Page 38 - 346 Taintor Drive brochure 2024

THE STORY OF

SOUTHPORT

Southport is a section of the town of Fairfield CT, located
along Long Island Sound between the Mill River and Sasco
Brook. Settled in 1639, the downtown area has been
designated a local historic district since 1967 and was listed
on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. The
historic significance of Southport is because of its harbor,
churches, public buildings, and the homesteads of some of
the first families in southwestern Connecticut. The earliest
recorded event in Southport's history was "The Great Swamp
Fight" of July 1637, an episode of the Pequot War in which
English colonial forces led by John Mason and Roger Ludlow
vanquished a band of about 80 to 100 Pequot Indians who
had earlier fled from their home territory in the Mystic area
and had taken refuge with about 200 Sasqua people who
inhabited the area that is now Fairfield. The exact location of
the battle is not known, but it is known to have been in the
vicinity of Southport.

By 1831 the village had changed its name to Southport and
was a bustling commercial area with warehouses, churches,
schools, stores and elegant houses. Southport became a
leading coastal port on Long Island Sound, its ships carrying
produce and goods back and forth to New York City. A
measure of Southport's success is the fact that throughout
the 1800s it possessed the only two banks in town. However,
competition from steamboats and the railroad took its toll on
prosperity. Resourceful shippers teamed with local farmers
and businessmen to keep the port going; the Southport onion,
a high quality onion, was developed and grown on Fairfield's
hills and shipped in Southport market boats, keeping the
harbor profitable until the end of the century.

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