The New International Encyclopædia/Norwalk (Connecticut)

NORWALK, nôr′wa̤k. A city in Fairfield County, Conn., 14 miles west by south of Bridgeport; on the Norwalk River, near Long Island Sound, and on the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (Map: Connecticut, B 5). It is attractively situated on the Sound, and is a popular residential place as well as a noted summer resort. Its more prominent buildings include the Carnegie Library, Norwalk Hospital, Fairfield County Children's Home, and the State Armory. There are extensive manufactures of hats, corsets, shirts, shoes, cassimeres, felt goods, silks, locks, air compressors, etc. The oyster interests also are important, and considerable coastwise trade is carried on. The New York and Norwalk steamboat line maintains regular service to New York. The government is vested in a mayor, annually elected, and a unicameral council. There are municipal water-works. Population, in 1900, 6135. Norwalk was settled in 1649 and incorporated as n town in 1651. It embraced what is now the cities of South Norwalk, chartered in 1870, and Norwalk. The latter was incorporated in 1836, as a borough, and was chartered as a city in 1893. On November 11, 1779, Norwalk was burned by a British and Hessian force under generals Tryon and Garth. Consult: Selleck, Norwalk (Norwalk, 1896); and Byington, “Ancient and Modern Norwalk,” in the Connecticut Quarterly, vol. i. (Hartford, 1895).