Talk:East Norwalk

Please discuss any future changes to be made here!!! -Wakamusha 20:41, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Marvin Beach

The area of Marvin Beach (Pine Hill, Shorehaven, etc.) is a sub-divison of East Norwalk and sometimes excluded when discussing the neighborhood. Any ideas on how to incorporate this and more into the article? -Wakamusha 21:35, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Old history: Pine Hill was used as a community farming area for the settlers in the 17th century. Calf Pasture was used to pasture or feed dairy cows at that time as well. These are mentioned in the book by Deborah Wing-Ray and Gloria P. Stewart (see the History of Norwalk, Connecticut article for full references).

Downtown district

Before East Norwalk was called East Norwalk it was known as the "Downtown district" of Norwalk.

I found that information in reading about the history of the little red schoolhouse in the Mill Hill Historic Park. At the Norwalk Historical Society page at http://www.norwalkhistoricalsociety.org/Schoolhouse2.html we find the following information:

When the town was divided into districts this was called the Down Town District, till about 18 years ago, when the name was changed to East Norwalk.

note also on that page the various references to "In 1868, the district acquired a portion of the site on which..." and other references to "the district" being the governing body of the school and neighborhood. The passage is attributed to "History of the East Norwalk School" By Augustus C. Golding From Norwalk After Two Hundred and Fifty Years, South Norwalk, Connecticut C.A. Freeman, 1901. 18 years before that would have been 1883. The date of authorship of the original passage is still hard for me to determine with certainty. I note that the original City of Nowalk was incorporated in 1893 (ten years later than 1883) and that could have been the year in which districts were formed, or perhaps districts were formed at a time different from the charters to incorporate the cities (South Norwalk was granted a charter in 1871). I suspect that looking at old literature (timetables perhaps) for the NYNH&H railroad might help to corroborate when the "Downtwon district" of Norwalk was renamed "East Norwalk" since the station name might have changed (of course a railroad can take a long time to rename a station).

At the Norwalk Historical Society there is another page that mentions an uptown district. The mention of the "North" or "Upper" meeting house (referring to the first Congregational Church) appears at: http://www.norwalkhistoricalsociety.org/HistoryTownHouse2.html and at http://www.norwalkhistoricalsociety.org/HistoryTownHouse3.html and at http://www.norwalkhistoricalsociety.org/HistoryTownHouse4.html we find a passage that mentions:

At first for several years - until about 1736 when the Uptown School House was built - meetings may have been held In private homes. However, the school house was used for a period of time. Then a change took place to what was known as the first Town Hall, which was located on Wall Street.

From which it appears that "Uptown" referred to the immediate vicinity of the Norwalk Town Green and is of course distinct from Downtown or East Norwalk. Hence I think "Uptwon district" in the last decade of the 19th century referred to the City (proper) of Norwalk, or today's Central Norwalk or first taxing district. 67.86.73.252 (talk) 23:56, 3 April 2008 (UTC)