Student/Educator History

 Eight families came from the Norwalk and Stamford, Connecticut area to found a new town. They settled in this area in 1684. Many of our streets today are named for these founding fathers. If your last name is Hoyt, Gregory, Benedict, Beebe, Taylor, Barnum, or Bushnell, you may be a descendant of these original settlers.   The local Native Americans called the land "Paquiack," which means open plain or cleared land. The founders settled in an area near the Still River which was later called Town Street and today is called Main Street. 

  
There was a debate over what to name the new town. The settlers wanted to call it Swampfield, but the court of Connecticut ordered that the town would be named Danbury, after a city in England.    

Danbury is a city in northern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, approximately 70 miles from New York City. Danbury's population is 83,684 (2013). Once a great hatting center, Danbury today makes electronic equipment, plastics, machinery, and furniture. Danbury is also the home of the Danbury Fair Mall, one of the largest malls in New England. 27% of the population was born in other countries, and the people of Danbury speak many different languages.  

Danbury is home to the second largest high school in the state, Western Connecticut State University, Naugatuck Community College, and the Danbury Federal Correctional Institute. The city has many parks and cultural activities. Candlewood Lake provides many recreational opportunities. You are encouraged to visit the Danbury Museum and Historical Society on Main Street to learn more about Danbury’s history. 

Where is Danbury?
Danbury borders New York State and the Connecticut towns of Bethel, Brookfield, New Fairfield, and Ridgefield. The major highway is Interstate 84, and routes 7 and 202 also pass through our city.

Danbury was voted the Number One City to Live In by Money Magazine in August 1989 because of low crime, good schools, and location.

Danbury was voted number 8 on America's Best Places to live by MSN House and Home out the 331 metropolitan areas in the U.S. in 2003.

The British soldiers took over Danbury in 1777 because it was a supply depot. They wanted to use the munitions and other supplies stored here. The British ended up burning Danbury to keep the supplies out of the hands of the Patriots.

People in the North and South had very different ways of life. They could not agree on what to do about slavery and that is one of the reasons the Civil War started. The North was against slavery and felt that all people should be free. Danbury sided with the Union (the Northern states). The Southern States were called the Confederates. 

The war was long and hard. Danbury’s economy was badly hurt by the war. Hats were sold to southern cities like Charleston, Savannah, and New Orleans.  When the war started, trade between the North and South stopped. The hatting industry lost some important places to sell their hats. A lot of Danbury men enlisted in the 17th Connecticut Infantry during the Civil War. African American men also enlisted in the 24th and 29th infantry. Between these groups, they fought in almost all the major battles of the Civil War. 

James Bailey, a newsman in the CT 17th, wrote what was going on during the battles. He came back and bought the Danbury News, a newspaper that eventually became the Danbury News Times. He died in 1894. In 1888 a monument was erected to all who fought in the Civil War. The Soldiers Monument is on Main Street across from the library. The GAR was a group of men who fought in the Civil War and were active in civic affairs in Danbury. Only one African American Danburian was included in the GAR.  A new Civil War monument in Wooster Cemetery was dedicated to Danbury area African American soldiers in 2007.

By 1850, more hats were made in Danbury than any other place in the United States. There were about 56 hat factories or shops in Danbury and it became known as "Hat City of the World."

A lot of water is needed to make hats and Danbury built many reservoirs to hold the water needed for the factories. Today, we use those reservoirs for our drinking water. Danbury also had a very good transportation system, such as trains and good road, to take the hats to other cities around the world.

Over the next 100 years, millions of hats were made here. Most people in Danbury worked in businesses that had something to do with the making and selling of hats. The hat boxes, silk linings for hats, and even hat trim was made here. The hatting industry created many jobs and great wealth in Danbury. Workers were well paid and were considered to be artisans. 

But by the 1950s, not many people were buying hats. People spent more time in cars and less time outside, so they didn't need a hat to stay warm. The styles changed and men no longer wore felt hats. The hat factories started to close down. The last Danbury hat factory closed in 1981.

The Danbury Fair was held for one week in October every year for 160 years. It started in 1821 as a small agricultural fair. It was a place to show off your crops, cooking, and farm animals. It was small at first and grew to include much more.

Many people came to the Danbury Fair. In the early years, people rode horses or carriages to get to the fair. They entered through a big gate. By 1895, visitors rode the train or a trolley to visit the fairgrounds. After 1900, they arrived by motorcar. They listened to many kinds of music and could even be in a singing contest.

As the fair grew, there were car races, rides, food, sideshows and dancing. There were contests with prizes for the biggest pumpkin, best sewing, or the tastiest cake. People ate foods like hot dogs, pizza, calzones, and hot apple pie. Every October, Danbury school children got a day off of school to go to the fair. They even got a free ticket!

Starting in 1932, there was a car race track on the fairgrounds. Every Saturday night in summer and early fall, you could go to see the stock car races. The main midway of the fair was always crowded. The tall statues around the fair made it easy to look up and figure out where you were. After the fair closed, many different people bought these statues and took them all over the country.

By 1942, John Leahy owned most of the Danbury Fair. He worked hard to make the fair a special place. Each year he wore his magnificent ringmaster's uniform and led the daily Grand Parade down the midway of the fair. After Mr. Leahy died, his family sold the fairgrounds. The very last Danbury Fair was in 1981. It was torn down to build the Danbury Fair Mall. You can see pictures of the old fair at the mall. 

Marian Anderson was a famous singer. She was born in Philadelphia and learned to sing there. Marian traveled and performed her music all over the world. She sang all kinds of music in many languages. She was the first African-American woman to sing at the Metropolitan Opera House. 

In 1939 she was to give a concert at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., but the owners of Constitution Hall would not allow her to sing there because she was African American. Eleanor Roosevelt, the First Lady of the U.S., arranged for Marian Anderson to sing at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. instead. Over 75,000 people saw her sing there. Many more watched her on TV or listened to her on the radio. Marian Anderson lived with her husband in Danbury for more than fifty years. You can visit her music studio at the Danbury Museum on Main Street.