South Norwalk

South Norwalk is a neighborhood and the Second Taxing District[1][2] in Norwalk, Connecticut. The neighborhood was originally a settlement called 'Old Well' which became chartered as the city of 'South Norwalk' on August 18, 1870. The cities of Norwalk and South Norwalk were incorporated on June 6, 1913. The neighborhood is often referred to with the acronym 'SoNo'.[3]

South Norwalk
Taxing District
SoNo illuminated sign
South Norwalk
South Norwalk
Coordinates: 41.11°N 73.42°W / 41.11; -73.42
Country United States
State Connecticut
CountyFairfield
CityNorwalk
FoundedAugust 18, 1870
Incorporated with NorwalkJune 6, 1913
ZIP code
06854
Area code(s)Area codes 203 and 475

South Norwalk is a diverse neighborhood both from a socioeconomic and racial perspective. Recent redevelopment is bringing new modern and affordable housing, a boutique hotel, and new businesses. The area provides one of the most attractive locales for industrial and other businesses within its confines. Families continue to move into South Norwalk for its competitive public school district and affordable real estate.

South Norwalk is host of the annual SoNo Arts Celebration, as well as the famed annual Oyster Festival. The SoNo Arts Fest is a free event that takes place every August and features over 100 fine art and craftsperson exhibits, as well as over 25 musical performances for all ages. The annual Oyster Festival, sponsored by the Norwalk Seaport Association, is an integral part of the culture of Norwalk, and has evolved into a community service event where over $200,000 is raised by various community groups to be distributed throughout the region in fulfillment of their mission to revitalize the harbor and preserve Norwalk's maritime heritage.[4]

Boundaries

South Norwalk, or Norwalk 2nd Taxing District, borders are as follows:[5]

  • North: From Connecticut Ave. near I95 exit 14 through Mathews Park to the Norwalk River.
  • South: from Windsor Place on a line to South Main St. near the intersection of Meadow St. and on a line to Norwalk River.
  • East: Through Norwalk River.
  • West: From Connecticut Ave. near I95 exit 14 on a line to Windsor Place.

History
Map of South Norwalk and Norwalk, CT

Old Well

"Sailing ships in the olden days pulled up to docks along the inner harbor and waited their turn to fill up their water casks from the “Old Well”. In a 1738 deed Washington Street is referred to as “the highway that leads to ye landing place called Ye Old Well. The actual well is shown on the Beers Atlas map of 1867[6] to be East of Water Street about 75 feet South of Washington Street. The exact location has been lost but is believed to have been very near to Donovan’s Tavern, which seems likely since sailors are said to have enjoyed the spirits. Old Well was involved in coastal trade, manufacturing, and shipbuilding as well as having many farms with diversified crops."[7]

“Old Well was scarcely a village in those days, but rather a group of farms, and the well which gave the place its name was on Water street, near the corner of Haviland street, on the property of Eliakim Raymond, a patriarch of several Norwalk lines. His house stood at the corner of Washington and Water streets before the Revolution and was burned with rest of the town."[8]

City of South Norwalk

"Norwalk was made a borough in 1836, and the village of Old Well, named from an ancient well where vessels were supplied with water, was incorporated into a city in 1868, and named South Norwalk two years afterward."[9] "South Norwalk, formerly called "Old Well" was organized a city August 18, 1870, under a charter granted by the Legislature of Connecticut, July 5 of the same year. This charter was revised by the Legislature April 19, 1882, and the city continued its existence under this revised charter until May 27, 1897, when the Legislature approved a revised and amended charter, under which the city has since continued and worked."[8][10]

"In the 1800s, industrialization started to take place--large factories manufacturing goods such as firearms, buttons, shoes, cloth and hats were increasing in Connecticut and in Norwalk. Workers came up from Chesapeake, Maryland, to work as oystermen. Wealthy owners and managers of businesses lived on Golden Hill overlooking South Norwalk. Immigrants came into Norwalk from many places. One of the largest [group] to come here in the early 1900s was the Hungarians; there were also many Eastern European Jews and Italians, among others."[11]

"In the city government consolidation of 1913, the City of South Norwalk became the Second Taxing District, but South Norwalk was brought into the consolidation against its will. South Norwalk had been incorporated in 1873 as a city within the Town of Norwalk and in the following half-century it became the economic center of Norwalk. With a port and a railroad, it was the center of Norwalk industry, providing employment to thousands of Norwalk factory workers.

"Prosperous and self-sufficient, the City of South Norwalk had little financial incentive to join in the 1913 consolidation. Its residents feared higher taxes if they lost their city status. In 1902 South Norwalk had tried to leave the Town of Norwalk entirely, and, along with East Norwalk, become a completely separate Town. At the time Mayor Mortimer M. Lee said that South Norwalk had “a large water system, a splendid electric light plant, a separate sewer system, a public library and a library building and schools second to none.” In 1903 the Connecticut State legislature passed a bill to create the independent Town of South Norwalk, but it was vetoed by the governor."[12](Abiram Chamberlain)[13]

Further information: History of Norwalk, Connecticut

The SoNo Collection
Main article: The SoNo Collection

The SoNo Collection is a 700,000 square foot mall located next to Interstate 95 and Route 7 that was opened in October 2019. It was built by Brookfield Properties Retail Group and is the fourth mall in the Fairfield County. It features southern Connecticut’s only Nordstrom and Bloomingdales’s.[14][15]

National Register of Historic Places
Canaan Institutional Baptist Church
  • Beth Israel Synagogue (Norwalk, Connecticut)[16] 31 Concord St., now the Canaan Institutional Baptist Church.
  • Haviland and Elizabeth Streets-Hanford Place Historic District[17] Roughly bounded by Haviland and Elizabeth and Day Streets, Hanford Place, and South Main Street in South Norwalk.
Former City Hall
  • Norwalk City Hall[18] Completed in 1912, when South Norwalk was an autonomous municipal entity, 41 North Main St. originally served as the South Norwalk Town Hall.

The Norwalk Historical Society along with the Norwalk Historical Commission reopened the Norwalk Historical Society Museum at the Lockwood House at 141 East Avenue. The archives, genealogy and unframed photographs was placed with the “History Room” at the Norwalk Public Library Main branch (1 Belden Ave, Norwalk, CT). It includes items from the four collections: City of Norwalk, Lockwood family, Norwalk Historical Society and the Connecticut Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) and Norwalk-Village Green Chapter.[19]

Norwalk River Railroad Bridge

Emergency services

The Norwalk Police Department[22] is located at 1 Monroe St. near the heart of SoNo. The Norwalk Fire Department currently operates two Fire Stations in or near South Norwalk:[23]

  • Station Two- Headquarters, 121 Connecticut Ave
  • Station Five, 23 Meadow St.
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See also

Images
  • Present Day
  • Corner of Marshall and North Water Streets
  • Washington Street facing west
  • Maritime Condo Building
  • Mural outside Donovan's Restaurant
  • South Norwalk Train Station
  • Switch Tower Museum
  • Historical
  • South Main Street 1919
  • South Main Street 1887
  • Elmwood Avenue 1912
  • Railroad Place 1909
  • First United Methodist Church, West Avenue, 1922
  • Norwalk River Bridge circa 1914

Development projects
  • Ironworks SoNo
  • District 95/7

References
  1. "SPECIAL TAXING DISTRICTS". OLR Research Report. Rute Pinho, Associate Analyst. Archived from the original on February 25, 2015. Retrieved February 9, 2017.
  2. "TAXING DISTRICTS". City of Norwalk. Government Websites by CivicPlus®. Archived from the original on February 11, 2017. Retrieved February 9, 2017.
  3. "South Norwalk, Connecticut". Acronyms.thefreedictionary.com. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
  4. "Seaport Association - Oyster Festival".
  5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on January 15, 2015. Retrieved March 27, 2017.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. "Plan of Norwalk, Plan of South Norwalk. Fairfield County, Connecticut". Davidrumsey.com. Beers, Ellis, & Soule. 1867.
  7. "Old Well". Retrieved August 3, 2018.
  8. Weed, Samuel Richards; Norwalk Historical and Memorial Library Association (August 2, 2018). "Norwalk after two hundred & fifty years, an account of the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the charter of the town, 1651--September 11th--1901; including historical sketches of churches, schools, old homes, institutions, eminent men, patriotic and benevolent work, together with the record of soldiers and sailors enlisted in Norwalk from 1676 to 1898. The civic progress in the last century and statistics of commerce and other miscellany of local interest". South Norwalk, Conn., C. A. Freeman. Archived from the original on May 25, 2017. Retrieved August 2, 2018 – via Internet Archive.
  9. Howard, R. H.; Crocker, Henry E. (August 2, 1879). A History of New England: Containing Historical and Descriptive Sketches of the Counties, Cities and Principal Towns of the Six New England States, Including, in Its List of Contributors, More Than Sixty Literary Men and Women, Representing Every County in New England. Crocker & Company. p. 300. Retrieved August 2, 2018 – via Internet Archive. South Norwalk Original Settlement.
  10. Conn.), South Norwalk (Norwalk) (August 2, 1898). "Charter of the City, Pub ... 1898". City Printing Company. Archived from the original on June 17, 2016. Retrieved August 2, 2018 – via Google Books.
  11. Grant, Lisa Wilson (2014). Norwalk. Google Books. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9781467121163. Archived from the original on April 28, 2016. Retrieved February 1, 2017.
  12. "The History of the Second Taxing District". Discovernorwalk.com. June 14, 2014. Archived from the original on August 4, 2017. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
  13. "Meriden Morning Record - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
  14. "The Sono Collection".
  15. Lurye, Rebecca. "SoNo Collection, Norwalk's New Mall, A Retail Anomaly". courant.com. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
  16. "National Register of Historical Places - CONNECTICUT (CT), Fairfield County". Nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com. Archived from the original on July 22, 2016. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
  17. "National Register of Historical Places - CONNECTICUT (CT), Fairfield County". Nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com. Archived from the original on March 1, 2017. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
  18. "National Register of Historical Places - CONNECTICUT (CT), Fairfield County". Nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com. Archived from the original on March 1, 2017. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
  19. "Visit Us". Norwalkhistoricalsociety.org. Archived from the original on April 27, 2017. Retrieved February 11, 2017.
  20. "National Register of Historical Places - CONNECTICUT (CT), Fairfield County". Nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com. Archived from the original on August 17, 2017. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
  21. "National Register of Historical Places - CONNECTICUT (CT), Fairfield County". Nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com. Archived from the original on June 30, 2016. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
  22. "Police Department - Norwalk, CT - Official Website". Norwalkct.org. Archived from the original on January 8, 2017. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
  23. "Stations / Station Map - Norwalk, CT - Official Website". Norwalkct.org. Archived from the original on December 24, 2016. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
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