Page 34 - 33 Stony Brook Road brochure 2023

THE STORY

OF DARIEN

Originally part of Stamford, the area we know
as Darien became Middlesex Parish in 1737.¡ It
was incorporated as the Town of Darien in 1820.
Settlement truly began about 1700 when the first
roads were cut "in the woods".¡ Most houses were built
near the harbors on the Sound or along the Country
Road, whose course roughly corresponded to the
present Post Road from the Noroton River as far as
Stony Brook.

The Country Road was no more than a rough
"cartpath," fit only for travel on horseback, even
though it was the main highway connecting New
York and Boston.¡ By 1772 the Country Road was so
improved that a stagecoach schedule was established
between Boston and New York.¡In 1848, the New
Haven Railroad's first scheduled line came through
Darien. Until the advent of the railroad, Darien was
a small, rural community of about one thousand
farmers, shoemakers, fishermen, and merchants
engaged in coastal trading.¡

A gradual increase in population then occurred with
the arrival of immigrants from Ireland and later
from Italy. At the end of the Civil War, security and
economic prosperity in the North brought a building
boom. What had once been farmland and open
space was divided and residences for prosperous
businessmen and affluent local merchants blossomed
on major streets including Brookside, Prospect,
Mansfield, Noroton and Middlesex.¡ A number of well-
to-do New Yorkers discovered Darien's picturesque
shoreline and built summer homes in Tokeneke, Long
Neck Point and Noroton. Darien was still a small town
of a few thousand people in 1914, even though there
were already a few hardy commuters here who taxied
by surrey from home to station.

Today Darien is a suburban community with an active
town center, excellent schools, and involved residents.¡
It offers unspoiled land and clear waters.¡ Those who
have come to live here have been careful stewards of
its architectural and natural heritage while enjoying
the resources of a modern community.¡

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