This book tells the story of how Westporters from all walks of life share one common characteristic: a generations-old love of community. A town settled by farmers and fishermen, diversified by immigrants from many countries and varied economic backgrounds, Westport was modernized by professionals in all fields and enriched by international celebrities from around the nation and the world. Westport, Connecticut offers the reader an entertaining insight into how Westport has become a mecca for those who are traditionally untraditional. This book is the first comprehensive, in-depth history of a town celebrated throughout the nation and the world. It brings history alive not only for its own residents, but for those who live in distant places who want to learn about one of the finest examples of how the quest for excellence, for a community spirit and for volunteerism can succeed in America.
Ideally located on a rich landscape and the water of Long Island Sound, it was formed when dissident members of the original Massachusetts Bay Colony seeking new frontiers for themselves and their families successfully won the Swamp War in the early 1600s against the Pequot Indians. Westport was incorporated in 1835 as a result of a strong grass-roots democratic movement toward self-reliance and independence. Parishioners of the Green's Farm Church petitioned the legislature in Hartford and formed their own community by acquiring land from nearby Fairfield, Norwalk, and Weston. Since those early days, Westport has served as the destination for those who wanted to freely express themselves, to live in a relative privacy and yet be part of a vital community, and to travel elsewhere but to always have an attractive home base to which they could return.
