Darien High School

Meadowlands, at 274 Middlesex Road in Darien, Connecticut, USA, also known as DCA Meadowlands or the Darien Community Association House, enjoys a long, distinguished history. The original house was owned by Mary and Frank Green, a wholesale grocer from New York City. Green built his expansive home in the Victorian style in 1876 and resided there until 1915. The home was then bought in 1918 by Charles D. Lockwood, one of the founders of the law firm Cummings and Lockwood. Covering 52 plus acres, the property extended from Middlesex Road and Leroy Avenue to West Avenue. The property operated as a farm with cattle, chickens and fruit trees. The house at that time had on the first floor a parlor, library, hall, dining room, butler's pantry, china closet, and kitchen; second floor included four bedrooms, all with adjoining baths; and the third floor held one large bedroom and three servants' rooms. After being sold and resold several times, in 1930 the house was bought by Alice and James H. Stark of New York City. The Starks soon initiated a large-scale renovation project for the home that remodeled it to the Georgian Colonial Revival style (also referred to as the Regency style), abandoning the home's original Victorian style features. Donald G. Tarpley was the lead architect. The new home consisted of 22 rooms, including eight bedrooms on the second floor and several servant rooms on the thrift floor. The remodeling also saw the establishment of the home's notable landscaped gardens. The gardens were designed by one of the premier landscape architects of the early twentieth century, Ellen Biddle Shipman. Shipman designed many gardens for prominent industrialists of the early twentieth century. Her garden designs revealed the importance she placed on privacy, with the garden serving as a secluded retreat from daily life. Shipman's gardens are also noted for their borders, which Shipman frequently used along with old-fashioned plant varieties to create the feeling of a "grandmother’s garden". Called the "dean of American women landscape architects" by House & Garden magazine, Shipman designed more than 650 gardens across the United States during the first half of the twentieth century. The property changed ownership several times before eventually being sold to The Darien Community Association, Inc. (DCA) by Meylert M. Armstrong in 1950, concluding the DCA's long search for a permanent home. The original 52-acre (21 ha) property was split up, with the DCA purchasing seven plus acres. Over the years, renovations have been made to the structure to make it more of a gathering place for the community. The need for an even larger assembly space resulted in construction of the Garden Wing, which was completed and dedicated in 1966 to help create a setting for many weddings, parties, lectures and general programs. A major renovation was done in 2000 to add a state-of-the-art kitchen and other structural enhancements, which further added to the DCA's appeal. The home became a popular setting for weddings and other celebrations. In 2011, the DCA began a restoration project on the first floor, which had begun to show its wear, with careful attention placed on adhering to the style of the house. The DCA was assisted in this by Michelle Canning, both a highly respected interior designer as well as an active member of the DCA. Existing furniture was painstakingly refinished with top quality fabric, donated by Michelle. The rooms have been updated with new paint and paper, evocative of the Georgian design. In 2013–2014, two large capital projects were completed: the installation of parking lot lighting, and renovation of the Garden Wing bathrooms as well as the powder rooms across from the library. Currently, the DCA Meadowlands is a 15,000 square foot, Regency-style estate situated on eight acres of property. The facilities include a spacious Garden Wing with attached commercial kitchen, boardroom and intimate library, and rooms which look out to its formal garden. The property also includes a working Lord & Burnham greenhouse (original to the estate), and a four-acre bird sanctuary. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.

Middlesex Middle School is a middle school in the Darien Public Schools district in Darien, Connecticut, United States. The school serves students from sixth through eighth grades. Each grade is divided into 4 teams of around 90 to 150 students. In eighth grade there are the Teal (formerly Tan), Maroon, Navy and Green teams, for seventh grade there are the Gold, Purple, Aqua and Blue teams and for sixth grade there are the Yellow (formerly Bronze), Silver, Red and Orange teams.

Darien station is a commuter rail stop on the Metro-North Railroad's New Haven Line, located in Darien, Connecticut. A small station house is located on the north side of the tracks (New York City-bound side). The station is wheelchair accessible, with elevators at the east end, near the Boston Post Road. The station is located downtown at the intersection of the Post Road (U.S. Route 1, the town's main thoroughfare) and West Avenue. A small bus-stop shelter is located on the Boston Post Road at the southeast corner of the station (near the New Haven-bound tracks) for buses going along the Post Road into Stamford. Across the Post Road, buses can be boarded for trips into Norwalk. In the small parking lot around the station house, a Connecticut Transit Stamford bus on Bus Route 42 takes passengers along West Avenue and Glenbrook Road into the Glenbrook section of Stamford. Taxis regularly wait for passengers in the small parking lot adjacent to the New Haven-bound tracks. Entrances and exits to Interstate 95 are on Tokeneke Road (exit 12) and the Boston Post Road (exit 11).

Noroton Heights station is a commuter rail stop on the Metro-North Railroad New Haven Line located in the Noroton Heights neighborhood of Darien, Connecticut.

Noroton Heights is a village and census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Darien, Connecticut, United States. The community is located on Connecticut's Gold Coast. Located close to Long Island Sound, in the Connecticut panhandle, it is approximately 35 miles (56 km) northeast of Midtown Manhattan and immediately to the east of Stamford. As of the 2020 census, the CDP has a population of 3,116.Noroton Heights is bordered by Stamford to the west, Noroton to the south, and downtown Darien to the northeast. It primarily serves as a bedroom community to office centers in Stamford, Norwalk, and Manhattan. Noroton is served by Exits 10 and 11 on Interstate 95. A 49-minute commute to Manhattan is offered at the Metro-North train station located downtown.Noroton Heights has some of the most expensive residential real estate in Connecticut, especially along Wee Burn Country Club. The public schools are consistently ranked as some of the highest performing schools in the country. Darien's secondary schools, Middlesex Middle School and Darien High School, are generally ranked near the top for the state of Connecticut and are both in Noroton Heights.

Darien Downtown is a census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Darien, Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It represents the built-up center of town around the intersections of U.S. Route 1 (Boston Post Road), Connecticut Route 124 (Mansfield Avenue), and Connecticut Route 136 (Tokeneke Road). Interstate 95 passes through the southern part of the CDP, with access from Exit 11 (Route 1) and Exit 12 (Route 136). It was first listed as a CDP prior to the 2020 census.

St. John Parish is a Roman Catholic church in Darien, Connecticut. It is part of the Diocese of Bridgeport.

The Boston Post Road Historic District encompasses a cross-section of residential architectural styles representative of much of the history of Darien, Connecticut. Centered on the junction of Boston Post Road (United States Route 1) and Brookdale Road, the district also includes two civic landmarks: the town hall and the Greek Revival First Congregational Church. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

Noroton is a census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Darien, Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It occupies the southwest part of Darien, from the Metro-North Railroad in the north to Long Island Sound in the south. The southern half of the community occupies Noroton Neck, between Holly Pond to the west and the Goodwives River to the east. It is bordered to the west by the city of Stamford and to the east by the Tokeneke neighborhood of Darien. To the north is Noroton Heights. It was first listed as a CDP prior to the 2020 census.

Woodway station was a station on the New Canaan Branch of the former New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad and later the Penn Central. The station was located off of Hoyt Street in Darien, Connecticut. Woodway station closed on July 17, 1972.

Springdale Cemetery was a passenger rail station on the New Canaan Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad and later the Penn Central. Located in Darien, Connecticut, near the border with Stamford, the station opened in 1898 to service the St. Johns Cemetery in the Springdale neighborhood. A decline in station ridership that had begun in the early 1900s culminated in the station being closed and merged with the nearby Springdale stop.

Hindley School is one of the 5 elementary schools in Darien, Connecticut, serving roughly 550 pupils from kindergarten through Grade 5. A part of Darien Public Schools, Hindley sits at 10 Nearwater Lane (at the intersection of Nearwater Lane and the Boston Post Road) in the Noroton section of Darien. Every year, Hindley hosts a town fair called the Hindley Happening.