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.
In 1868 Yale & Towne began making Yale locks here, and Stamford became a manufacturing city as much as a harbor one. The rail line to New York turned it into a commuter town and, later, a corporate-headquarters city — but underneath the office towers it is still the harbor town on the Sound, with the oyster beds, the lighthouse of 1882, and Shippan Point reaching out into the water.
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.
