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  • Ridgefield was first settled by English colonists from Norwalk, ConnecticutNorwalk and Milford, ConnecticutMilford in 1708 when a group of settlers purchased land from Chief Catoonah of the Ramapoo IndiansRamapoo tribe. The town was incorporated under Royal Charter in 1709. The most notable 18th Centery event was the Battle of Ridgefield (on April 27, 1777). This Revolutionary War skirmish involved a small colonial militia force (the Connecticut Continentals), led by, among others, General David Wooster, who died in the engagement, and Benedict Arnold, whose horse was shot from under him. They faced a larger British force that had landed at Norwalk and was returning from a raid on the colonial supply depot in Danbury, Connecticut. The battle was a tactical victory for the British but a strategic one for the Colonials since the British never again attempted a landing by ship to attack colonial strongholds during the war. Today, the dead from both sides are buried together in a small cemetery....."..foes in arms, brothers in death..." The Keeler Tavern, a local inn and museum, features a British cannonball still lodged in the side of the building. There are many other landmarks from the Revolutionary War in the town, with most along Main Street. In the summer of 1781, the French army, under the Comte de Rochambeau marched through Connecticut, encamping in the Ridgebury section of town, where the first Catholic Mass in Ridgefield was offered. For much of its three centuries, Ridgefield was a farming community. Among the important families in the 19th Century were the Rockwells and Lounsburys, which intermarried. They produced two Connecticut governors, George and Phineas Lounsbury. http://www.ridgefieldcommunitycenter.org The Ridgefield Veterans Memorial Community Center, also called the Lounsbury House, on Main Street was built by Gov. Phineas Chapman Lounsbury around 1896 as his home. In the late 1800s, spurred by the new railroad connection to its lofty village and the fact that nearby countryside reaches 1,000 feet above sea level, Ridgefield began to be discovered by wealthy New York City residents, who assembled large estates and built huge "summer cottages" throughout the higher sections of town. Among the more noteworthy estates were Col. Louis D. Conley's "Outpost Farm," which at one point totalled nearly 2,000 acres, some now Bennett's Pond State Park; Seth Low Pierrepont's "Twixthills," more than 600 acres, much now Pierrepont State Park; Frederic E. Lewis's "Upagenstit," 100 acres that became Grey Court College in the 1940s, but now mostly subdivision; and Col. Edward M. Knox's "Downesbury Manor," whose 300 acres included a 45-room mansion that Mark Twain often visited. These and dozens of other estates became unaffordable and unwieldy during and after the Great Depression, and most were broken up. Many mansions were razed. In their place came subdivisions of one- and two-acre lots that turned the town into a suburban, bedroom community in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. However, strong planning and zoning has maintained much of the 19th and early 20th Century charm of the town, especially along its famous mile-long Main Street. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ridgefield%2C_Connecticut

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