Stamford (pop. 135,470) is an important business center in southwestern Connecticut. The city lies on Long Island Sound, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) northeast of New York City. Stamford, together with Bridgeport and Danbury, forms a metropolitan area with a population of 946,327.
Stamford ranks among the leading cities as a site for headquarters of large corporations. A number of the nation’s biggest companies have home offices in Stamford. The city’s leading industries include financial services, information technology, pharmaceuticals, printing and publishing, reinsurance, and the production of office machines and textiles.
Cultural attractions include the Stamford Museum & Nature Center, which includes an astronomical observatory and a planetarium, and the Stamford Center for the Arts, which includes two sites, the Palace Theatre and the Rich Forum. The city also has a symphony orchestra. Recreational facilities include golf courses, parks, beaches, and marinas. A branch campus of the University of Connecticut is in downtown Stamford.
In 1641, European settlers from Wethersfield, Connecticut, moved to the Stamford area after the land was purchased from the Paugusset and Siwanog Indians. The establishment of several large manufacturing companies in the 1860’s changed Stamford from a farming village to a large factory town. In 1893, one part of Stamford was incorporated as a city and the other part as a town. They merged in 1949 under a mayor-council government. Downtown renewal in the middle and late 1900’s included the construction of hotels, office buildings, a new city hall, and a large shopping mall.
