Stamford, Connecticut, United States

🇺🇸 Stamford is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is the second-most populous city in Fairfield County and the third-largest city by population in Connecticut. Approximately halfway between Manhattan and New Haven at approximately 38 miles from each, Stamford is in the Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk-Danbury metropolitan statistical area which is a part of the New York City metropolitan area. Stamford was known as Rippowam by the Siwanoy Native American inhabitants to the region, and the very first European settlers to the area also referred to it that way. The name was later changed to Stamford after a town in Lincolnshire, England.

Stamford is home to nine Fortune 500 companies as well as numerous divisions of large corporations. This gives Stamford the largest financial district in the New York metropolitan region outside New York City itself and one of the largest concentrations of corporations in the United States. Dominant sectors of its economy include financial services, tourism, information technology, healthcare, telecommunications, transportation, and retail. Its metropolitan division is home to colleges and universities including UConn Stamford and Norwalk Community College.

History Stamford was known as Rippowam by the Siwanoy Native American inhabitants of the region, and the very first European settlers in the area also called it that. The present name is after the town of Stamford, Lincolnshire, England. The deed to Stamford was signed on July 1, 1640, between Captain Turner of the New Haven Colony and Chief Ponus. By the 18th century, one of the town's primary industries was merchandising by water, which was possible due to Stamford's proximity to New York.

In 1692, Stamford was home to a less famous witch trial than the well-known Salem witch trials, which also occurred in 1692. The accusations were less fanatical and on a smaller scale, but they also grew to prominence through gossip and hysterics.

New Canaan officially separated from Stamford when it incorporated as a town in 1801, followed by Darien in 1820.

Starting in the late 19th century, New York residents built summer homes on the shoreline, and some moved to Stamford permanently and started commuting to Manhattan by train. Stamford incorporated as a city in 1893.

In 1950, the U.S. Census Bureau reported the city's population as 94.6% white and 5.2% black.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Stamford's commercial real estate boomed as corporations relocated from New York City to peripheral areas. A massive urban redevelopment campaign during that time resulted in a downtown with many tall office buildings. The F.D. Rich Company was the city-designated urban renewal developer of the downtown area in an ongoing, contentious project beginning in the 1960s and continuing through the 1970s. The company put up what was the city's tallest structure, One Landmark Square, at 21 floors high, and the GTE building (now One Stamford Forum), along with the Marriott Hotel, the Stamford Town Center and many other downtown office buildings. One Landmark Square has since been dwarfed by the new 34-story Park Tower Stamford condominium tower, and again by the Atlantic Station development, another Rich Company project in partnership with Cappelli Enterprises. Over the years, other developers have joined in building up the downtown, a process that continued through the 1980s and 1990s and into the new century.

Since 2008, an 80-acre (32-hectare) mixed-use redevelopment project for Stamford's Harbor Point neighborhood has added additional growth south of downtown. The redevelopment plan included six million square feet (560,000 m²) of new residential, retail, office and hotel space, and a marina. In July 2012, roughly 900 of the projected 4,000 Harbor Point residential units had been constructed. New restaurants and recreational activities have come up in the Harbor Point area, which is considered New Stamford. From 2008 to 2017, the city issued permits for 4,341 housing units.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., many New Yorkers relocated to Stamford and its metropolitan area.

Geography According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city has an area of 52.09 square miles (134.9 km²), of which 37.62 square miles (97.4 km²) is land and 14.41 square miles (37.3 km²) is water. Stamford is the state's largest city by area. The population density was 3,101.9 inhabitants per square mile (1,197.7/km²) in 2010. The city is halfway between Manhattan and New Haven at approximately 38 miles (60 kilometers) from each; it is 79 miles (127 kilometers) from the state capital of Hartford.

Stamford is near the south-western point of Connecticut, on Long Island Sound; it is part of the Gold Coast. Stamford comprises approximately 45 distinct neighborhoods and villages, and two historic districts, including Cove, East Side, Downtown, North Stamford, Glenbrook, West Side, Turn of River, Waterside, Springdale, Belltown, Ridgeway, Newfield, South End, Westover, Shippan, Roxbury, and Palmers Hill.

North of the Merritt Parkway is considered the North Stamford section of the city, encompassing its largest land mass though it is the least densely populated. North Stamford functionally and legally acts as one municipality with the city of Stamford. Stamford borders Pound Ridge, New York to the north, the Long Island Sound to the south, Greenwich to the west, Darien to the east, and New Canaan to the northeast.

The city has islands in Long Island Sound: Cove Island, Grass Island, Greenway Island, Jack Island, and Cuties Island (also known as Vincent Island). Cove Island is a prominent beach and recreation area. It lies approximately 9 miles (14 kilometers) from Norwalk.

Economy Stamford's cluster of corporate headquarters includes a number of Fortune 500, Fortune 1000, and Forbes Global 2000 companies. In 2017, Stamford had four Fortune 500, nine Fortune 1000, three Forbes Global 2000, and one Fortune Global 500 company.

Among the larger companies with headquarters in Stamford are Charter Communications, Harman International, Synchrony Financial, Indeed.com, Webster Bank, United Rentals, Conair, Gartner, Henkel North American Consumer Goods, WWE, Pitney Bowes, ITT Inc., Gen Re, NBC Sports Group, Nestle Waters North America, Crane Co. and Vineyard Vines. UBS's Stamford trading floor held the Guinness World Record as the largest columnless trading floor in the world until surrendering that space in 2017. The building was sold after the bank downsized. The Royal Bank of Scotland moved its North American operations into Stamford in 2009, including its RBS Greenwich Capital subsidiary.

The Harbor Point development, in the South End, is one of the nation's largest private-sector development projects. Many large retail stores, such as Design within Reach (also headquartered in Stamford), have moved in, along with multiple companies including ITV America, McKinsey & Company, Bridgewater Associates, and Kayak.com.

Science and nature • The Stamford Museum and Nature Center on a 118-acre (48-hectare) site in the northern end of town has a collection of works by Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor of Mount Rushmore, who was a Stamford resident for a decade. • The Fairfield County Astronomical Society was started in 1954 and runs the Stamford Observatory, which has a 22-inch (560 mm) telescope. • Bartlett Arboretum and Gardens is a 91-acre (37 ha) botanical gardens and science education centre with over 850 specimen trees and plants from around the world. It is also home to several Champion Trees, the largest of their species in Connecticut. • SoundWaters Community Center for Environmental Education is in Cove Island Park.

Theater, film, and video • Curtain Call Inc. presents plays and other entertainment at the Sterling Farms Theatre Complex, 1349 Newfield Avenue. • Stamford Center for the Arts: The Palace Theatre, originally opened as a vaudeville house in 1927 and reopened as a nonprofit theater in 1983. It was joined in 1992 by the Rich Forum, another downtown venue. Both have been run by the Stamford Center for the Arts. • Latham Park • The Rich Forum is occupied by NBCUniversal as a television studio where various television shows are taped and produced, including Jerry Springer, Maury, The Steve Wilkos Show, The Trisha Goddard Show, and Crazy Talk. • AMC Theatres has two first-run movie houses in Stamford with a total of 14 movie screens: Landmark 8 and Majestic 6. The Avon Theatre Film Center, a two-screen nonprofit movie house focusing on first-run independent movies, is on Bedford Street. The Ferguson Library also shows movies.

Culture: Music • In a typical season, the Stamford Symphony Orchestra gives five pairs of classical concerts and three pops concerts at the 1,586-seat Palace Theatre, as well as a concert for elementary school students and a family concert series. • Connecticut Grand Opera, a not-for-profit, professional opera company, performs at the Palace Theatre. On its website, the CGO claims to offer "the most ambitious opera season of any company between New York and Boston". • Alive @ Five is an annual summer concert series in Columbus Park typically lasting six weeks. • Treetops CMS, a nonprofit chamber music organization, is in Westover, providing six chamber music concerts annually, as well as art exhibits and installations.

Fine art • UCONN Stamford Art Gallery showcases both emerging and established artists. • Franklin Street Works maintains an art space in the downtown area. • Fernando Luis Alvarez Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in Connecticut with diverse international exhibitions. • Stamford Loft Artists Association provides support for visual artists and opportunities to exhibit their work.

Libraries Stamford's public library, the Ferguson Library, is one of the largest in Connecticut. The library also shows movies and has a used book store run by Friends of Ferguson Library.

The library has branches in South End, Springdale, and the Turn of River sections of the city, it also has a bookmobile that runs daily to different neighborhoods. The Turn of River branch, officially called the Harry Bennett Branch, is the largest library branch in the state. That branch also has a used book store run by Friends of Ferguson Library.

Parks and recreation • Mill River Park is in the centre of downtown. Its ancient grist mill (present when George Washington traveled through Stamford) was modernized in the 1920s. There are numerous community activities offered at the park coordinated by the Mill River Park Collaborative. • Cummings Park, a public beach, was once a popular spot for shell fishing. The park was developed in 1906 and had been known as Halloween Park because Mayor Homer Cummings cast the deciding vote to create it on Halloween Night. • The 83-acre (34 ha) Cove Island Park, once a farm and then an enormous factory site (Stamford Manufacturing Company), has beaches, picnic grounds and bluffs. It has a small wildlife sanctuary in the south-west corner that might be interesting for bird watchers. The SoundWaters Community Center for Environmental Education is in the park. • Jackie Robinson Park on the West Side is named after baseball legend Jackie Robinson, who lived in Stamford. • Terry Connors Ice Rink shares a parking lot with Cove Island Park. It offers public ice skating, group lessons, and ice hockey. It is the home of the Stamford Youth Hockey Association. • Scalzi Park on Bridge Street has a playground, baseball and softball fields, volleyball courts, tennis courts, bocce courts, basketball courts, roller hockey courts, and a baseball park, Cubeta Stadium. A concrete skate park was opened at Scalzi in July 2007 for $309,850, designed and built by Grindline Skateparks Inc. • Stamford has two municipal golf courses. Sterling Farms Golf Course opened in May 1972 and is the more popular. The facility also has a driving range, restaurant, and six tennis courts. • The E. Gaynor Brennan Golf Course, known locally as Hubbard Heights, opened for play in 1922 as a private course and was purchased by the city in 1949. • Dorothy Heroy Park is in North Stamford. • Mianus River Park is 187 acres (76 ha) of nature reserve in Stamford, owned by the city. • The Italian Center features tennis courts, swimming pools, fitness centres, a playground and a miniature golf course. • The Stamford YMCA offers swimming lessons and sports, including basketball and indoor soccer. Programs are also available periodically for physical fitness. • The Stamford Yacht Club is a private organization that provides members with access to boating activities and additional amenities.

Education Stamford has branches of the University of Connecticut, University of Bridgeport and Sacred Heart University. The University of Connecticut's campus is in a large modern building downtown that opened in 1998 after extensive renovations to an abandoned former Bloomingdale's store that had closed in 1990. The University of Bridgeport has a branch at the River Bend Executive Center, and Sacred Heart University has a branch at Landmark Square. In 2017, UCONN Stamford opened a 300-student dormitory around the corner from the Stamford Campus on Washington Blvd.

As no study has been conducted to assess the cost of education in Stamford, it is difficult to tell whether Stamford has a well-funded public education system. Public education is a state responsibility, and Connecticut ranks near the bottom in state share of public education expenditures. Thus most education funding must come from local governments like Stamford's. According to the State Department of Education, in the 2004–2005 academic year, 42.7% of Stamford's public school students were economically disadvantaged, 34.8% did not have English as a home language and 11.6% were students with disabilities. Research has shown that these populations need additional resources to meet state academic standards. Owing to the state school finance system, the burden of these extra necessary costs of education falls primarily on Stamford's local government. The public school system is an integrated district with racial balance requirements exceeding those of the state. State standards require that a school's racial makeup be within 25% of the community's racial makeup. Stamford's standard is 10%. Over the years, schools have become unbalanced.

Stamford has three public high schools: Westhill High School, Stamford High School, and the Academy of Information Technology and Engineering. The city also has several private schools, including Villa Maria School, and Bi-Cultural Jewish Day School, King Low Heywood Thomas, and The Long Ridge School.

Stamford has one of the nation's most highly educated populations: nine out of ten are high school graduates, and those possessing a bachelor's degree or higher are estimated at 43.6% of the population. Stamford is tied with Iowa City, Iowa, for the U.S. metropolitan area with the highest percentage of the adult population holding a bachelor's degree or higher; 44% of adults hold a degree.

Media • NBC Sports Group world headquarters is in Stamford, connected to Chelsea Piers Connecticut. All studios are based in Stamford, including Football Night in America, and all the NBC Olympic coverage. • Three NBCUniversal syndicated programs relocated to Stamford's Rich Forum: Maury came to Stamford from New York City, while Jerry Springer and The Steve Wilkos Show were previously based in Chicago. • Television show The People's Court has taped in Stamford since 2012. • ITV America announced the opening of a major production office in Stamford with 450 employees, along with a digital media incubator program. Televisions shows produced in Stamford include Hell's Kitchen, Pawn Stars, The Real Housewives of New Jersey, Queer Eye on Netflix, and The Four: Battle for Stardom. • WWE has had its global headquarters in Stamford since 1985, when it was Titan Sports. Originally located at 1241 East Main Street, the company moved to 677 Washington Boulevard in early 2021. • Fortune 100 company Charter Communications' world headquarters has been based in Stamford since 2012. Charter distributes services through its Spectrum brand. • Stamford serves as a major office for YES Network, The Yankee Entertainment and Sports Network. • Local Yokel Media, an online internet advertising marketplace is headquartered in Stamford since 2011. • A+E Networks has a major production studio based in Stamford. • Soap operas All My Children and One Life to Live were taped in Stamford in 2013. • This Old House relocated its headquarters to Stamford from Manhattan in 2016, and has about 50 employees in the city. • Stephen David Entertainment, a division of Banijay Group, opened a production office in Stamford in 2019. • Who Wants to Be a Millionaire started taping in 2014 at the Connecticut Film Center. • Synapse Group, part of Time Inc. now owned by Dotdash Meredith, is headquartered in Stamford. • Chief Executive Group is headquartered in Stamford, and publishes Chief Executive Magazine. • The fictional movie Take My Hand from the episode "I Heart Connecticut" of the NBC show 30 Rock was set and shot in Stamford. • Stamford served as a location for one of five branches of the fictional Dunder Mifflin paper company on the US television series The Office. The branch was shown during several episodes during the 3rd season of the show, and exterior shots were of the former Starwood headquarters building at 333 Ludlow in Stamford's South End. • The TBS sitcom Are We There Yet, starring Terry Crews, was shot at the Connecticut Film Center in Stamford.

Media: Print • Stamford Magazine, published by Moffly Media • Stamford Advocate, daily newspaper • The Stamford Times, weekly newspaper, owned by The Hour Newspapers. • Stamford Plus magazine is published by Canaiden LLC. • El Sol News, weekly Spanish-language newspaper. • La Voz, weekly Spanish-language newspaper.

Media: Radio • WEDW-FM 88.5; 2,000 watts, a National Public Radio station • WSTC-AM 1400; 1,000 watts; shares programming with WNLK-AM 1350 • WEBE 108 -107.9 1400; 50,000 watts

Stamford Emergency Medical Services A not-for-profit agency, Stamford Emergency Medical Services (SEMS) provides pre-hospital emergency care in Stamford, Connecticut. SEMS also provides contracted paramedic intercept response to Darien Emergency Medical Services, located in Darien, Connecticut. SEMS is the only Connecticut EMS service accredited by the Commission on the Accreditation of Ambulance Services (CAAS). All SEMS units are staffed by at least one Connecticut-licensed paramedic. Stamford EMS responds to 14,000 calls annually.

In Stamford, medical facilities include: • Stamford Hospital, Level II Trauma Center • Tully Health Center • Franklin Street Community Health Center

Fire department Fire protection in the city of Stamford is provided by the paid Stamford Fire Department (SFD) and four all-volunteer fire departments—Glenbrook-New Hope, Belltown, Springdale, and Turn of River—plus a combination company (paid and volunteer members), Long Ridge.

Budgeting and districting of the various fire departments throughout the city had been unstable since 2007, due to an extended legal conflict between the volunteer departments and the Malloy administration. As of May 16, 2012, a decision was reached by the city's charter revision committee to combine the paid and volunteer fire departments into one combination fire department, known as the Stamford Fire Department.

Police department The Stamford Police Department (SPD) is Stamford's only police force, and has lost four officers in the line of service since 1938. The police force has about 280 sworn police officers making it the fifth largest police force in Connecticut after Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport, and Waterbury. Most Stamford Officers were trained at the Connecticut Police Training Academy before patrolling in the city. Aside from Police Headquarters, located at 725 Bedford St., opened in 2019, in Downtown Stamford, SPD also operates substations in Stamford's West Side at Wilson St. and W. Main St., and at 1137 High Ridge Rd and Hope Street. The current Chief of Police is Tim Shaw since April 9, 2020 who was a police officer in Stamford before leaving to Easton, Connecticut and coming back to Stamford to become police chief.

Mass transit Stamford is on the New Haven Line of the Metro-North Railroad, the commuter rail system for northern metropolitan New York City. Stamford is the second-busiest station on the Metro-North system, after Grand Central Terminal, and serves as a major transfer point for local trains. Stamford Station is also the terminus of a Metro-North branch that ends in New Canaan, 8 mi (13 km) away, known as the New Canaan Branch, and a part-time terminal of Shore Line East and Danbury Branch trains. Two smaller train stations in Stamford are Glenbrook and Springdale, both a part of the New Canaan branch.

Commuter trains come into Stamford from all points between New London to the east and New York (Grand Central Terminal) to the south. The average nonstop commute is 47 minutes. Trains operate from the Stamford station between 4:43 a.m. (first departure to Grand Central) until 12:55 a.m. (last departure to Grand Central).

Stamford also serves as a station along the Amtrak route. Acela, the high speed train service between Boston and Washington, makes several daily stops in Stamford. Amtrak's Northeast Regional (Springfield, Massachusetts to Washington, D.C.) and Vermonter (Saint Albans, Vermont to Washington, D.C.) also make daily stops in Stamford. Amtrak tickets can be purchased on the upper level of the Stamford station.

Transport: Air Stamford is within reasonable distance of 11 airports: four general aviation, two regional, five international.

*General aviation airports * Danbury Municipal Airport

21 mi (34 km) north in Danbury, Connecticut

Sikorsky Memorial Airport

22 mi (35 km) east in Stratford, Connecticut

Teterboro Airport

31 mi (50 km) south-west in Teterboro, New Jersey

Waterbury–Oxford Airport

36 mi (58 km) north-east in Oxford, Connecticut

Regional airports Westchester County Airport

8 mi (13 km) west in Westchester County, New York

Tweed New Haven Airport

37 mi (60 km) east in East Haven, Connecticut

Stewart Airport

43 mi (69 km) north-west in Newburgh, New York

International airports LaGuardia Airport

26 mi (42 km) south-west in Queens, New York

John F. Kennedy International Airport

31 mi (50 km) south-west in Queens, NY

Newark Liberty International Airport

41 mi (66 km) south-west in Newark, New Jersey

Bradley International Airport

75 mi (121 km) north-east in Windsor Locks, Connecticut

Buses City bus transportation is provided by CT Transit, which is run and financed by the Connecticut Department of Transportation. The main terminal is adjacent to the train station on State Street, under the I-95 highway. Bus service runs along major arterial roads through the towns of Darien, Norwalk, Greenwich and Port Chester, New York. A non-stop direct route is also offered to White Plains, New York. Commuters can connect in Norwalk to points as far east as Milford and as far north as Danbury. Additional connections can be made in Port Chester and White Plains to all points covered by the Bee-Line bus system in Westchester County.

Greyhound provides inter-city bus service from the lower level of the Stamford train station. Bus service is provided to New Haven (Union Station), Boston (South Station), and New York (Port Authority).

Transport: Road Two limited-access highways run through the city. Interstate 95 serves as the main route through downtown Stamford with four exits (6–9). The Merritt Parkway runs through the northern part of the city. This road is designated for passenger vehicles only. Any congestion on the Merritt Parkway is mostly likely to occur on the southbound lane in the morning and the northbound in the evening (route to and from New York). At night, due to the absence of lighting, visibility on the Merritt Parkway is relatively poor. Stamford exits on the Merritt Parkway are 33–35, and exit 36 is just over the border in New Canaan.

Stamford is also served by four other state highways. Route 1, also known as Main Street in Stamford, is also used as a major artery during the morning and evening commute. Most traffic via Route 1 is short distance or fairly local, yet vehicles have utilized Route 1 during times of heavy congestion on I-95 as a re-route. Route 137 (Washington Boulevard and High Ridge Road) is the main north–south road of the city and runs from the Stamford Transportation Center and serves the Turn of River, North Stamford, and High Ridge sections of the city. Route 104 (Long Ridge Road) branches off from Route 137 to serve the Long Ridge section. Route 106 (Courtland Avenue) serves the Glenbrook neighborhood and continues towards the town of Darien.