- South End of Stamford
The South End of Stamford,
Connecticut has a rapidly growing economy neighborhood located at the southern end of the city, just south of the Downtown neighborhood. It is expected to be greatly changed with redevelopment over the next decade. The South End is a peninsula bordered by Interstate 95 to the north and almost totally by water on all other sides, with few streets linking it to neighborhoods to the east and west. It contains some industrial tracts, several old factory buildings, many small homes and apartment buildings, and a number of office buildings.The
Pitney Bowes Corporation has a long history in the South End. In 1917,Walter Bowes moved his operations there, and in 1920 combined his firm with another to form Pitney Bowes. The company had manufacturing operations in the neighborhood for decades and its corporate headquarters are located at the southern tip of the triangular peninsula at 1 Elmcroft Road.Nearby neighborhoods
Downtown is to the north, Waterside is to the west, the Shippan section of town is immediately to the east, although the East Side is close by to the east as well,
Shippan Point is to the southeast, also not quite bordering on the South End. To the west is the Waterside section of town.History
The South End was one of the first sections of Stamford to be cleared and held in common by the original settlers from 1641 to 1665. By 1699 it and other sections of the town had been apportioned to individual land owners. [Feinstien, Estelle S., "Stamford: From Puritan to Patriot 1641-1774", published by Stamford Bicentennial Corporation, 1976, page 20]
"The area of Stamford known for many years as Hoytville was owned by George Hoyt, a real estate agent and the largest property owner in the city in the 1870s," wrote Susan Nova in an article in "The Advocate" of Stamford. "Bounded by train tracks and the ship canal, the industrial site is now owned by Greenwich-based Antares, which plans a multi-use project on 82 acres." [ [http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/classified/realestate/scn-sa-onrealestate8.4chjzaug04,0,5541032,print.story?coll=real-estate-headlines] "A part of Stamford history is for sale," by Susan Nova, special correspondent, "The Advocate," Real Estate section,
August 4 2006 , accessedAugust 5 2006 . ("The Advocate" tends to remove articles off its web site after a week.) The article appeared on page R1; the quoted material on page R4; the article was about the Scofield-Hoyt house on Eden Road, not in the South End.]The South End was the manufacturing heart of the city in the nineteenth through mid-twentieth centuries.
Linus Yale, Jr. introduced some combination safe locks and key-operated cylinder locks around 1862. Then in 1868, he and Henry Robinson Towne founded theYale Lock Manufacturing Company in the South End to produce cylinder locks. Yale died later that year. The Yale & Towne lock company manufactured locks there (giving Stamford its early nickname, "Lock City"). And other manufacturing businesses were sited there.In 1938, the neighborhood was severely flooded by a hurricane that swept through southern
New England . Since then, barriers have been constructed in Stamford Harbor to prevent similar flooding.Filming location
* Part of Elia Kazan's 1947 film Boomerang was shot in the South End, particularly at St. Luke's Chapel, and nearly all of the rest of the movie was shot in Stamford, especially the Downtown section.Russell, Don, "'Roles' in movies are nothing new for city: Kazan used Stamford in the '40s", editorial page column in "
The Advocate ", Stamford edition, page A10,April 25 ,2007 ]April 2006 fire
The biggest fire in Stamford's history started on
April 3 2006 in Building 15 of the old Yale & Towne factory buildings. The fire spread to another, convert|17500|sqft|m2|-1|sing=on building housing several antiques dealers. Dark clouds of smoke formed over the scene, visible from miles away. About 200 residents from homes on Pacific and Henry streets were evacuated. The biggest casualty was a firefighter who suffered a minor knee sprain. Lee, Natasha, "South End blaze costs millions: Antiques dealers still displaced after fire", article in "The Advocate" of Stamford,December 31 2006 , pp. A3, A7]Firefighters used 1 million gallons of water in three hours. Then the water mains ran out and water from the nearby harbor had to be pumped in to douse the flames. The fire department spent $25,000 in overtime to put out the fire."Class-action lawsuit filed over Yale & Towne fire: Nearly 100 Antique dealers say owners failed to meet fire codes," article by Zach Lowe. "The Advocate" newspaper of Stamford,
July 24 2006 , pp. 1, A4]The complex at 735 Canal Street had been rented out by
Antares Investment Partners of Greenwich to various businesses, including about 100 antiques dealers.The blaze started as a fire on a workbench in a piano shop, although city fire marshals never determined the exact cause. City investigators found Antares had not fixed the sprinkler system, although it knew the system was broken when it bought the building in October 2005 from Heyman Properties of Westport. To fix it would have required cutting off the heat in the building as a new heating system was installed, and Antares was waiting until later in the spring or summer for that, Bruce Macleod, operations chief at Antares, had said, according to "The Advocate", Stamford's daily newspaper. Heyman officials knew of the sprinkler system problems "and did nothing to fixt them for years, the city's chief fire marshal said in April," "The Advocate" reported. The sprinkler system had broken in the 1990s, when heat was turned off in vacant parts of the building, causing water in the sprinkler system to freeze, cracking the pipes.
The antiques dealers filed a class-action lawsuit against Antares and the piano shop in July 2006.
The musician
Moby once lived in some of the abandoned factory space in the South End.Redevelopment plans
Antares Investment Partners has purchased 82 acres, roughly the northern half of the South End, including both the old Yale & Towne site and the site of the former coal gasification plant off Washington Boulevard. The development company plans to convert the former industrial land into a residential neighborhood of townhouses, lofts, rental apartments and condominium apartments.Dalena, Doug, "Antares plan stirs raves and worries," published in "The Advocate" of Stamford,
August 11 2006 , pages A9, A11, not online]The 20 acre Yale & Town site would have about convert|300000|sqft|m2|-4 of retail space in new buildings off Canal Street, along with 175 loft apartments in a century-old, six-story factory building on Henry Street, according to plans Antares presented to the city Zoning Board in early 2007.Dalena, Doug, "Zonking Board hearing on South End plan is delayed", news article in "The Advocate" of Stamford, pp A7, A8, Stamford Edition,
May 14 ,2007 ]The two former industrial tracts would be the first phase of a 10 to 12 year development eventually encompassing convert|6000000|sqft|m2|-3 of interior space for housing, retail and office uses.
About 4,000 housing units are planned for the development, along with some retail and office space. Antares had originally said the retail space in its plans was only to service the South End neighborhood, but in summer of 2006 it submitted a proposal to the city Planning Board for convert|500000|sqft|m2. The Downtown Special Services District objected, and officials of that organization told the Planning Board at a hearing on
August 10 2006 that the retail space could hurt Downtown stores.
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