Page 45 - 570 Warner Hill Road brochure 2024
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THE STORY
OF SOUTHPORT
Southport Village: 1 miles
Downtown Fairfield Shopping: 2 miles
Sasco Beach: 3 miles
Fairfield Sportsplex: 2 miles
Greenfield Hill Market: 1 miles
Southport is a section of the town of By 1831 the village had changed its name to
Fairfield CT, located along Long Island Southport and was a bustling commercial
Sound between the Mill River and Sasco area with warehouses, churches, schools,
Brook. Settled in 1639, the downtown stores and elegant houses. Southport
area has been designated a local historic became a leading coastal port on Long
district since 1967 and was listed on the Island Sound, its ships carrying produce
National Register of Historic Places in and goods back and forth to New York
1971. The historic significance of Southport City. A measure of Southport's success
is because of its harbor, churches, public is the fact that throughout the 1800s it
buildings, and the homesteads of some possessed the only two banks in town.
of the first families in southwestern However, competition from steamboats
Connecticut. The earliest recorded event and the railroad took its toll on prosperity.
in Southport's history was "The Great Resourceful shippers teamed with local
Swamp Fight" of July 1637, an episode of farmers and businessmen to keep the
the Pequot War in which English colonial port going; the Southport onion, a high
forces led by John Mason and Roger Ludlow quality onion, was developed and grown on
vanquished a band of about 80 to 100 Fairfield's hills and shipped in Southport
Pequot Indians who had earlier fled from market boats, keeping the harbor
their home territory in the Mystic area and profitable until the end of the century.
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.
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