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Devil's Den Preserve

Landmarks in ConnecticutNature Conservancy preservesNature reserves in ConnecticutProtected areas of Fairfield County, ConnecticutRedding, Connecticut
Weston, Connecticut

The Lucius Pond Ordway Devil's Den Preserve in Weston and Redding, Connecticut, encompassing 1,746 acres (7.07 km2), is the largest preserve in Fairfield County, Connecticut and one of the larger preserves in the metropolitan New York area. The preserve's name derives from local lore: charcoal makers in the hilly, rocky area would say that a hoof-like mark made in a boulder was the footprint of the Devil.Devil's Den is the most frequently visited preserve (and largest contiguous preserve) run by the Connecticut chapter of the Nature Conservancy, with 40,000 visits per year. The main entrance is at the end of Pent Road in Weston. The park is open from dawn till dusk. The New Canaan Nature Center runs programs and hikes in the woody park. The preserve has 20 miles (32 km) of trails, and maps are available at the Pent Road parking area. The preserve is part of the watershed of the West Branch of the Saugatuck River and part of the extended 70-mile (110 km) "Saugatuck Valley Trails System".Flora and fauna in the preserve include more than 500 types of trees and wildflowers, the pink lady's slipper, cardinal flower, and Indian pipe, such animals as red fox, bobcat, coyote, and eastern copperhead snake, and more than 140 bird species, including wood duck, ruffed grouse, and pileated woodpecker.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Devil's Den Preserve (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Devil's Den Preserve
Pent Road,

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N 41.2365 ° E -73.396 °
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Pent Road 26
06883
Connecticut, United States
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Fairfield County, Connecticut
Fairfield County, Connecticut

Fairfield County is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is the most populous county in the state and was also its fastest-growing from 2010 to 2020. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 957,419, representing 26.6% of Connecticut's overall population. The closest to the center of the New York metropolitan area, the county contains four of the state's top 7 largest cities—Bridgeport (1st), Stamford (2nd), Norwalk (6th), and Danbury (7th)—whose combined population of 433,368 is nearly half the county's total population. The United States Office of Management and Budget has designated Fairfield County as the Bridgeport–Stamford–Norwalk–Danbury metropolitan statistical area. The United States Census Bureau ranked the metropolitan area as the 59th most populous metropolitan statistical area of the United States in 2019. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget has further designated the metropolitan statistical area as a component of the more extensive New York–Newark–Bridgeport, NY–NJ–CT–PA combined statistical area, the most populous combined statistical area and primary statistical area of the United States.As is the case with all eight of Connecticut's counties, there is no county government and no county seat. As an area, it is only a geographical point of reference. In Connecticut, the cities and towns are responsible for all local governmental activities including fire and rescue, schools, and snow removal; in a few cases, neighboring towns will share certain resources. The last county seat was Bridgeport, which had served this role from 1853 until 1960. On June 6, 2022, the U.S. Census Bureau formally recognized Connecticut's nine councils of governments as county equivalents instead of the state's eight counties. Connecticut's eight historical counties continue to exist in name only, and are no longer considered for statistical purposes.Fairfield County's Gold Coast helped rank it sixth in the U.S. in per-capita personal income by the Bureau of Economic Analysis in 2005, contributing substantially to Connecticut being one of the most affluent states in the U.S. Other communities are more densely populated and economically diverse than the affluent areas for which the county is better known.

Cannondale Historic District
Cannondale Historic District

Cannondale Historic District is a historic district in the Cannondale section in the north-central area of the town of Wilton, Connecticut. The district includes 58 contributing buildings, one other contributing structure, one contributing site, and 3 contributing objects, over a 202 acres (82 ha). About half of the buildings are along Danbury Road (U.S. Route 7) and most of the rest are close to the Cannondale train station (another half dozen buildings are along Seeley Road).The district is significant because it embodies the distinctive architectural and cultural-landscape characteristics of a small commercial center as well as an agricultural community from the early national period through the early 20th century....The historic uses of the properties in the district include virtually the full array of human activity in this region—farming, residential, religious, educational, community groups (the Grange), small-scale manufacturing, transportation, and even government (the building that housed the first Cannondale Post Office). The close physical relationship among all these uses, as well as the informal character of the commercial enterprises before the rise of more aggressive techniques to attract consumers, capture some of the texture of life as lived by prior generations.: 17  The district is also significant for its collection of architecture and for its historic significance.: 17 The district has a number of buildings in Greek Revival style, as well as Victorian era buildings and Colonial Revival buildings.

Cannondale, Connecticut
Cannondale, Connecticut

Cannondale is a census-designated place (CDP) within the town of Wilton in Fairfield County, Connecticut. It had a population of 141 at the 2010 census. The neighborhood consists of many old homes on large, almost rural lots now largely wooded. The English first settled the land in the 17th century. At the center of Cannondale is Cannon Crossing, a small shopping village of boutiques and restaurants made up of 19th-century buildings restored by actress June Havoc in the late 1970s on the east side of Cannondale Railroad Station. Both are part of Cannondale Historic District, which encompasses the central part of Cannondale and most of its significant historical buildings. The area was originally called "Pimpewaug" by the local Indians, and it was the name originally used by the colonial settlers. The Cannon family became prominent in the area, in part because of the Cannon Store, which started operating in the 1790s. In March 1852, the Danbury and Norwalk Railroad opened a station in the neighborhood, near where the tracks crossed Cannon Road, and named it Cannon Station. Soon after, Charles Cannon began a campaign to get a post office in the neighborhood, and on April 29, 1870 it became a reality in a store east of the railroad tracks (very probably in a building which also functioned as a general store and the train station). At this time, the neighborhood became known as "Cannon Station". In 1882, the U.S. Post Office changed the local office's name to "Cannon", then changed it back to Cannon Station in 1896. The similarity of "Cannon" and "Canaan", a town on the northern border of the state, caused residents to want a further adjustment in the name. In November 1915 the post office name was changed to Cannondale. The post office was closed in 1967 but the name remains, generally covering an area centered on the intersection of Danbury Road and Cannon Road.In 1915, Samuel Miller, who was instrumental in the final name change, acquired a cannon which had been used in the Civil War battle of Galveston. It was placed at the intersection of Danbury and Cannon roads and toppled twice, once as a Halloween prank and another time in an automobile accident.

First Congregational Church of Guilford

First Congregational Church of Guilford is a United Church of Christ congregation in Guilford, Connecticut. The church was founded in 1643, just a few years after the first settlement of Guilford in 1639. At that time, under the theocratic structure of the New Haven Colony, the town of Guilford and its church were essentially the same entity. Guilford's first meeting house was a simple stone structure with a thatched roof, located on the town green. It was expanded in the 1660s, 1670s, and 1680s, and finally replaced in 1713 with the construction of a larger building, also on the green, that is reputed to have been the first church in Connecticut with a steeple clock and a bell.Initially the church served a very large area, which was reduced over time as new congregational societies were established in East Guilford (now the town of Madison), Cohabit (now North Guilford), and North Bristol (now North Madison).The current church building, a wooden structure that overlooks the town green, was completed in 1830 as part of a campaign to clear the green of buildings. Five other Congregational churches were built on essentially the same design in the Connecticut towns of Old Lyme (the 1816–17 Old Lyme Congregational Church), Milford (1823), Cheshire (the 1827 First Congregational Church of Cheshire), Litchfield (the 1829 First Congregational Church of Litchfield), and Southington (1830). All six churches have front porticos with four fluted columns, the doors of all six have the same dimensions, all six steeples are of the same design and are surmounted by weathervanes that appear to have been cast from one mold, and all six churches have twenty-over-twenty double-hung windows. The similarities suggest that some of the building elements may have been prefabricated. The church lost its steeple in the 1938 New England hurricane, but the steeple was rebuilt the following year.In the 19th century, the congregation was divided over the issue of slavery. After church leaders refused to allow local abolitionists to meet in the church, the church's abolitionist members formed a new separate congregation, the Third Congregational Church, which built its own meetinghouse in 1840. Aaron Dutton, who had been the First Congregational minister since 1806, left in 1842 because of the congregation's disapproval of his abolitionist views. According to the First Congregational Church's account of its own history, most of the members of the abolitionist church returned to First Church by 1920, after the slavery question had been resolved.

Georgetown Historic District (Georgetown, Connecticut)
Georgetown Historic District (Georgetown, Connecticut)

The Georgetown Historic District is a historic district which covers the central portion the village of Georgetown, Connecticut. The district includes parts of Georgetown in the towns of Redding, Weston, Wilton, and Ridgefield and consists of the former Gilbert & Bennett manufacturing plant, institutional housing built for the plant workers, other private homes, and the Georgetown business district.In its 1986 National Register nomination, the district is described as "[A] rare survival of rural industrial history".: 3 The company began as a cottage industry weaving animal hair from cows and horses, started by Benjamin Gilbert. Water power was needed, and the enterprise used a former sawmill facility downriver from the later factory site. The company found success making sieves from animal hair. After much development and a fire, the company focused on wire products including woven wire cloth for meat safes, the first insect wire screening, and poultry netting.The company is described as having been "[g]uided by nineteenth-century paternalism and enlightened self-interest which carried over well into the twentieth century" for it having "shaped a community which today resembles the rural industrial village of nineteenth-century Utopian ideology.": 3  The district consists of properties that are roughly bounded by Route 7, Portland Avenue, Route 107, and the Norwalk River. It includes 120 contributing buildings and one other contributing site over a 125 acres (51 ha) area. Architectural styles in the historic district include Colonial Revival, Bungalow/Craftsman, and Italianate.The district was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on January 21, 1987. Fourteen properties in the Town of Wilton, on Church Street, West Church Street, and Redding Road, are also included in the town's Historic District #6, designated in 2007. Exterior alterations to these properties require approval by the Wilton Historic District and Historic Property Commission. Several of the 123 contributing resources originally included in the National Register historic district have been demolished as part of a Georgetown Redevelopment Project.Since the Gilbert & Bennett property has gone idle, multiple developers have attempted to recreate the site as a mixed-use village combining residential and commercial buildings. In 2005, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded one proposal its National Award for Smart Growth Achievement.In 2007, the U.S. Department of the Interior sought Congressional approval for the National Park Service to acquire space on the Gilbert & Bennett property for administration and operational support to the Weir Farm National Historic Site in Ridgefield. Under existing federal law at the time, the National Park Service was authorized to secure expansion space in Ridgefield and Wilton only.