Milford, Connecticut
USINFO | 2013-10-21 12:07


 


Milford is a coastal city in southwestern New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, located between Bridgeport and New Haven. The population was 52,759 at the 2010 census. The city contains the incorporated borough of Woodmont and the unincorporated village of Devon.

History
Early history

Oyster Huts on Milford Point, a sketch by John Warner Barber for his Historical Collections of Connecticut (1836). Barber wrote that he found 15 or 20 of these seaweed-covered huts along the shore when he visited the town in 1836. Oystermen used the huts in the winter.

The land which today comprises Milford, Orange and West Haven was "purchased" on February 1, 1639 from Ansantawae, chief of the local Paugussets (an Algonquian tribe) by English settlers affiliated with the contemporary New Haven Colony. Originally, the area was known as "Wepawaug", after the small river which runs through the town, and which has given its name to several streets in both Milford and Orange.

During the Revolutionary War the Milford section of the Boston Post Road, a vital route connecting Boston, New York and other major coastal cities, was blockaded by Continental forces, and Fort Trumbull was constructed to protect the town. The site of the blockade is commemorated by the Liberty Rock monument.

By 1822, the town had grown large enough that residents in the northern and eastern sections of Milford chartered their own independent course as the town of Orange. During the next century and a half, the remaining section of Milford was known for shipbuilding, farming and oystering, although a small subset of industrial facilities also developed in town. During this time, Milford also became known as a beach resort for residents of New Haven and Bridgeport.

Interestingly, the boundaries of the final town charter granted by the State of Connecticut in 1899 to Laurel Beach are contained entirely within Milford. Residents of Laurel Beach must therefore pay taxes to both Laurel Beach as well as Milford, and all mail to Laurel Beach residents is mailed to Milford.

In 1903, the southeastern portion of the town was incorporated as the Borough of Woodmont. In 1959, the town of Milford including the Borough of Woodmont was incorporated as the City of Milford.

Towns created from Milford

Starting in 1902, Quaker Oats oatmeal boxes came with a coupon redeemable for the legal deed to a tiny lot in Milford. The lots, sometimes as small as 10 feet (3 m) by 10 feet, were carved out of a 15-acre (6.1 ha) tract in a never-built subdivision called "Liberty Park". A small number of children (or their parents), often residents living near Milford, collected the deeds and started paying the extremely small property taxes on the "oatmeal lots".

The developer of the prospective subdivision hoped the landowners would hire him to build homes on the lots, although several lots would need to be combined before building could start. Since the subdivision into small lots predated Milford's planning and zoning regulations, the deeds were entirely legal, although they created a large amount of paperwork for town tax collectors, who frequently couldn't find the property owners and received almost no tax revenue from the lots.

In the mid-1970s, when the town wanted to develop the area, town officials put an end to the oatmeal lots in a "general foreclosure" that avoided the enormous expense of individual foreclosures by condemning nearly all of the property in one legal filing. One of the streets in the Liberty Park subdivision plans, Shelland Street, was later built in the late 1990s as an access road to the Milford Power Company. The site is currently home to the BIC Corporation's lighter factory at 565 Bic Drive. (In a separate land giveaway in 1955 tied to the Sergeant Preston of the Yukon television show, Quaker Oats offered in its Puffed Wheat and Puffed Rice cereal boxes genuine deeds to land in the Klondike.)

Post-World War II development
In the post-World War II period, Milford—like many other New England towns—underwent significant suburbanization. Interstate 95 was routed through town, and the Milford section was completed in 1958.

The 1960s and 1970s witnessed the construction of the Connecticut Post Mall, one of the state's largest shopping malls, and the extensive commercial development of the town's stretch of the Boston Post Road. One notable small business located on the Boston Post Road during the 1970s was SCELBI Computer Consulting, credited by many as being the world's first personal-computer manufacturer. Starting in 1975, the city began hosting the Milford Oyster Festival, which has since become firmly established as an annual Milford tradition that is held "rain or shine".

The city became host to several headquarters of multinational corporations, including the Schick Shaving company, and Doctor's Associates, Inc., owners of the Subway chain of fast-food restaurants. The US operations of BIC were headquartered in Milford, but in March 2008 moved most of its operations to Shelton. Milford Hospital has also developed into an important health care resource for the area. It has also become home of smaller national corporations such as Total Mortgage Services[6] and Orchid Medical.

Government
Government in the city is set up with the mayor as chief executive and the Board of Aldermen as a legislative body. The mayor is permitted to propose legislation to the Board of Aldermen and introduces the city budget, but possesses no veto power over what the Aldermen chooses to pass.

Geography and environment
According to the United States Census Bureau, Milford, including the borough of Woodmont, has a total area of 26.1 square miles (67.7 km2), of which 22.2 square miles (57.4 km2) is land and 3.9 square miles (10.2 km2), or 15.11%, is water.

Milford's Devonneighborhoodis located at the mouth of the Housatonic River near Stratford, and features the Connecticut Audubon Coastal Center overlooking the estuary.

Islands and coastline
Milford has over 14 miles (23 km) of shoreline facing Long Island Sound, the most of any town in Connecticut. A large portion of Milford's shoreline forms the Silver Sands State Park. A newly built mile-long boardwalk was opened in 2011 that connects Silver Sands to Walnut Beach in Devon.

Charles Island is also a part of the park and is a protected bird nesting ground. There is a sand bar (called a tombolo since it is perpendicular, not parallel to the coast) accessible during low tide that people can walk on from Silver Sands Beach to Charles Island.

The island is a part of the Hamonasset-Ledyard Moraine and was formed as glaciers retreated at the end of the last ice age. The Wisconsin glaciation formed drumlins in Milford: Clark, Burwell, Eels, Bryan and Merwin hills.

Milford owns three islands in the Housatonic River: Fowler Island, just to the south of the Igor I. Sikorsky Memorial Bridge, Duck Island, and Nells Island, both near the mouth of the river. In addition to Silver Sands State Park, Milford has five public beaches with lifeguard services for its residents - Gulf Beach, Anchor Beach, Hawley Avenue Beach, Walnut Beach, and Middle Beach - as well as seven private beaches.

 

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