The Revolution reached this shore in earnest in July 1779, when a British force under Governor Tryon landed on the Norwalk coast and burned the town — one of the war's harshest blows to Connecticut. The Five Mile River hamlet shared its parent town's ordeal and its Patriot cause: Norwalk's militia turned out to meet the raid, and the little shore settlement rebuilt with the rest. Rowayton's Revolutionary connection runs with the eleven towns of our Minutemen of Connecticut history, and the village wears the winter version in the Minuteman Holiday collection.
Today Rowayton is the Connecticut shore at its most distilled — a Five Mile River village of oyster heritage, sailboats, and art, governing its own small corner of the Sound. Its story runs from an Algonquian fishing ground through a shipwright hamlet, an oystering fleet, a steamboat resort, and a barn full of computer pioneers to the unhurried village of today. Wear a little of the village that kept its scale and its salt.
Why People Visit Rowayton
Rowayton offers the Connecticut shore at its most relaxed and characterful — sailing, art, and quiet beaches in a village that has kept its scale and its salt-water soul. Visitors come for the harbor and the shore parks and stay for the unhurried, distilled village that Norwalk keeps at its edge.
