily newspaper based in Norwalk and founded in 1871, which was purchased byHearst Communications on April 12, 2016.[72] NancyonNorwalk.com is a self-published, nonprofit news site founded in 2010 that covers local issues.[73]
Interstate 95 and theMerritt Parkway lead through Norwalk, with several exits within the Norwalk city limits, and are the major thoroughfare through the city.U.S. Route 1 goes through the center of the city, mostly following local streets. The major north–south corridor in Norwalk isU.S. Route 7, which is an expressway throughout most of the route in the city. The expressway section ends at Grist Mill Road in Norwalk from where Route 7 resumes northbound along Main Avenue. Other state routes includeRoutes 53,123, and136.
Public transport bus service within Norwalk is provided byNorwalk Transit District.[74] Norwalk Transit District operates fixed-route public bus service in Norwalk andWestport with evening and Sunday shuttles (serving South Norwalk, Main Avenue, and Connecticut Avenue) and commuter shuttles. Access to other cities through bus servicesMilford,Danbury, and Stamford. All fixed-route buses meet at the Transportation Hub.[75]
The structure at 47 Wall Street was formerly the Wall Street station of the Danbury Branch, which operated from 1896 to 1936. The city'strolley system barn also operated on Wall Street.[77]
The Second Taxing District[80] serves sections of South Norwalk, East Norwalk, West Norwalk, Rowayton and Silvermine.[80] and also owns and operates South Norwalk Electric and Water.[81]
The Third Taxing District[82] provides electric power for East Norwalk.
The districts purchase wholesale power and arrange for its delivery to, and distribution within, their respective districts. Power lines and meters inEast Norwalk,South Norwalk, and parts ofRowayton are maintained by the districts. Both the second (SNEW) and third (TTD) district electric departments belong to the six member Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative which pools their wholesale power purchasing to obtain lower rates for their customers.[83]
Connecticut Light and Power (now Eversource Energy) operated a power plant, Norwalk Harbor Station onManresa Island, from 1960 to 1999 when it was acquired byNRG Energy, which then began its deactivation in 2013.[84]
In 2004 the Third Taxing District installed three diesel powered generators at the Norden complex on Norden Place that were initially licensed only for emergency power supply. By summer 2008 the generators, with a combined capacity of 6 Megawatts, had been upgraded to allow licensed operation as regular power providers for the grid (not just emergency power).[85]
In 2007 and 2008 the construction of the Middletown-Norwalk transmission line disrupted traffic along the Boston Post Road, but the completion of the line was hoped to help provide additional power to lower Fairfield County. In addition, a high-voltage undersea line runs from Manresa Island to Long Island to help provide electric power toLong Island Power Authority customers. In 2008, the city government of Norwalk started initial investigations of whether the city might resume generating power for sale to electricity customers in the city.[86] The plant was permanently closed in 2013 and the site began remediation and transformation in 2025 as part of theManresa Island Park project.
Norwalk Police Department serves as the city'spolice department,[87] and Norwalk Fire Department serves Norwalk's fire protection district.[88] Norwalk is served 24/7 byNorwalk Hospital and Norwalk Hospital EMS, a 911 paramedic service. The service consists of hospital-based paramedics and EMT-Is who serve Norwalk as well as New Canaan, Wilton, Weston, and Westport.
InJonathan Franzen's novelThe Corrections, Chip Lambert holds a "twelve-hour vigil" at a donut shop in Norwalk (stalking Melissa Paquette in neighboringWestport).
College Road Trip (2008)—scenes filmed in town in mid-July 2007; shooting locations were the former Norwalk police headquarters building in Matthews Park, on the Merritt Parkway and along the Route 7 connector.[93]
^McCurdy, Kathy and Larry."Captain Daniel Patrick". John Cardinal's Second Site v5.3.5. Archived fromthe original on January 4, 2019. RetrievedJanuary 7, 2016.
^Deborah Wing Ray, Gloria P. Stewart (1979) pp. 170–173.
^DiGiovanni, the Rev. (now Monsignor) Stephen M.,The Catholic Church in Fairfield County: 1666-1961, 1987, William Mulvey Inc., New Canaan, Chapter II: The New Catholic Immigrants, 1880-1930; subchapter: "The True American: White, Protestant, Non-Alcoholic," p. 82; DiGiovanni, in turn, cites (Footnote 210, page 258) Chalmers, David A.,Hooded Americanism, The History of the Ku Klux Klan (New York, 1981), p. 268
^"TTD Commission Invests in Norden Generators to Help to Control Electricity Prices".Inside Your Third; the Newsletter for Norwalk's Third Taxing District.7 (8): 1. August 2008.
^Gizmo Graphics Web Design - Bruce C. brown."Current Events".Silverminetavern.com. Archived fromthe original on February 8, 2012. RetrievedFebruary 14, 2012.
Core cities are metropolitan core cities of at least a million people. The other areas are urban areas of cities that have an urban area of 150,000+ or of a metropolitan area of at least 250,000+. Satellite cities are in italics.
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