History of Norwalk, Connecticut
Today that site remains in an area of Norwalk, once known in contemporary history as Winnupuck Village on private property near to Ward Street (formerly Stickey Plain Road).
Despite the destruction it remains a documented archaeological site with artifacts left behind such as arrow points, pottery and bone fragments by a succession of cultures.
Higginson[8] relates that in 1638 Edward Hopkins, William Goodwin[9] and himself, three important Connecticut Colonists, held, in or near, "Narwoke" a successful parley with its aboriginal owners."
The late William S. Bouton, a local antiquarian, distinctly traced the site of this village twenty years ago, near the present residence of Mr. Burchard.
Nearby was a feasting ground marked by a deposit two feet deep of shells and animals' bones where the Indians used to have what we call Rhode Island clambakes.
"[14] In or around August 2018, in connection with a state DOT rail-bridge replacement, a $1 million archaeological excavation unearthed a centuries-old Native American fort filled with several thousand artifacts.
Those listed on the First Settlers Monument in the East Norwalk Historical Cemetery included: George Abbitt, Robert Beacham, Stephen Beckwith, John Bowton, Matthew Campfield, Nathaniel Eli, Thomas Fitch, John Griggorie, Samuel Hales, Thomas Hales, Walter Haite, Nathaniel Haies, Rev.
I put up at Norwalk at one Beelding's, [ John Belding **] and as my boy was taking off the saddles, I could see one half of the town standing about him, making inquiry about his master.
[30][31] As they arrived at Fort Crailo, New York, the British regulars began to mock and ridicule the rag-tag Connecticut troops who only had chicken feathers for uniform.
[31] In 1776, American spy Nathan Hale set out from Norwalk by ship (the converted whaleboat Schuyler) toward Huntington, New York, on his ill-fated intelligence-gathering mission.
As the British marched to Danbury the Patriots mustered their forces under the command of Major Gen. David Wooster and Brigadier Generals Benedict Arnold and Gold Selleck Silliman.
A flotilla of twenty whaleboats from Norwalk skipped past British warships anchored in Huntington Bay and stealthily discharged its passengers.
Residents of Norwalk, certain of what lay ahead, began to make provisions for the defense of their town, mostly by huddling up in the upper hills of the city known as "The Rocks."
Parsons also urgently appealed to Brigadier General John Glover[40] of the Continental Army to bring his brigade to Norwalk from where he was camped in New London, Connecticut.
With the end of the Civil War, shipping traffic in the harbor increased, and in 1867 Congress appropriated funds to build a new lighthouse and keeper's quarters.
The engineer, Edward Tucker, carelessly neglected to check the open drawbridge signal as his one hundred and fifty passenger train approached the Norwalk River.
Several trunk lines emanated from New York City, a central point in the escape route, which one passing through Greenwich, Darien, Norwalk, and Wilton.
[citation needed] "Oyster culture has been a leading industry of the town since the friendly Indians showed the first settlers the natural beds off the Norwalk shores.
Later this vessel was further improved by the addition of a propeller and this was found to add so materially to her effectiveness that since that time several screw steamers have been built expressly for this work.
The popular movie house closed in 1966 and remained dormant until 1975 when Russell Fratto purchased the building with plans for revitalizing it into The Palace Performing Arts Center.
[55]The Ku Klux Klan, which preached a doctrine of Protestant control of America and suppression of blacks, Jews and Catholics, experienced a nationwide revival in the 1920s and had formed a Klavern in Norwalk by 1923.
During that summer, Klan members set fire to a 30-foot-tall (9.1 m) cross on Calf Pasture Beach and painted a large "KKK" on the stone wall surrounding industrialist James A. Ferrell's Rock Ledge Estate in Rowayton.
By 1926, the Klan was riven by internal divisions and became ineffective, although it continued to maintain small, local branches for years afterward in Norwalk as well as Stamford, Bridgeport, Darien and Greenwich.
[56] Norwalk made New York Times front-page news for two months in 1954 during the wave of accusations exposing "disloyal citizens" when the Mulvoy-Tarlov-Aquino Veterans of Foreign Wars Post divulged that it was turning over to the FBI names and addresses of residents whose records or activities were deemed to be Communistic.
Chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee Harold Velde (with approval from Senator Joseph McCarthy) suggested that the VFW turn over names of suspected Communists to it, as well as the FBI.
The original story had placed the onus for sifting data and forwarding names to the FBI on a special committee allegedly formed from among post membership of men "from all walks of life."
In a radio broadcast, Suzanne Silvercruys Stevenson, founder of the Minute Women of the U.S. and a member of the Norwalk VFW Auxiliary, labeled the committee story a myth.
The spotlight on Norwalk was particularly embarrassing because the community was playing host to a group of newspaper men from NATO countries here under sponsorship of the State and Defense Departments to visit "a typical American town".
[citation needed] In the mid-1970s, under the administration Mayor William Collins, the city government and several local organizations started the South Norwalk Revitalization Project.
Its goal was to preserve the historic architecture of South Norwalk ("SoNo") and revitalize the neighborhood, especially on Washington Street and several surrounding blocks.
