Southport is a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

(CDP) in the town of

Fairfield, Connecticut Fairfield is a New England town, town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It borders the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut, Bridgeport and towns of Trumbull, Connecticut, Trumbull, Easton, Connecticut, Easton, Weston, Connecticut, W ...

, United States. It is located along

Long Island Sound Long Island Sound is a sound (geography), marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York (state), New York to the south. From west to east, ...

between Mill River and Sasco Brook, where it borders Westport. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 1,710. Settled in 1639, Southport center has been designated a local

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains historic building, older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal p ...

since 1967. In 1971, it was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

as the Southport Historic District.

History

The indigenous village of Sasqua, inhabited by

Quiripi language Quiripi (pronounced , also known as Mattabesic, Quiripi-Unquachog, Quiripi-Naugatuck, and Wampano) was an Algonquian language formerly spoken by the indigenous people of southwestern Connecticut and central Long Island,Rudes (1997:1)Goddard ( ...

speakers, was located in the area. Members of that community later formed the

Golden Hill Paugussett Indian Nation The Golden Hill Paugussett is a state-recognized Native American tribe in Connecticut. Granted reservations in a number of towns in the 17th century, their land base was whittled away until they were forced to reacquire a small amount of territor ...

. The earliest recorded event in Southport's history was "The Great Swamp Fight" or "

Fairfield Swamp Fight The Fairfield Swamp Fight (also known as the Great Swamp Fight) was the last engagement of the Pequot War and marked defeat of the Pequot people, Pequot tribe in the war and the loss of their recognition as a political entity in the 17th centur ...

" of July 1637 (not to be confused with the later

Great Swamp Fight The Great Swamp Massacre or the Great Swamp Fight was a crucial battle fought during King Philip's War between the colonial militia of New England and the Narragansett people in December 1675. It was fought near the villages of Kingston and We ...

King Philip's War King Philip's War (sometimes called the First Indian War, Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, Pometacomet's Rebellion, or Metacom's Rebellion) was an armed conflict in 1675–1678 between a group of indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodland ...

), an episode of the

Pequot War The Pequot War was an armed conflict that took place in 1636 and ended in 1638 in New England, between the Pequot nation and an alliance of the colonists from the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Saybrook colonies and their allies from the Na ...

in which English colonial forces led by John Mason and

Roger Ludlow Roger Ludlow (1590–1664) was an English lawyer, magistrate, military officer, and colonist. He was active in the founding of the Colony of Connecticut, and helped draft laws for it and the nearby Massachusetts Bay Colony. Under his and John M ...

vanquished a band of 80 to 100

Pequot The Pequot ( ) are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people of Connecticut. The modern Pequot are members of the federally recognized Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, four other state-recognized groups in Connecticut includin ...

Indians who had earlier fled from their home territory in the Mystic area and taken refuge with approximately 200 Sasqua Indians who inhabited the area that is now Fairfield. The exact location of the battle is unclear, but it is known to have been in the vicinity of Southport. In 1639, Ludlow established the town of Fairfield on the Pequot land known as Unquowa. Colonial deeds of land were signed with the Sasqua in the 1670s. In the eighteenth century, Mill River village, a part of Fairfield, was a small hamlet of a few houses and a wharf at the mouth of Fairfield's Mill River. Farm products from the surrounding area were shipped from Mill River's small harbor to ports in New York and beyond.History of the Town of Fairfield, Connecticut
/ref> Southport Globe Onion field ca

By 1831 the village had changed its name to Southport and was a bustling commercial area with warehouses, churches, schools, stores and elegant houses. Before 1853, Southport had its own local government as a

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History ...

within the town of Fairfield.

Economic history

Southport became a leading coastal port on

, its ships carrying produce and goods back and forth to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. A measure of Southport's success is the fact that throughout the 1800s it possessed the only two

banks A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. As banks ...

in town. However, competition from steamboats and the railroad took their toll on prosperity. Resourceful shippers teamed with local farmers and businessmen to keep the port going. The Southport Onion, a high quality

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' , from Latin ), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus '' Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion which was classifie ...

, was developed and grown on Westport's and Fairfield's hills and shipped in Southport market boats. These boats were mostly sloops that carried 50 tons and more in some cases of cargo keeping the harbor profitable until the end of the century. The federal government supported repairs to the harbor in the 1840s. During the 1840s, the greatest agricultural innovation in Fairfield became the cultivation of onions. From 1840 to 1890, 200,000 tons yearly were shipped out of Southport. Designed to be easily stored, during the Civil War sales spiked, its high vitamin C content prized by the U.S. Navy to prevent scurvy. The U.S. Army prized it to treat gunshot wounds, at one point to the extent that General Ulysses S. Grant refused to move his troops if they were not supplied with onions. In the 1890s, 100,000 barrels of locally grown onions, carrots, potatoes, and other goods were shipped annually from Southport harbor.

The shipping industry was the economic foundation of the village of Mill River. The village, as it became a large port, eventually changed its name to South Port, later Southport. Local farmers transported their Southport Globe onions and other crops via the growing shipping fleet housed in the harbor and, by 1836, it became larger than the New York City and Boston ports. The ships sailed to destinations as far as the West Indies, but often went to New York City, where larger vessels in a deeper port headed to more distant foreign destinations. During the period from 1750 to 1900, the shipping industry grew dramatically, but died out as the railroad industry and steamship industries took over. The increased use of large

shipping container A shipping container is a container with strength suitable to withstand shipment, storage, and handling. Shipping containers range from large reusable steel boxes used for intermodal shipments to the ubiquitous corrugated box design, corrugated b ...

s also decreased transport costs and eventually drove the need to use ports deeper than Southport Harbor. The local produce was transported to New York and Boston via train, to deeper water ports where larger vessels were docked.

Local Sea Captains

During the peak of the shipping era, Southport had four shipyards in old Mill River, and many of Southport's first families built their wealth in the lucrative shipping trade that grew in response to local farmers wanting a more convenient port than Bridgeport and Norwalk Harbors. Numerous area parks and streets are named after prominent sea captains, including Bulkley Avenue, Sherwood Island State Park, and Sturges Highway. Capt. Zalman Wakeman owned Wakeman Farms, which is still operating today.

Preservation

Today, much of the old village area is part of a town

, first established in 1967, where buildings from three centuries are protected for future generations. The boundaries of the town historic district are the

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

on the north; the Mill River and Southport Harbor on the south; Church Street; and Old South Road and Rose Hill Road on the west and east, respectively, including all properties on both sides of the roads.Gibbons v. Fairfield Historic District Commission
285 Conn. 755; 941 A.2d 917; 2008 Conn. LEXIS 80 Strict historic

zoning In urban planning, zoning is a method in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into land-use "zones", each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for ...

regulations apply in the district and have been upheld by the

Connecticut Supreme Court The Connecticut Supreme Court, formerly known as the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors, is the supreme court, highest court in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It consists of a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices. The seven justices sit i ...

. The Southport Historic District is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Architecture

Southport is home to one of the finest collections of historic residences and institutional buildings in New England. Southport Village was selected as a Connecticut Historical District in 1966, and a National Historic District in 1971. As a result, the Village serves as a time capsule of sorts, perfectly preserving a wide variety of very different architectural styles. Ranging from the 1760s to the 1890s, architectural styles reflected include:

Greek Revival Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...

, Federal, Queen Anne,

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...

Stick Style The Stick style was a late-19th-century American architectural style, transitional between the Carpenter Gothic style of the mid-19th century, and the Queen Anne style that it had evolved into by the 1890s. It is named after its use of linear " ...

, and more. Many of these buildings were constructed by local firm Jelliff and Northrop, with several designed by noted architectural firm Bunnell & Lambert. File:Gurdon Perry House, 780 Harbor Road, Southport (Fairfield County, Connecticut).jpg, Gurdon Perry House,

Federal style Federal-style architecture is the name for the classical architecture built in the United States following the American Revolution between 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815, which was influenced heavily by the works of And ...

(1830) File:Henry Perry House, 45 Westway Road, Southport (Fairfield County, Connecticut).jpg, Henry Perry House,

(1832) File:Francis D. Perry House, 678 Pequot Road, Southport (Fairfield County, Connecticut).jpg, Francis Perry House, Greek Revival (1832) File:MMDA-Photos - 2012-02-18 - Southport Savings Bank, Southport, Connecticut, USA.jpg, Southport Savings Bank,

(1863) File:Austin Perry House, 712 Harbor Road, Southport (Fairfield County, Connecticut).jpg, Austin Perry House, Greek Revival (1835) File:Wakeman B. Meeker House, 25 Westway Road, Southport (Fairfield County, Connecticut).jpg, Captain Wakeman B. Meeker House (1857) File:Moses Bulkley House, 176 Main Street, Southport (Fairfield County, Connecticut).jpg, Oliver Bulkley House (1861),

Lambert & Bunnell Lambert & Bunnell was a long-lived American architectural firm from Bridgeport, Connecticut, in business from 1860 to 1901. It was established by Edward R. Lambert (1834–1904) and Rufus W. Bunnell (1835–1909). Founders and history The fou ...

, Gothic Revival File:Benjamin Pomeroy House, 658 Pequot Road, Southport (Fairfield County, Connecticut).jpg, Mrs. Benjamin Pomeroy House (1868),

Second Empire Style Second Empire style, also known as the Napoleon III style, is a highly Eclecticism in architecture, eclectic style of architecture and decorative arts originating in the Second French Empire. It was characterized by elements of many differe ...

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, Southport has a total area of , of which is land and , or 10.99%, is water.

Demographics

The village of Southport corresponds to

census tract A census tract, census area, census district or meshblock is a geographic region defined for the purpose of taking a census. Sometimes these coincide with the limits of cities, towns or other administrative areas and several tracts commonly exis ...

606. As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2020, there were 1,710 people in the village, organized into 798 households. The racial makeup of the town was 87%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 5%

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race, 4%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 2% Asian, 0% Native American, and 2% identifying as two or more races. . Households averaged 2.1 persons, with 66% consisting of

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

, 7.3% of female householders with no husband present, 2.5% of male householders, and 24.4% of people who were not family members. 16% of residents were under the age of 18, 60.1% were between the ages of 18 and 64, and 23.9% were over the age of 65. The median household income was $180,057, with 9% of households below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

. The median value of homes in the village was $766,900

Public services

Pequot_Library_stacks_and_Tiffany_window

Southport has had its own firefighting service since 1895. The Southport Fire Department was organized that year as a

volunteer fire department A volunteer fire department (VFD) is a fire department of volunteers who perform fire suppression and other related emergency services for a local jurisdiction. Volunteer and retained (on-call) firefighters are expected to be on call to respo ...

after a large

arson Arson is the act of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, watercr ...

fire in the village. However, it is also protected by Fairfield Fire Department's Engine 4, out of the Southport Firehouse. The neighborhood's ZIP Code is 06890, whose scope extends further north from the historic village area to include the Mill Hill area.

Library

The community's

public library A public library is a library, most often a lending library, that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil servic ...

is the Pequot Library, an independently owned and operated special collections library, founded by Virginia Marquand Monroe and Elbert Monroe in 1887. A

Richardsonian Romanesque Richardsonian Romanesque is a architectural style, style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). The revivalism (architecture), revival style incorporates 11th- and 12th-century ...

building, it was designed by the architect

Robert Henderson Robertson Robert Henderson Robertson (April 29, 1849 – June 3, 1919) was an American architect who designed numerous houses, institutional and commercial buildings, and churches. He is known for his wide-variety of works and commissions, r ...

and is a

contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic dist ...

to the National Register Southport Historic District. The library has a large collection of manuscripts, rare books, and archives. Of the approximate 30,000 items in the Special Collections,1800 items are held on long-term loan at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. The collection at Pequot Library includes the first printed cookbook, ''De Honesta Voluptate et Valetudine,''by Bartholomaeus Platina (1475); autographs of all American Presidents and the cosigners of the Declaration of Independence, including the rare Button Gwinnett autograph. Among the titles in the Special Collections are ''Epistola de insulis nuper inventis'' by Christopher Columbus, translated into Latin by Leandro di Cosco and printed in 1493; two of the three contemporaneous histories of the Pequot War in New England; the Saybrook Platform which was the first book published in Connecticut in 1710. Also included in the collection is Phillis Wheatley's ''Poems on various subjects, religious and moral'' from 1786 as well as the typescript of the last four chapters of Margaret Mitchell's ''Gone With the Wind''. The library's annual summer book sale featured more than 140,000 volumes on sale in 2007. In 2006, the Pequot Library invested in a restoration project to address the condition of the elaborate metalwork set throughout their stacks. Robert Robertson designed each shelf in the library to be supported by cast iron structures. Each row of shelving is framed by columns and the stairways linking the two stories are made with balusters of garlands and vines in copper plated cast iron. During the course of restoration, over 6,000 metal pieces were individually treated. The project was carried out by Newmans’ Ltd.

Education

Eagle Hill School-Southport, a private day school for children with

learning disabilities Learning disability, learning disorder, or learning difficulty (British English) is a condition in the brain that causes difficulties comprehending or processing information and can be caused by several different factors. Given the "difficulty ...

, has been located since 1985 in the former Pequot School in Southport. The historic school building was earlier acquired by the Southport Conservancy to save it from demolition. Southport is served by the Fairfield Public Schools. Southport is home to Mill Hill Elementary School, although children in some areas considered part of the Southport neighborhood but outside the census tract attend Timothy Dwight Elementary School. Both Mill Hill and Dwight Schools feed into Roger Ludlowe Middle School, Tomlinson Middle School and Fairfield Ludlowe High School.

Transportation

The main arterial road in the area, the Post Road (

US Route 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, ma ...

), runs through Southport, connecting it to other towns along the Connecticut coast.

Interstate 95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, north to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the ...

also passes through Southport, with two exits located in the neighborhood. Southport is also served by the

New Haven Line The New Haven Line is a commuter rail line operated by the Metro-North Railroad in the U.S. states of New York (state), New York and Connecticut. Running from New Haven, Connecticut, to New York City, the New Haven Line joins the Harlem Line ...

of the

Metro-North Commuter Railroad The Metro-North Commuter Railroad Company , also branded as MTA Metro-North Railroad and commonly called simply Metro-North, is a suburban commuter rail service operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a public authority of ...

at Southport Railroad Station, with frequent trains to

New Haven New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is the third largest city in Co ...

and

. Limited bus service is provided by the

Greater Bridgeport Transit Authority Greater Bridgeport Transit (GBT) is a Mass transit, transit service serving the Greater Bridgeport region of the U.S. state of Connecticut. Greater Bridgeport Transit was established in 1971 in anticipation of diminished bus service by the Connec ...

Notable people

The following are among the notable people who have lived in Southport: *

James Truslow Adams James Truslow Adams (October 18, 1878 – May 18, 1949) was an American writer and historian. He was a freelance author who helped to popularize the latest scholarship about American history and his three-volume history of New England is well r ...

, historian and writer *

John Akers John Fellows Akers (December 28, 1934 – August 22, 2014) was an American businessman. He was president (1983–1989), chief executive officer (1985–1993) and chairman (1986–1993) of IBM. Education Akers attended Yale, and while there joined ...

, former chief executive officer of

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

Charles, Eleanor
"If You're Thinking of Living in; Southport"
''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', December 22, 1985. *

Anatole Broyard Anatole Broyard (1920-1990) was an American writer, literary critic, and editor whose literary output spanned several decades. His ''oeuvre'' encompassed short stories, essays, and reviews. He was a prolific contributor to several literary maga ...

, author *

Ina Garten Ina Rosenberg Garten ( ; born February 2, 1948) is an American television cook and author. She is host of the Food Network program '' Barefoot Contessa'' and was a former staff member of the Office of Management and Budget. Among her dishes are ...

, celebrity cook and author *

Jeffrey Garten Jeffrey E. Garten (born 1946) is an American economist, author, businessman, and former government official who is Dean Emeritus at the Yale School of Management, where he teaches a variety of courses on global economy. From 1996 to 2005 he was ...

, economic adviser and author *

Don Imus John Donald Imus Jr. ( ; July 23, 1940 – December 27, 2019), also known as Imus, was an American radio personality, television show host, recording artist, and author. His radio show '' Imus in the Morning'' was aired on various stations and di ...

, radio personality *

Richard Clarida Richard Harris Clarida (born May 18, 1957) is an American economist who served as the 21st Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve from 2018 to 2022. Clarida resigned his post on January 14, 2022, to return from public service leave to teach at Columbi ...

, Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Economist * Kenton Clarke, CEO, Computer Consulting Associates International Inc. *

Ruth Madoff Ruth Madoff ( ; Alpern; born May 18, 1941) is an American former bookkeeper and the widow of Bernie Madoff, the convicted American financial fraudster who served a prison sentence for a criminal financial scheme until his death in April 2021. A ...

, widow of

Bernie Madoff Bernard Lawrence Madoff ( ; April 29, 1938April 14, 2021) was an American financial criminal and financier who was the admitted mastermind of the largest known Ponzi scheme in history, worth an estimated $65 billion. He was at one time ...

* Samuel J. Palmisano, former chief executive officer of IBM *

Jason Robards Jason Nelson Robards Jr. (July 26, 1922 – December 26, 2000) was an American actor. Known for his roles on stage and screen, he gained a reputation as an interpreter of the works of playwright Eugene O'Neill. Robards received numerous accola ...

, actor, producer and director *

Stokely Webster Stokely Webster (1912–2001) was best known as an American impressionist painter who studied in Paris. His paintings can be found in the permanent collections of many museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Mu ...

, impressionist painter *

Jack Welch John Francis Welch Jr. (November 19, 1935 – March 1, 2020) was an American business executive, chemical engineer, and writer. He was Chairman and CEO of General Electric (GE) between 1981 and 2001. His long career at General Electric ( ...

, former CEO General Electric

Movies filmed in Southport

* '' Revolutionary Road'' (2007) * ''

And So It Goes "And So It Goes" is a song written by Billy Joel in 1983, though it was not released until six years later. It appeared as the tenth and final track of his 1989 studio album '' Storm Front''. The original 1983 demo was released on the 2005 box se ...

'' (2014)

References

External links

The Southport Conservancy
(organization for preservation and restoration of historic properties in Southport)
The Southport Globe
(a website focused on the community)

(a collection of 800 historical photos compiled by historian V. Louise Higgins. Housed at Pequot Library and accessible online.)

(New York Times photo collection) * Brilvitch, Charles. 1977.
Walking Through History. The Seaports of Black Rock and Southport
'. Fairfield Historical Society. {{authority control Fairfield, Connecticut Neighborhoods in Connecticut Populated coastal places in Connecticut Census-designated places in Fairfield County, Connecticut Census-designated places in Connecticut