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The Stamford Life is the newest source for information about what’s happening in Stamford, CT. From great restaurants, to happening night life, The Stamford Life.com is the place to find local information about Stamford. Welcome to The Good Life, in Stamford, Connecticut. Event Calendar
Stamford was known as Rippowam by the Native American inhabitants to the region, and the very first European settlers to the area also referred to it as such. The name was later changed to Stamford after a town in Lincolnshire, England. The deed to Stamford was signed on 1 July 1640 between Captain Turner of the New Haven Colony and Chief Ponus. By the Eighteenth century, one of the primary industries of the town was merchandising by water, which was possible due to Stamford's proximity to New York. Stamford has a cluster of corporate headquarters (many of which moved from New York in the 1980s both to lower their tax bills and to be closer to the homes of their top executives). This includes four Fortune 500 Companies, nine Fortune 1000 Companies, thirteen Courant 100 Companies, numerous divisions of large corporations, as well as a large number of secretive hedge funds. This gives Stamford one of the largest concentrations of corporations in the nation. Stamford has branches of the University of Connecticut, University of Bridgeport and Sacred Heart University. The University of Connecticut's campus is located in a large modern building in downtown that opened in 1998 after extensive renovations to an abandoned former Bloomingdales store. The other two are located in small office parks in Springdale. All are commuter campuses. - Cummings Park, a public beach, was once a popular spot for shellfishing. The park, developed in 1906, previously was known as Halloween Park because Mayor Homer Cummings cast the deciding vote to create it on Halloween Night.[11]
- The 83-acre Cove Island Park, once a farm and then an enormous factory site, offers visitors a choice of beaches as well as picnic grounds and bluffs. It has a small wildlife sanctuary in the southwest corner that might be interesting for bird watchers. SoundWaters Community Center for Environmental Education is located at the northeast part of the park.
- Terry Connors Ice Rink shares a parking lot with Cove Island Park. It offers public ice skating for all ages and ability levels, group lessons and ice hockey. It is the home of the Stamford Youth Hockey Association [12].
- Scalzi Park on Bridge Street has a playground, baseball and softball fields, tennis courts, bocce courts, basketball courts, roller hockey courts, and a baseball stadium named "Cubeta Stadium." Stamford baseball leagues play baseball there. J.M. Wright Technical High School is next to the park. A skate park was opened at Scalzi in July 2007. The city sought input from users in planning the $309,850, concrete skate park and hired Grindline Skateparks Inc. of Seattle, Washington to provide a unique design and build it.[12]
- Stamford boasts two municipal golf courses. E. Gaynor Brennan Golf Course, also referred to locally as Hubbard Heights, opened for play in 1922. Sterling Farms Golf Course opened in May of 1972, and also has a driving range and six tennis courts.
- The Stamford Museum and Nature Center on a 118-acre 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 up in 1954 runs the Stamford Observatory, which has a 22-inch telescope.
- Bartlett Arboretum and Gardens is a 91 acre botanical gardens and science education center boasting over 850 specimen trees and plants from around the world. It is also home to several Champion Trees; the largest of their species within Connecticut.
- SoundWaters Community Center for Environmental Education is located in Cove Island Park.
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