The old Middlesex Parish of Stamford on Long Island Sound, where Loyalists carried a Sunday congregation off to prison in 1781 and a 1913 pageant called the place distinctly a town of homes.

Fairfield County · Record checked October 8, 2026

21,499Population2020 census1
1820Became a townset off from Stamford as Middlesex Parish1
48Taken from churchworshipers marched off as prisoners, July 22, 17812
526Fitch's Homeveterans on its rolls in 19033
4National Registerplaces, all still standing4

Darien on the map

Click the map to look closer.

Map of Darien, Connecticut in 2026, with the Post Road, Noroton, the shore and a guide of 34 numbered landmarks

2026

Darien today

By KNOWOL

Shaded hills from the northern ridges down to the Goodwives River and Pear Tree Point Cove, with Noroton, Noroton Heights and Tokeneke printed by name and a guide of 34 numbered landmarks with the National Register sites marked.5

See the 2026 printMore about this map

The story of Darien

The Sunday the congregation was taken

On Sunday, July 22, 1781, the Rev. Moses Mather was preaching in the Middlesex meetinghouse when a party of Loyalists surrounded it. A few young men got away through the windows. The rest of the men were tied two by two and led out with their old minister at their head, and about forty of the congregation's horses went with them to the shore. Huntington's history counts forty-eight worshipers taken. They were shipped across the Sound and held in the Provost prison in New York. Sally Dibble was wounded that day; one account says she was shielding a boy beneath her seat. A long poem by Peter St. John says that by late December only nineteen of the twenty-five men held longest were left alive.627

Fitch's Home on the Stamford line

Benjamin Fitch of Darien gave about one hundred thousand dollars to start a home for the disabled soldiers of his district, chartered in 1864. It turned out the soldiers didn't need it yet, so in February 1865 the trustees opened it as a home and school for the orphaned children of men who had fallen or been disabled in the war. Fitch added a brick library building and a gallery of paintings and statuary. In 1887 the state took the home over, and at Noroton Heights it cared for old soldiers under state and national oversight. On June 30, 1903, there were 526 men on its rolls, and 454 of them drew federal pensions.83

Sloops, then trains

Before the commuters, Darien looked to the water. The first stores stood at Ring's End. George Gorham, licensed in 1727 to sail his sloop from New London to Barbados, settled at the landing near the mouth of the Goodwives River, and his family stayed there for generations. Holly Bell ran a sloop to New York City until the railroad came, then served for years as Darien's station agent. The tracks arrived in 1848. By 1913 the town wrote a pageant of its own history, staged on the shore of Gorham's Pond, and its book called Darien distinctly a town of homes. In one scene, travelers step off a fast train because the station square and the swans in a nearby pond are too pretty to pass by.9101151213

Through the years

25 moments from 1641 to today.

  1. 1641Settlers make the first clearings of land here, about this year.1
  2. 1696Nathaniel Pond, a blacksmith from Branford, buys land near the Noroton River.14
  3. 1727George Gorham is licensed to sail his sloop from New London to Barbados. He later settles at the landing near the mouth of the Goodwives River.10
  4. 1736The Bates-Scofield House is built.15
  5. 1737The Legislature makes the land between the Noroton and Five Mile rivers a parish of its own.16
  6. 1739The new Middlesex society holds its first meeting and votes a meetinghouse fifty feet long and thirty feet wide.16
  7. 1744The church is organized, with Moses Mather as its pastor.17
  8. 1747The society ranks the meetinghouse pews by dignity and seats its leading men in the front pew.18
  9. 1778Deacon Joseph Moses Mather builds the house now known as the Mather Homestead.19
  10. 1780On November 30, British troops land at the Noroton Islands and march into Middlesex, taking 35 cattle and five horses.20
  11. 1781On July 22, Loyalists surround the church during worship and carry off the Rev. Moses Mather and most of the men.6
  12. 1788Methodists are already holding meetings in the parish.21
  13. 1811The Friends build a small meeting house of their own.8
  14. 1814Rufus Bell becomes the first postmaster.9
  15. 1820Middlesex Parish is incorporated as the Town of Darien.1
  16. 1837The present Greek Revival Congregational church is built on the old meetinghouse site.15
  17. 1848The railroad reaches Darien.5
  18. 1855The cornerstone of St. Luke's Episcopal Church is laid.21
  19. 1858The old Middlesex church society votes to take the name Darien.17
  20. 1864Fitch's Home for Soldiers is chartered, founded by Benjamin Fitch of Darien.8
  21. 1876Frank Green, a New York grocer, builds the Victorian house that becomes Meadowlands.22
  22. 1887The state takes over Fitch's Home at Noroton Heights.3
  23. 1896The Darien Review newspaper begins.23
  24. 1913William Chauncy Langdon writes the Pageant of Darien, staged on the shore of Gorham's Pond.12
  25. 1916Stephen Tyng Mather, who called the family homestead his true home, becomes the first director of the National Park Service.19

Places to see

The numbers match the landmark guide printed on the 2026 map.

  • 2Darien LibraryNear the Post Road. Founded 1894, busiest in Connecticut, 2012.
  • 17Boston Post Road Historic DistrictCenter of town. 23 historic properties on 17 acres.
  • 19Darien StationCenter of town. The railroad reached Darien in 1848.
  • 20Meadowlands274 Middlesex Road. Home of the Darien Community Association.
  • 22Weed Beach ParkThe shore. Home of Weed Beach Fest each June.
  • 23Darien Town HallBoston Post Road. A 1910 school, town hall since 1949.
  • 26Pond-Weed HouseNoroton. Thought to be Darien's oldest building.
  • 27Mather HomesteadStephen Mather Road. National Historic Landmark, built 1778.
  • 31First Congregational ChurchBrookside Road and the Post Road. Greek Revival church of 1837.
  • 32Noroton Presbyterian ChurchNoroton. Organized in 1863.

On the National Register

All 4 places in Darien on the National Register of Historic Places that still stand today, oldest first, and why each one matters.4

  • Pond-Weed House

    Built in the late 1690s · Listed 1978 · 2591 Post Road

    Thought to be the oldest building in Darien, a saltbox put up after the blacksmith Nathaniel Pond bought the land in 1696. As the Half-Way House it was a tavern midway between Stamford and Norwalk on the Post Road, and the Weed family owned it until 1926.14

  • Boston Post Road Historic District

    Built 1736 to the 1920s · Listed 1982 · 567-728 Boston Post Road, 1-25 Brookside Road, and 45-70 Old Kings Highway North

    The old center of the parish, with the Greek Revival First Congregational Church of 1837 on the site of the first meetinghouse, the town hall, and houses from 1800 to the 1920s. The Bates-Scofield House of 1736, where the meeting that organized the parish was held, stands just east of the church.15

  • Stephen Tyng Mather House

    National Historic Landmark

    Built 1778 · Listed 1966 · 19 Stephen Mather Road

    Built by Deacon Joseph Moses Mather, it was the lifelong family home of Stephen Tyng Mather, who championed the creation of the National Park Service in 1916 and served as its first director. He is buried in the family cemetery on the grounds.19

  • Meadowlands

    Built 1876 · Listed 1987 · 274 Middlesex Road

    Built as a Victorian farmhouse for the New York grocer Frank Green, it was remade in the Georgian Colonial Revival style in the 1930s, with gardens by Ellen Biddle Shipman. The Darien Community Association has owned it since 1950.22

In their words

“Darien is distinctly a town of homes.”

Book of words: the Pageant of Darien, 191312

“We take a great deal of pride in the appearance we present to the passing public.”

Mrs. Darien, on the railroad station, in the Pageant of Darien, 191313

“I think that more than half of those who compose my congregation on the Sabbath, and nearly our whole choir of singers are his (Dr Mather's) descendants.”

Rev. Ezra D. Kinney, pastor at Darien, 1855, in History of Stamford, 186824

Nearby towns

Sources

  1. Darien, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  2. History of Stamford, Connecticut (1868), chronological record for 1781, Internet Archive
  3. The historical development of the poor law of Connecticut (1905), on Fitch's Home, Internet Archive
  4. National Register of Historic Places listings in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  5. Map of Darien, Connecticut in 2026, KNOWOL (USGS elevation, Census Bureau roads)
  6. History of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1881), on the capture of the Middlesex congregation, Internet Archive
  7. History of Stamford, Connecticut (1868), on Sally Dibble, Internet Archive
  8. History of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1881), on the Friends and Fitch's Home for Soldiers, Internet Archive
  9. History of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1881), on Darien's first stores and post office, Internet Archive
  10. History of Stamford, Connecticut (1868), on George Gorham, Internet Archive
  11. Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography (1923), on the Bell family, Internet Archive
  12. Book of words: the Pageant of Darien (1913), Internet Archive
  13. Book of words: the Pageant of Darien (1913), on the station square, Internet Archive
  14. Pond-Weed House, Wikipedia
  15. Boston Post Road Historic District (Darien, Connecticut), Wikipedia
  16. History of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1881), on the founding of Middlesex parish, Internet Archive
  17. Contributions to the ecclesiastical history of Connecticut (1861), on the church in Darien, Internet Archive
  18. History of Stamford, Connecticut (1868), on seating the Middlesex meetinghouse, Internet Archive
  19. Stephen Tyng Mather Home, Wikipedia
  20. History of Stamford, Connecticut (1868), chronological record for 1780, Internet Archive
  21. History of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1881), on St. Luke's and the Methodist church, Internet Archive
  22. Meadowlands (Darien, Connecticut), Wikipedia
  23. History of Connecticut in monographic form, volume two (1925), on Darien's newspapers, Internet Archive
  24. History of Stamford, Connecticut (1868), on Dr. Mather's descendants, Internet Archive