“To understand Stamford, you must go back to the beginning, before there were roads, shopping malls, office buildings, condos or even houses. To understand Stamford, you must begin in a place that is not Stamford” (Russell & Barlow). This is my hometown. I have seen grass and trees become a 37-story high-rise building that can be spotted from Long Island. I have seen one house transform into eight condominiums. I have seen a park become an office complex. I have seen the city of Stamford become an even larger city overwhelmed by corporations and multi-million dollar housing complexes. Small neighborhoods have relinquished. Streets have more traffic and people are living on top of each other, literally.
The Washington Building was a four-story brick structure on Bank Street in 1870 that sold dry goods (Lobozza). That was downtown Stamford. In 2010 in the same spot, a 130-store mall stretches 853,000 square feet across the area. The mall known as the Stamford Town Center was one of the many changes Stamford saw in the massive urban redevelopment project that changed the face of Stamford in the late 1960’s. Russell and Barlow said, “If you looked at an aerial photo of downtown Stamford taken 30 years ago, you would not see the city we know today.”
The corporate takeover of Stamford, Connecticut began. “Increasingly, many of the nation’s largest corporations are choosing to establish their world headquarters here” (Ross). What was a small farming village for 200 years, Stamford decided to trade in country for steel.
The introduction of the railroad in the late 1800’s was the first step. In 1948, the consolidation from a town to a city government was the nail in the coffin (Marcus). It grew from a tiny outpost of colonial America to a dominant urban center of Southwest Connecticut (League of Women Voters). While its neighbors to the east and west kept its small New England town appearance through the American industrialization period, Stamford dissented and opened its lands to the factories and offices. “Many longtime Stamford residents worried that such a drastic alteration of the skyline would destroy the city’s character, somehow diminishing its New England charm” (Russell & Barlow).
William F. Buckley Jr., a student at Yale in the late 1950’s described Stamford before urban redevelopment: “We found ourselves like Dorothy in Oz – inside a community of perhaps twenty-five or thirty houses, each with about an acre or an acre and a half of land, each distinctive in its architecture, the trees billowing their greenness.” What William F. Buckley Jr. found in the late 1950’s on Summer Street is no longer.
With new innovations in technology and overpopulation, I am seeing the bubble burst for Stamford. In the 1970’s and 1980’s “corporations began migrating from New York City to the suburbs” (League of Women Voters). Decades later, Stamford has not only continued to be a commuters’ paradise, but a place to call home. “The number of households increased by 54% between 1960 and 1985” (League of Women Voters).
More people increased the need for more condominiums and more space to be cleared. The Yale & Town factories and homes of the South End have been cleared for new state of the art office space and housing complexes overlooking Stamford Harbor. “Only 40 years ago, everything north of downtown Stamford was mostly woods and old houses. Now there are strip malls and office buildings by the Merritt Parkway” (Richichi). These are just more visions of a city that is showing no signs of slowing down.
The city now personifies the takeover of capitalism in America. From the first mill on Canal Street to the brand new RBS building by Interstate-95, industry has brought economic prosperity to Stamford. But it broke down the dynamic of a community. Friends, family and neighbors moved away from each other. The waves of city life, big business and development have washed away tight niche neighborhoods.
Remnants of the old town of Stamford can be found buried behind the Financial Center on Elm St. or tucked away in North Stamford. Car horns and the hustle and bustle of Stamford make it look and sound like New York City. It used to be a New Canaan or Weston or Wilton, Connecticut. I grew up with few buildings such as Landmark Square and the GTE office building but now the Trump Tower and Avalon condominiums reside where I once ate ice cream as a child.
The neighborhoods are slowly being swallowed up by big business. National franchises and corporate giants have moved in and erased what was once a small community. Small barbershops on Cove Road have turned into Supercuts on High Ridge Road. Constant traffic on East Main Street and Summer Street resemble a Los Angeles freeway making it more difficult to travel around the city.
For the first time my extended family that were born and raised here since the 1940’s have either moved out of Stamford or contemplating moving. Most of my high school friends have moved out of the city to start families. The population and overflow of people with these corporations that have resided in Stamford has spun out of control.
Every time I blink I see change. More people, more money and more concrete are being poured into Stamford everyday. My hometown has transformed around me and all I can do is sit back and watch it happen.
Works Cited
Buckley Jr., William F. “Stamford…A Reminiscence.” Stamford: 350 Years 1991: 10-19.
Business and Industry in Stamford. Stamfordhistory.org
Center of Stamford has shifted west. Stamfordadvocate.com
From the Archives of The Stamford Advocate The Week of January 31. Stamfordadvocate.com
League of Women Voters. This is Stamford 1991: 6.
Lobozza, Carl.
Marcus, Ronald. Personal INTERVIEW. 8 April 2010.
Richichi, Joseph. Personal INTERVIEW. 3 July 2010.
Ross, Don. “Stamford Profile.” Stamford: Past & Present 1641-1976 1976: 79-85.
Russell, Don and Mike Barlow. “A Popular History of Stamford with Illustrations.” Stamford: 350 Years 1991: 65-71.
Urban Renewal. Stamfordhistory.typepad.com
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