Before it was Stamford, this harbor at the mouth of the river was Rippowam, home of the Siwanoy. In 1640 the land was deeded to the New Haven Colony's Capt. Nathaniel Turner by the Siwanoy leaders Ponus and Wascussee, and in 1641 about two dozen Puritan families from Wethersfield came down to settle it, led by the Rev. Richard Denton. They renamed it Stamford in 1642, after a town in Lincolnshire, England. The Rippowam name endures — for the river that still runs through downtown, and for the people who were here first.
Our Stamford design carries an oyster shell beneath an arched STAMFORD and the line Connecticut · Est. 1636, printed in a worn, woodcut style. The oyster is Long Island Sound itself — the shellfish water this harbor town was built beside — and the 1636 date marks Connecticut's colonial founding. It reads like an old harbor-crate stamp: not the commuter-rail Stamford of the timetables, but Rippowam on the Sound, the colonial port under a modern city.
Why People Visit Stamford, CT
Stamford balances harbor and city — sailboats on the Sound, a downtown skyline, and four centuries of history from Rippowam to the rail line. It is a Gold Coast harbor town an hour from Manhattan, with the water, the parks, and that one-of-a-kind church on the hill.
