Norwalk Harbor

The South Main and Washington Streets Historic District — 68-139 Washington St. and 2-24 South Main St. is a historic district in South Norwalk, Connecticut. The 110-acre (45 ha) district encompasses 35 buildings and two other structures (including the South Norwalk Railroad Bridge). Varied architectural styles from the late 19th and early 20th centuries include Romanesque Revival, Second Empire, and Italianate architecture. Half (5.5 acres (2.2 ha)) of the area first became part of the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 (35 buildings and two structures). The district was increased in 1985 with the addition of nine buildings on 2.5 acres (1.0 ha) (11-15 through 54-60 South Main St.) and again in 1999, with another 10 buildings on 3 acres (1.2 ha), roughly along North Main Street from Washington Street to Ann Street.The original district included 26 contributing buildings and 2 other contributing structures over a 5.5-acre (2.2 ha) area. The district was first increased to add 9 contributing buildings over a 2.5-acre (1.0 ha) area. The second increase added 10 contributing buildings over a 3-acre (1.2 ha) area. The district is a densely packed area, with an 1895 railroad bridge at its "visual center". Its "primary significance" is as "an extensive and cohesive collection of late 19th century and early 20th century commercial structures."

Calf Pasture Beach is a historically significant park and beach in Norwalk, Connecticut. The area of the park lands (including adjacent Shady Beach Park and Taylor Farm Park) is approximately .45 square miles. The beach is accessible by road or by public transit; Norwalk Transit District provides direct bus service to the park and the East Norwalk Metro-North station is about one mile to the north along Calf Pasture Beach Road, Gregory Boulevard, and East Avenue. East Avenue also provides access to I-95 at exit 16.

The Norwalk Oyster Festival is an annual fair in the city of Norwalk, Connecticut, United States, held on the first weekend after Labor Day in Veterans Park, near Long Island Sound. Funds raised by the festival help the Norwalk Seaport Association maintain the Sheffield Island Lighthouse as well as develop science education classes. The festival is also used as a fundraiser by more than 20 other local non-profit organizations. The festival has been run by the Norwalk Seaport Association, a non profit organization, since its inception in 1978. Average annual attendance exceeds 90,000. Each year, the Oyster Festival contributes over $5 million to the local economy.It features various food, vendors, and entertainment, and celebrates the history of the oyster industry based in Norwalk. In the past, featured performers have included the Village People, Kansas, Charlie Daniels Band, Joe Walsh, Willie Nelson, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Tito Puente, Cheap Trick, Little Feat, The Monkees, Judy Collins, Up with People, and Little Richard.

Washington Village, is a 136 unit public housing complex in the South Norwalk neighborhood of Norwalk, Connecticut, USA, in the block bound by Water Street, Raymond Street, Day Street and Concord Street. It is the oldest public housing development in Connecticut, occupied since 1941. It was designed by Frank Bissell, an architect who had moved to Norwalk after having worked in the New York offices of Barber and Bissell.Due to flood damage from Hurricane Sandy and increased demand for housing in the South Norwalk area, a major three-part reconstruction plan for Washington Village broke ground in 2016. The plan has involved phasing in the site's original 136 public housing units, as well as an additional 137 mixed use and market rate units. The project is scheduled to complete in 2021. The South Norwalk area, locally referred to as SoNo, is seeing an increase in population in recent years, contrary to the state-wide population loss. In addition to it being one of the only walkable downtown neighborhoods in the City, the neighborhood features restaurants, a lively arts scene, the Maritime Aquarium, and seasonal celebrations. Nearby projects which have the same goal of improving access to housing include 19 Day Street, which features 20 affordable units in a new modular structure. Increased densification of the area may offer additional opportunities to increase the availability of urban open space on the nearby waterfront. The project is led by New England-based Harriman Group. The developer, Trinity Washington Village Limited Partnership, has been working alongside the Norwalk Housing Authority to make a smooth transition for public housing renters. Also involved in the project is the quasi-governmental Norwalk Redevelopment Agency. Funding for the Washington Village reconstruction was fulfilled in part by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s $30 million Choice Neighborhoods grant. This increase in local affordable housing was part of a greater initiative by now-former Governor of Connecticut, Dan Malloy during his time in office, when 22,000 affordable units were created. The state likewise contributed towards this project's funding through the Bonding Commission and Connecticut's Housing Finance Authority's Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program. As of August 13, 2019, the Norwalk Housing Authority approved minor changes to the final part of the project, which has been in accordance with the Norwalk Redevelopment Agency. Additionally, urban densification efforts include the recent adjustment of zoning laws for parking by the City of Norwalk. The tightening of parking availability contrasts widespread availability in neighboring suburban areas.

Established in c. 1655, the East Norwalk Historical Cemetery is Norwalk's oldest cemetery, and many of the area's first settlers are buried there. The cemetery is owned and maintained by the Third Taxing District, formally known as the East Norwalk Fire District of the Town of Norwalk, and before that it was known as the Down Town School District. Triangle shaped and surrounded clockwise by Gregory Boulevard, Cemetery Street and East Avenue it is situated in the neighborhood of East Norwalk. At the north entrance of the grounds stands the First Settlers of Norwalk Memorial, inscribed with the following names of 31 settlers who founded Norwalk in 1649: George Abbitt, Robert Beacham, Stephen Beckwith, John Bowton, Matthew Campfield, Nathaniel Eli, Thomas Fitch, John Griggorie, Samuel Hales, Thomas Hales, Walter Haite, Nathaniel Haies, Rev. Thomas Hanford, Richard Homes, Ralph Keiler, Daniel Kellogge, Thomas Lupton, Matthew Marvin, Sr., Matthew Marvin, Jr., Isacke More, Jonathan Marsh, Widow Morgan, Richard Olmsted, Nathaniel Richards, John Ruskoe, Matthias Sention, Sr., Matthias Sention, Jr., Matthew Sention, Thomas Seamer, Richard Webb, and Walter Keiler. Many graves are unmarked by headstones as remains were deposited before stones were available, and of which no mark or tradition is known. In 1843, the Down Town Cemetery Association was founded to maintain and conduct the business of the cemetery. In 1933, the name was changed to the East Norwalk Cemetery Association. In 1941, the Norwalk Third Taxing District entered into an agreement to supplement the association's perpetual care fund, due to a dwindling amount of donations. In 1966, the district took the deed to the land, so as to secure better insurance. Today, the district provides for the perpetual care of the grounds, while cemetery business is conducted by volunteers of the association.

Kayak for a Cause was a non-profit kayaking fundraiser that took place from 2001 to 2012 on Long Island Sound on the eastern coast of the United States. A group of several-hundred kayakers would cross the Sound from Norwalk, Connecticut, to the north shore of Long Island and return as they raise money for local and national charities. The route for the crossing is 12.5 miles long and leaves from Calf Pasture Beach in East Norwalk, Connecticut, and lands in Crab Meadow Park in Northport, New York. Depending on factors such as tides, current, and wind, the route can take an average paddler between two and four hours to complete. To participate in the event, the organization required that paddlers be "comfortable in very open waters", and in reasonably good shape. All first-time participants were required to attend a kayak safety course a few weeks before the launch. Each year, the KFAC organization picked five charities in Connecticut and Long Island. In 2007, for instance, the charities were The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, Outward Bound of Connecticut, Cancer Care of Connecticut, Courage to Speak Foundation, a drug prevention organization for children; and Save the Sound, an environmental organization. Paddlers could pick one to sponsor in the past, however, due to the growth of the event over time, it had become more logistically feasible for the board to elect on how to split donations among the selected charities.

East Norwalk is a neighborhood of Norwalk, Connecticut, located mostly in Norwalk's third taxing district with segments of its northernmost area within the first and fifth taxing districts. As one of the earliest settlements of Norwalk, it was so marked with a block of 'suitably inscribed' 'native granite' formally located on the corner of Fitch Street and East Avenue.

The Norwalk River is a river in southwestern Connecticut, United States, approximately 21 miles (34 km) long. The word "Norwalk" comes from the Algonquian word "noyank" meaning "point of land".

Beth Israel Synagogue was an historic Orthodox synagogue building located at 31 Concord Street in the South Norwalk section of Norwalk, Connecticut. Built in 1906, the Moorish Revival style building is the only known synagogue building in Connecticut displaying Moorish onion domes, and is an unusual example of an urban wood-frame synagogue. Since 1972, the building has been owned and occupied by the Canaan Institutional Baptist Church. (Beth Israel's original Orthodox congregation is now known as Beth Israel Chabad of Norwalk/Westport and worships in a new building in East Norwalk.) The building was added to the National Register of Historical Places in 1991.

St. Joseph is a Roman Catholic church in South Norwalk, Connecticut, part of the Diocese of Bridgeport.

East Norwalk station is a commuter rail station on the Metro-North Railroad New Haven Line, located in the East Norwalk neighborhood of Norwalk, Connecticut. The station building was constructed by Metro-North in the 1980s.The Founder's Stone Monument, which formerly located at East Avenue and Fitch Street, is adjacent to the station. It marks the earliest Norwalk settlement and adjacent first Meeting House (seat of government), which were located at its former site.

The Norwalk rail accident occurred on May 6, 1853, in Norwalk, Connecticut, and was the first major U.S. railroad bridge disaster; 48 were killed when a train travelling at 50 mph plunged into the Norwalk Harbor off of an open draw (swing) bridge.The accident occurred on the New York and New Haven Railroad where it crosses a small inlet of Long Island Sound via a swing bridge. The approach from New York is around a sharp curve, so there was a signal indicating if the bridge was passable by trains: a red ball mounted upon a tall pole. At 08:00 that morning, the Boston express left New York with 200 passengers driven by a substitute driver for whom this was the third transit of the route. The train consisted of two baggage and five passenger cars. On approaching the bridge, the driver neglected to check the signal and only became aware that the bridge was open when within 400 feet (120 m) of it. The bridge had been opened for the passage of the steamship Pacific, which had just passed through. The driver applied the brakes and reversed the engine, but was unable to stop in time. He and the fireman leapt clear before the bridge and escaped serious injury. The engine itself flew across the 60-foot (18 m) gap, striking the opposite abutment some 8 feet (2.4 m) below the level of the track and sinking into 12 feet (3.7 m) of water. The baggage cars came to rest atop the locomotive; the front of the first passenger car was crushed against the baggage cars and then submerged as the second passenger car came to rest on top of it. The third passenger car broke in two; the front half hanging down over the edge of the abutment; the rear remaining on the track. Most of the 48 dead and 30 injured were in the first passenger car. A further eight people were reported missing. Many doctors were travelling on the train, returning from the Sixth Annual Meeting of the American Medical Association in New York; seven of them were killed. Amongst the unhurt was Dr. Gurdon Wadsworth Russell, who wrote an account of the accident for the Hartford Courant in which he says that the dead "presented all the symptoms of asphyxia from drowning, and were probably drowned at once, being confined and pressed by broken cars. Oh, what a melancholy scene that!" As a result of the public panic and indignation caused by the accident, the Connecticut Legislature imposed a law requiring every train in the state to come to a dead halt before crossing any opening bridge. The engineer was charged with gross negligence and held primarily responsible for the disaster. A similar accident occurred eleven years later in Canada with even greater loss of life, the St-Hilaire train disaster.