Fairfield County is acounty in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state ofConnecticut. It is themost populous county in the state and was also its fastest-growing from 2010 to 2020. As of the2020 census, the county's population was 957,419,[1] representing 26.6% of Connecticut's overall population. The closest to the center of theNew York metropolitan area, the county contains four of the state's seven largest cities—Bridgeport (first),Stamford (second),Norwalk (sixth) andDanbury (seventh)—whose combined population of 433,368 is nearly half the county's total population.
As is the case with all eight of Connecticut's counties, there is no county government and nocounty seat. As an area, it is only a geographical point of reference. In Connecticut, the cities and towns are responsible for all local governmental activities including fire and rescue, schools, and snow removal; in a few cases, neighboring towns will share certain resources. The last county seat wasBridgeport, which had served this role from 1853 until 1960.[4] On June 6, 2022, the U.S. Census Bureau formally recognizedConnecticut's nine councils of governments as county equivalents instead of the state's eight counties.Connecticut's eight historical counties continue to exist in name only, and are no longer considered for statistical purposes.[5]
Fairfield County'sGold Coast helped rank it sixth in the U.S. in per-capita personal income by the Bureau of Economic Analysis in 2005,[6] contributing substantially to Connecticut being one of the most affluent states in the U.S.[7] Other communities are more densely populated and economically diverse than the affluent areas for which the county is better known.
The Dutch explorerAdriaen Block explored coastal Connecticut in the spring and early summer of 1614 in the North America-built vesselOnrust. The first European settlers of the county, however, werePuritans andCongregationalists from England.Roger Ludlow (1590–1664), one of the founders of theColony of Connecticut, helped to purchase and charter the towns of Fairfield (1639) and Norwalk (purchased 1640, chartered as a town in 1651).[9] Ludlow is credited as having chosen the nameFairfield. Fairfield is a descriptive name referring to the beauty of its fields.[10] The town ofStratford was settled in 1639 as well byAdam Blakeman (1596–1665).William Beardsley (1605–1661) was also one of the first settlers of Stratford in 1639.
Fairfield County was established by an act of the Connecticut General Court in Hartford along withHartford County,New Haven County, andNew London County; which were the first four Connecticut counties, on May 10, 1666. From transcriptions of the Connecticut Colonial Records for that day:
This Court orders that from the east bounds of Stratford
to ye bounds of Rye shalbe for future one County wch
shalbe called the County of Fairfield. And it is ordered
that the County Court shalbe held at Fairfield on the second
Tuesday in March and the first Tuesday of November
The original Fairfield County consisted of the towns ofRye, Greenwich, Stamford, Norwalk,Fairfield, andStratford. In 1673, the town ofWoodbury was incorporated and added to Fairfield County. In 1683, New York and Connecticut reached a final agreement regarding their common border. This resulted in the cession of the town of Rye and all claims tothe Oblong to New York. From the late 17th to early 18th centuries, several new towns were incorporated in western Connecticut and added to Fairfield County, namely Danbury (1687), Ridgefield (1709), Newtown (1711), and New Fairfield (1740). In 1751,Litchfield County was constituted, taking over the town of Woodbury. The final boundary adjustment to Fairfield County occurred in 1788 when the town of Brookfield was incorporated from parts of Newtown, Danbury, andNew Milford, with Fairfield County gaining territory from Litchfield County.
Other early county inhabitants include:
Joseph Hawley (born 1603 in England; died 1690), who had emigrated to America in 1629 and then settled in Stratford in 1650, later becoming Stratford's first town clerk. Joseph Hawley's son Ephraim built theEphraim Hawley House in 1683 inTrumbull that is still standing and serves as a private residence.
During the Revolutionary War, Connecticut's prodigious agricultural output led to it being known informally as "the Provisions State".[12] In the spring of 1777, the BritishCommander-in-Chief, North AmericaGeneral William Howe, in New York City, orderedWilliam Tryon to interrupt the flow of supplies from Connecticut that were reaching theContinental Army. Tryon andHenry Duncan led a fleet of 26 ships carrying 2,000 men to Westport's Compo Beach to raid Continental Army supply depots in Danbury on April 22, 1777. AmericanMajor GeneralDavid Wooster (1710–1777), who was born in Stratford, was in charge of the stores at Danbury and defended them with a force of only 700 troops. Two years later during a British raid on Greenwich on February 26, 1779GeneralIsrael Putnam, who had stayed atKnapp's Tavern the previous night, rode away on his horse to warn the people of Stamford. Putnam was shot at by the British raiders but was able to escape. Thehat he was wearing with amusket ball hole in it is on display at Knapp's Tavern in Greenwich (which is commonly, albeit somewhat erroneously, calledPutnam's cottage).[13] In the summer of 1779, General William Tryon sought to punish Americans by attacking civilian targets in coastal Connecticut with a force of about 2,600 British troops. New Haven was raided on July 5, Fairfield was raided on the 7th and burned. Norwalk was raided on July 10 and burned on the 11th. Norwalk militia leader Captain Stephen Betts put up resistance to the invaders, but was overwhelmed by the powerful British raiders and was forced to retreat.
David Sherman Boardman (1786–1864) was a prominent early lawyer and judge in this and neighboring Litchfield County.
On October 7, 1801, Neheemiah Dodge and other members of the Danbury Baptist Association wrote a letter to then-presidentThomas Jefferson expressing their concern that as Baptists they may not be able to express full religious liberty in the state of Connecticut whose "ancient charter" was adopted before the establishment of aBaptist church in the state. Jefferson replied in a letter to Dodge and the other members of the Danbury church on January 1, 1802, in which he stated that theFirst Amendment to the United States Constitution provided "awall of separation between church and State" that protected them.[14]
An agricultural region, the first railroad was theHousatonic Railroad, construction started 1836 and ended 1840, extending fromBridgeport toNew Milford originally, connectingLitchfield County crops to the port in Bridgeport, by passing New York City.[15] The New York and New Haven railroad along the county's coast was constructed in the late 1840s, which started in New York City and ended in New Haven, connecting Bridgeport, Stamford, Norwalk and all the towns on the coast.[16]
In 1851, the county seat of Fairfield County was moved from the town of Fairfield to the newly founded neighboring city ofBridgeport. This was due to its growing population and industry as the old courthouse erected 1794 was no longer adequate.[17] The first hospital in the county, and the 3rd hospital in Connecticut behindHartford andNew Haven Hospitals,Bridgeport Hospital was founded in 1884 along with Fairfield County's first nursing school. It would be soon followed byDanbury Hospital (1885),Norwalk Hospital (1893),[18]Stamford Hospital (1896)[19] Greenwich Hospital (1903),[20]St. Vincent's Hospital in Bridgeport (1903), and Park City Hospital in Bridgeport (1926), which closed in 1993.[21][22][23]
By 1900, the largest cities in the county wereBridgeport,Norwalk,Danbury,Stamford andGreenwich.[24] By 1905, Bridgeport had become the principle manufacturing center in the state, and one of the major manufacturers in the New England region behindBoston,Providence, andWorcester, with $44,586,519 total worth of products manufactured without adjusting to today's money.[25] Stamford and Greenwich had become popular resort towns for New York City's wealthy.[26]
Connecticut in 1905 was 11th in the United States terms of industrial goods produced, and Fairfield County contained the city with the most total worth of products made, Bridgeport. One-fifth of Connecticut's population was employed in manufacturing, the state's largest industry which generated most of its wealth. Bridgeport in 1905 produced 20% of America's corsets. The 2nd largest city in Connecticut behind New Haven by 1910, Bridgeport's population grew by 50,000 people during the first 20 months of US involvement during the First World War, producing 50% of Alliedammunition during that time.[27] Bridgeport by 1920 had a population of 143,555 people, then the 44th largest US city.Danbury, in northern Fairfield County, was known as the "Hat City", producing 20% of America's hats, until the industry began to decline in the 1920s. Stamford (population 40,067 in 1920), was known as the "Lock City", as the home of theYale and Towne Lock Manufacturing Company.[16][28][29][30] Bridgeport, nicknamed "Park City" had in 1930 over 500 factories within its borders.Bridgeport Machines, Inc., a milling machine manufacturer, was founded in Bridgeport in 1938, as well asHubbell Incorporated in the 1890s, these are two examples, various companies were headquartered in Bridgeport, such asWarnerco,ACME Shear,Westinghouse subsidiaryBryant Electric among others, and others such asRemington Arms,General Electric,Singer Sewing Machines,Sikorsky Aircraft,Carpenter Steel, and countless others, had large scale manufacturing complexes there.[31]
Most of the county remained agricultural.Westport in the 1920s was a bohemian summer artist colony, and was home to famous artists, writers, and painters, such asF. Scott Fitzgerald, who spent a summer in town. TheCos Cob art colony flourished from the late 1800s to the 1920s.[32][33]
At the height of its influence in the 1920s, theKu Klux Klan had a distinct presence in the county and county politics. The group was most active inDarien, but had small chapters in Norwalk, Stamford, and Bridgeport.[34] The Klan has since disappeared from the county.
The county's first institution of higher learning was Western Connecticut State University, founded in Danbury in 1903 (known by its acronym, WCSU),[35] followed by theUniversity of Bridgeport in 1927,Fairfield University in neighboring Fairfield in 1947 and Sacred Heart University.[36] It was the subject of aNina Leenphoto-essay cover story in the 8 August 1949 issue ofLIFE.[37]
Nearly one-third of Fairfield County's population lived within Bridgeport's city limits in 1950, 31.5%. The city began to decline in population as families moved into nearby suburbs, such asFairfield, leading to widespread residential development. Bridgeport slowly began to lose jobs and large corporations moved into southern states or outside the country. The city gained a reputation for having an aging industrial image, what New York Times articles described as a smokestack filled, aging view of the city from the highway.[38][39] TheConnecticut Turnpike (Interstate 95) was built in the mid-1950s along the coast, joining the scenicMerrit Parkway, built in the late 1930s to alleviate traffic on thePost Road, and built further inland away from population centers.[40] Towns such asWestport, Darien, New Canaan, Stamford, and Greenwich became New York City suburbs, forming theConnecticut Gold Coast,[41][42]
Fairfield County, along with all other Connecticut counties, was abolished as a governmental agency in accord with state legislation that took effect October 1, 1960.[43] The first enclosed shopping malls in Fairfield County wereTrumbull Shopping Park (1963), in the bedroom community ofTrumbull just outside Bridgeport, the now gone Lafayette Shopping Park (1965) in Bridgeport,[38] replaced downtown blocks that were demolished as part of the city's urban renewal,Danbury Fair Mall (1986) on the former fairgrounds of the annualDanbury Fair,[44]Hawley Lane Mallin Trumbull (1971) and theStamford Town Center (1982) as part of the urban renewal project in downtown Stamford.[45]
Stamford, Connecticut, is an example ofedge cityurbanization. Stamford in the 1960s was a residential suburb of New York City, with a few industries and research laboratories, but of Stamford's downtown was razed and rebuilt it with modern skyscrapers, and several major corporations moved their headquarters to Stamford, creating one of the largest corporate concentrations in the United States.[16] Originally a more moderate plan, entire downtown blocks and streets were demolished in slow phases and replaced with office towers, residential towers and theStamford Town Center shopping mall courtesy of the F.D. Rich Company, which was hired by the city to redevelop what was described as the aging, deteriorating downtown, throughout the 60s, 70s and early 80s.[46][44] Stamford's population grew from 92,713 in 1960 to 135,470people in 2020, making it the 2nd largest city in Connecticut in 2022 (behindBridgeport), surpassingNew Haven.[47][48]
Candlewood Lake in the northern part of the county in the Appalachian Mountains, near the Taconics and BerkshiresRings End Bridge, inDarienHuntington State Park View from the top of Webb Mountain inMonroe
According to theUnited States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 837 square miles (2,170 km2), of which 625 square miles (1,620 km2) is land and 212 square miles (550 km2) (25.3%) is water.[49]
The terrain of the county trends from flat near the coast to hilly and higher near its northern extremity. The highest elevation is 1,290 feet (390 m) above sea level along theNew York state line south of Branch Hill in the Town of Sherman; the lowest point is sea level itself.
The section of theTaconic Mountains range that runs through Greenwich and North Stamford of Fairfield County is also the part of the Appalachians that is closest to the coast out of the entireAppalachian Mountains.
The agreed 1684 territorial limits of the county are defined as 20 miles (32 km) east of New York'sHudson River, which extends intoLong Island Sound with a southerly limit of halfway to Long Island, New York. The eastern limit is mostly anatural border defined as the halfway point of theHousatonic River with New Haven County with the exception of several islands belonging wholly toStratford. The depth of the Sound varies between 60 and 120 feet (37 m).
As of the2020 census, the county had a population of 957,419. Of the residents, 22.4% were under the age of 18 and 16.2% were 65 years of age or older; the median age was 40.3 years. For every 100 females there were 94.1 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 91.2 males. 94.5% of residents lived in urban areas and 5.5% lived in rural areas.[65][66][67]
There were 354,084 households in the county, of which 33.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them and 27.6% had a female householder with no spouse or partner present. About 25.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.[66]
There were 378,479 housing units, of which 6.4% were vacant. Among occupied housing units, 63.9% were owner-occupied and 36.1% were renter-occupied. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.4% and the rental vacancy rate was 6.1%.[66]
As of the2010 United States census, there were 916,829 people, 335,545 households, and 232,896 families residing in the county.[68] The population density was 1,467.2 inhabitants per square mile (566.5/km2). There were 361,221 housing units at an average density of 578.1 per square mile (223.2/km2).[69] The racial makeup of the county was 74.8% white, 10.8% black or African American, 4.6% Asian, 0.3% American Indian, 6.8% from other races, and 2.6% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 16.9% of the population.[68] In terms of ancestry, 18.1% were Italian, 15.9% wereIrish, 9.8% were German, 8.7% were English, 5.5% were Polish, and 2.7% were American.[70]
Of the 335,545 households, 36.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.1% were married couples living together, 12.3% had a female householder with no husband present, 30.6% were non-families, and 24.9% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.68 and the average family size was 3.21. The median age was 39.5 years.[68]
The median income for a household in the county was $81,268 and the median income for a family was $100,593. Males had a median income of $70,187 versus $50,038 for females. The per capita income for the county was $48,295. About 5.6% of families and 8.0% of the population were below thepoverty line, including 9.4% of those under age 18 and 6.4% of those age 65 or over.[71]
As of thecensus of 2000, there were 882,567 people, 324,232 households, and 228,259 families residing in the county. The population density was 1,410 inhabitants per square mile (540/km2). There were 339,466 housing units at an average density of 542 per square mile (209/km2). The racial makeup of the county was 79.31%White, 10.01%Black orAfrican American, 0.20%Native American, 3.25%Asian, 0.04%Pacific Islander, 4.70% fromother races, and 2.49% from two or more races. 11.88% of the population wereHispanic orLatino of any race. 17.6% were of Italian, 12.4% Irish, 6.5% German and 6.4% English ancestry.
In 2010, 66.2% of Fairfield County's population was non-Hispanic whites and 10.8% of the population was black. Asians were 4.6% of the population. Hispanics now constituted 16.9% of the population.[72]
As of 2000, 76.2% spoke English, 11.0% Spanish, 2.0% Portuguese, 1.7% Italian and 1.1% French as their first language. Some of the last group were Haitians, although other Haitians would identifyHaitian Creole as their first language.
There were 324,232 households, out of which 34.20% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.50% were married couples living together, 11.50% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.60% were non-families. 24.00% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.40% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.67 and the average family size was 3.18.
In the county, the population was spread out, with 25.60% under the age of 18, 7.00% from 18 to 24, 30.90% from 25 to 44, 23.30% from 45 to 64, and 13.30% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.40 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.60 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $65,249, and the median income for a family was $77,690. Males had a median income of $51,996 versus $37,108 for females. Theper capita income for the county was $38,350. About 5.00% of families and 6.90% of the population were below thepoverty line, including 8.30% of those under age 18 and 6.60% of those age 65 or over.
Data is from the 2007–2011 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, ACS Demographic and Housing Estimates, "Race alone or in combination with one or more other races."[75]
One Stamford Forum, the global headquarters ofPurdue Pharma
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, corporations began moving theirheadquarters to Fairfield County fromManhattan; Thomas J. Lueck ofThe New York Times said that the trend "permanently decentralized big business in theNew York region." During the 1980s many buyouts and reorganizations and aneconomic recession lead to companies vacating much of the suburban office space in Fairfield County. In 1992 Fairfield County had the headquarters of over 25 major multinational corporations, giving it the third largest concentration of those companies in the United States after New York City and Chicago.[76]
As of 1960, counties in Connecticut do not have any associated county government structure. Thus Fairfield County is only a geographical point of reference. All municipal services are provided by the towns, who sometimes will share certain resources through regionalization. In order to address issues concerning more than one town, several regional agencies that help coordinate the towns for infrastructure, land use, and economic development concerns have been established. Within the geographical area of Fairfield County, the regional agencies are:
Several former county municipal buildings are used by other state or local agencies, including:
The Fairfield County Jail inBridgeport on the corner of North Avenue and Madison Avenue, still actively used to house prisoners.
The Fairfield County Court Houses inBridgeport andDanbury which served the county's judicial needs and housed county deputy sheriff's until December 2000. The court houses are still marked "Fairfield County Court House".
Law enforcement within the geographic area of the county is provided by the respective town police departments, whereas in other states in the region such as New York andVermont law enforcement would be provided by the local county sheriff's department. In the less dense areas, such asSherman, law enforcement is primarily provided by theConnecticut State Police. Prior to 2000, aCounty Sheriff's Department existed for the purpose of executing judicial warrants, prisoner transport, court security,Bailiff, and county and state executions. These responsibilities have now been taken over by theConnecticut State Marshal System.
Some municipalities in the county still maintain a sheriff's department to fill the void of the abolishment of the county sheriff's department, such as theCity of Shelton which has established theShelton Sheriff's Department to carry out warrants in the city.
The geographic area of the county is served by the three separate judicial districts: Danbury, Stamford-Norwalk, and Fairfield. Each judicial district has a superior court located, respectively, in Danbury, Stamford, and Bridgeport. Each judicial district has one or more geographical area courts ("GA"'s), subdivisions of the judicial districts that handle lesser cases such as criminal misdemeanors, small claims, traffic violations, and other civil actions.
Education in the county is usually provided by the town governments. The exceptions are the towns of Redding and Easton at the secondary level, as those two joined to form a regional secondary school district (Region 9).
Fairfield County has a low crime index of 2050.2 (per 100,000 citizens) as well as a murder closure rate of over 70%.[82] Several Governmental agencies, as well as private security contractors, have made note of Fairfield's low crime rates and the county currently has 6 cities and towns with a percentile safety index of 90% or higher compared to the rest of the continental United States (based on violent and property crimes).[83]
As with neighboring Westchester County, Fairfield County was generally a Republican stronghold for much of the 20th century. Urban municipalities such as Stamford, Norwalk and Bridgeport trended Democratic, while the suburban and rural enclaves tended to lean Republican. However, during the 1990s, these latter areas began to increasingly shift towards Democratic candidates. Today, only Hartford County has a higher concentration of Democratic voters. The last time the county voted for a Republican presidential candidate was in 1992 forGeorge H. W. Bush.
United States presidential election results for Fairfield County, Connecticut[84]
With Interstate 95 and the Merritt Parkway increasingly clogged with traffic, state officials are looking toward mass transit to ease the county's major thoroughfares' traffic burden.
New office buildings are being concentrated near railroad stations inStamford,Bridgeport and other municipalities in the county to allow for more rail commuting. Proximity toStamford's Metro-North train station was cited by theRoyal Bank of Scotland as a key reason for locating its new U.S. headquarters building in downtown Stamford; construction on the office tower started in late 2006.
Commuter Rail is perhaps Fairfield County's most important transportation artery, as it allows its residents an efficient ride toGrand Central Terminal in New York City. Service is provided onMetro-North'sNew Haven Line, and every town on the shoreline has at least one station. Connecting lines bring service to New Canaan from Stamford on theNew Canaan Branch, and to Danbury from South Norwalk on theDanbury Branch. Many trains run express from New York to Stamford, making it an easy 45-minute ride.
In the 2005 and 2006 sessions of the Legislature, massive appropriations were made to buy replacements for the 343 rail cars for the Metro-North New Haven Line and branch lines. The approximately 30-year-old cars will be replaced with new cars at a rate of ten per month starting in 2010.[86]
U.S. 1 is the oldest east–west route in the county, running through all of its shoreline cities and towns. Known by various names along its length, most commonly "Boston Post Road" or simply "Post Road", it gradually gains latitude from west to east. Thus, U.S. 1 west is officially designated "South" and east is "North".
Though contiguous, U.S. 1 changes name by locality. In Greenwich it is Putnam Avenue. In Stamford, it becomes Main Street or Tresser Boulevard. In Darien, it is Boston Post Road or "the Post Road". In Norwalk, it is Connecticut Avenue in the west, Van Zant St, Cross St, and North Av in the center, and Westport Avenue in the east. In Westport, it is Post Road West from the Norwalk town line until the Saugatuck River, where it becomes Post Road East until Fairfield. In Fairfield, it is again Boston Post Road or "the Post Road". In Bridgeport, it follows Kings Highway in the west, North Avenue in the center, and Boston Avenue in the east. Finally, it becomes Barnum Avenue in Stratford.
The western portions ofInterstate 95 in Connecticut are known as theConnecticut Turnpike or the Governor John Davis Lodge Turnpike in Fairfield County and it crosses the state approximately parallel to U.S. Route 1. The road is most commonly referred to as "I-95". The highway is six lanes (sometimes eight lanes) throughout the county. It was completed in 1958 and is often clogged with traffic particularly during morning and eveningrush hours.
With the high cost of land along the Gold Coast, state lawmakers do not consider widening the highway to be fiscally feasible, although occasional stretches between entrances and nearby exits are now sometimes connected with a fourth"operational improvement"Archived March 17, 2006, at theWayback Machine lane (for instance, westbound between the Exit 10 interchange in Darien and Exit 8 in Stamford).
The interchange between the Merritt Parkway and Route 7 in Norwalk was completed around the year 2000. The project was held up in a lawsuit won by preservationists concerned about the historic Merritt Parkway bridges. It is now exit 16/17A off the Merritt, and exit 15 off I-95. The parkway is aNational Scenic Byway and is listed on theNational Register of Historic Places.[87]
Interstate 84, which runs through Danbury, is scheduled to be widened to a six-lane highway at all points between Danbury and Waterbury. State officials say they hope the widening will not only benefit drivers regularly on the route but also entice some cars from the more crowded Interstate 95, which runs roughly parallel to it. Heavier trucks are unlikely to use Interstate 84 more often, however, because the route is much hillier than I-95 according to a state Department of Transportation official.
With its southern terminus at Interstate 95 in central Norwalk,U.S. Route 7 heads north through Wilton, Ridgefield, Danbury, and Brookfield to points north of the county. The route follows a path that was part of thepre-ColumbianGreat Trail.[88] In the 1950s, officials planned to convert all of the route to a four to six lane expressway.[88] The expressway was constructed in the cities of Danbury and Norwalk, but faced significantly opposition that prevented it from being constructed through the towns in between the two.[88][89] Plans to construct the expressway, known as "Super 7", have been floated throughout the decades, but have faced vocal opposition, and it has never been constructed.[88][89] In lieu of the expressway, segments of Route 7 in Fairfield County have been widened over the years.[89] Additionally, the expressway in Danbury has expanded north through Brookfield over the decades.[90]
Route 8 terminates in downtown Bridgeport from I-95 with Connecticut Route 25 and goes north. It splits from Connecticut Route 25 at the Bridgeport—Trumbull town line and continues north into southeastern Trumbull and Shelton, then beyond the county through some of towns of the Naugatuck River Valley to Waterbury and beyond. Construction of the route provided some impetus for the creation of office parks in Shelton and home construction there and in other parts of The Valley.
Route 25 starts in downtown Bridgeport from I 95 with Route 8 and goes north. It splits from Connecticut Route 8 at the Bridgeport—Trumbull town line and continues into Trumbull. The limited access divided expressway ends in northern Trumbull, but Route 25 continues into Monroe, Newtown, and Brookfield.
Map of Fairfield County, Connecticut labeling types of municipalities by color. Towns in light green, Cities in Red, and Boroughs in Dark RedMap of Fairfield County, Connecticut showing cities, boroughs, towns, and CDPs
Note: Villages are named localities within towns, but have no separate corporate existence from the towns they are in.
Fairfield County is in theNew York City TV market and receives its TV stations. Some TV stations in theHartford-New Haven are also available to Fairfield County viewers.
News 12 Connecticut has studios in Norwalk and covers Fairfield County as well as statewide news from Hartford.
Until 2022,WFSB fromHartford maintained a secondary feed for Fairfield County on their fourth subchannel which was carried by area cable providers; it mainly offered different advertising for local businesses, along with a different programming schedule that addressedsyndicated programming which is claimed by New York City stations and would otherwise beblacked out on WFSB.
A view of the Tea House in Cranbury Park in Norwalk. The park also has dog walking and frisbee trails, a building for the arts, and a mansion for weddings.
Greater Bridgeport Symphony. Founded in 1945, its concerts are held at Klein Memorial Auditorium in Bridgeport
Connecticut Grand Opera, a not-for-profit, professional opera company founded in 1993 and based in Stamford
Danbury Symphony Orchestra
Greenwich Symphony Orchestra
Norwalk Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1939
Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra
Orchestra Lumos
Western Connecticut Youth Orchestra, a not-for-profit organization providing young musicians in the Fairfield County and Upper Westchester County areas with a classical symphony experience
The Barnum Festival has been held in the Spring in Bridgeport since 1949 to raise money for charity
The Connecticut Film Festival is held in the Spring in Danbury
The Fairfield County Freestyle Championships are generally held once a semester on the campus ofSacred Heart University. This event showcases the bestfreestyle dancers and rappers
TheGathering of the Vibes musical event has been held in Bridgeport's Seaside Park in 1999, 2000, 2007, and again in 2008
Musicals at Richter, held every summer inDanbury, is Connecticut's longest running outdoor theater
TheNorwalk Oyster Festival is an annual fair in the city of Norwalk that features craft vendors and live music performances. The festival takes place on the first weekend afterLabor Day in Veterans Park, nearLong Island Sound
^Nova, Susan, "Shingle-style masterpiece: Greenwich home carries price tag of $8.65 million", Real Estate section of The Advocate of Stamford, Connecticut, and Greenwich Time, both on September 26, 2008
^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", pp. 81–82; DiGiovanni, in turn, cites (Footnote 209, page 258) Jackson, Kenneth T.,The Ku Klux Klan in the City, 1915–1930 (New York, 1981), p. 239
^Varekamp, JC; Buchholtz ten Brink, MR; Mecray, EL; Kreulen, B (Summer 2000). "Mercury in Long Island Sound Sediments".Journal of Coastal Research.16 (3):613–626.Bibcode:2000JCRes..16..613V.JSTOR4300074.
^"Station: Bridgeport Sikorsky Mem AP, CT".U.S. Climate Normals 2020: U.S. Monthly Climate Normals (1991–2020). National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Archived fromthe original on May 11, 2021. RetrievedJune 2, 2021.
^"Station: Danbury, CT".U.S. Climate Normals 2020: U.S. Monthly Climate Normals (1991–2020). National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.Archived from the original on June 2, 2021. RetrievedJune 2, 2021.
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