Stamford: Recreation

Sightseeing

Among Stamford's perennial premier attractions is the Bartlett Arboretum, a 63-acre nature area maintained by the University of Connecticut. Its highlights include a swamp walk, natural woodlands, cultivated gardens, ecology trails, a horticultural library, and display greenhouse. The 118-acre Stamford Museum and Nature Center, a nineteenth century park, contains a working farm, complete with farm animals and early American furniture and tools. The Center also has a planetarium, country store, nature trails, and galleries of art, natural history, and Native American items. The Champion Greenhouse presents horticulture exhibits that change with the season. The Hoyt-Barnum House, a restored blacksmith home which was built in 1699 and refurbished in 1738, represents three centuries of Stamford life. The nearby Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk attracts 525,000 visitors a year and is one of the largest attractions in Connecticut. To support the growing number of visitors and educational programs, The Maritime Aquarium recently completed its first major expansion project. Opened in April 2001, the new $9.5 million Environmental Education Center (funded through corporate, private, and state contributions) boasts new classrooms and high-tech educational equipment, plus a new main entrance, larger gift shop, and 180-seat food-service area. The move from the old gift shop also allowed for the addition of loggerhead sea turtles to the Aquarium's growing animal collection.

United House Wrecking Company's 30,000 square feet of floor space displays memorabilia such as furniture, marine salvage, antiques, musical items, and country store offerings. First Presbyterian Church, built in the shape of a fish to commemorate the early Christian symbol for Christ, was designed by Wallace K. Harrison in 1958. It features stained glass windows by Gabriel Loire of France, a Christian Memorial Walkway of flagstones, the Stamford Historical Wall tracing the city's history, and carillon concerts played by the fifty-six bells in the Maguire Memorial Tower. Many of Stamford's corporate headquarters offer tours of their facilities.

Arts and Culture

The Stamford Center for the Arts provides two homes for the performing arts in the city, and hosts more than 250 performances annually. The wonderfully restored 1927 Palace Theatre is home to the Stamford Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, Connecticut Grand Opera, and the New England Lyric Operetta. The 1,580-seat facility also offers nationally renowned artists in live drama, music, dance, and opera performances. A recently completed multi-phase Palace Improvement Project has provided the Palace Theatre with an enlarged stage, new dressing rooms and other technical-support facilities, and improved services. The Rich Forum, with its 757-seat Truglia Theater, Mercede Promenade exhibition and gallery area, and "black box" Leonhardt Studio performing venue, brings live Broadway-quality productions to the city. Stamford Theatre Works, a resident professional theater company, offers productions at the Sacred Heart Academy Performing Arts Center. Connecticut Ballet stages several annual productions in Stamford, as does the city's resident City Ballet, often accompanied by dancers from the New York City Ballet. Canterbury Concerts is a series of baroque and classical choral and orchestral music performed at St. John's Episcopal Church, also the site of four annual programs presented by the Pro Arte Singers. Free summer concerts in Cove Island Park are performed by the National Chorale.

The Stamford Historical Society Museum presents permanent and changing exhibits of local history, and has research facilities. The Whitney Museum of American Art at Champion Plaza, a branch of the internationally-renowned New York City institution, offers five exhibitions annually (including works from Whitney's permanent collection), public education programs, special events, and docent-led gallery tours.

The First Presbyterian Church features the Christian Memorial Walkway, the Stamford Historical Wall, and a fifty-six bell carillon.
The First Presbyterian Church features the Christian Memorial Walkway, the Stamford Historical Wall, and a fifty-six bell carillon.

Festivals and Holidays

Stamford's annual festivals center around nature, and art and music. The coming of spring is heralded by the April's two-day Treetops Daffodil Festival and May's Azalea & Rhododendron Walk at Bartlett Arboretum. Spring on the Farm at the Stamford Museum and Nature Center Farm allows spectators to view plowing, sheepdog herding, and shearing. The Pink Tent Festival of the Arts is celebrated at Mill River Park in June. Music fills the July air with the sounds of the Long Island Sound Wave concerts. Ongoing mid-summer events include the annual Art in Public Places exhibition, the new French Market on Columbus Park (Tuesdays and Saturdays, July to November), and the five-concert Alive @ Five series of free outdoor performances in Columbus Park. September events include Arts, Crafts, and Blues on Bedford, the Harvest Fair at the Stamford Museum and Nature Center, Stamford Historical Society's three-day Quilt Show, and Kids' Day, which is sponsored by the Stamford Business Society. The two-day Gem and Mineral Show and Astronomy Day at Stamford Museum and Nature Center brightens November's days. Early December brings the city's Heights and Lights holiday extravaganza on Landmark Square, complete with a daredevil Santa rappelling down 22 stories from Stamford's tallest building and ending with the lighting of the city's tree. The glories of winter are celebrated at January's Winterfest at the Stamford Museum and Nature Center, and at February's Winterbloom two-day festival at Bartlett Arboretum.

Sports for the Spectator

Nearby Bridgeport has professional minor league sports with Bluefish baseball in the Atlantic League and Sound Tigers hockey, top affiliate for the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League. Local fans are also within an easy drive of several storied New York sports franchises, including the New York Yankees and Knickerbockers. The Department of Parks and Recreation annually schedules hundreds of baseball games at Cubeta Stadium, which hosts regional tournaments for league players of all ages.

Sports for the Participant

Golf and fishing are the activities of choice in Stamford, which maintains two public 18-hole courses. October's Stamford Classic Half-Marathon provides fast course loops through foliage, both downtown and at the coastline. Salt-water fishing is available aboard several charter vessels that dock in Stamford. The city's 40 parks cover more than 650 acres and include beaches, a marina, a boat basin, bridle paths, gardens, skating rinks, ball fields, basketball and tennis courts, and playgrounds. Several of the parks and yacht clubs are found along the shoreline. Cove Island Park is an 83-acre waterfront facility with a beach and the Terry Connors Rink, which has youth hockey and figure skating programs throughout the year. Scalzi Park and Cubeta Stadium has 48 acres of fields for baseball, soccer, Little League, tennis, bocce, and roller hockey. The Mianus River Park and Glen offers walking, hiking, biking and fishing in a 183-acre preserve. Indoor rock climbing classes for adults and teens are available at Go Vertical!.

Shopping and Dining

Stamford's major shopping facility is the Stamford Town Center, an enclosed mall with more than one hundred stores anchored by several noted department stores, including Macy's and Saks Fifth Avenue. Other prime shopping sites are the Bedford Street/High Ridge Fashion Plaza area, the Ridgeway Plaza, and the United House Wrecking, the state's largest antiques emporium. The nearby Norwalk Factory Outlet Center, with more than 50 stores, offers bargains on housewares, clothing, and shoes. Throughout Fairfield County, antique dealers sell furniture and house furnishings.

While seafood and New England chowders are mainstays on many menus, Stamford restaurants offer a range of culinary delights. Favorites among locals include Il Falco Ristorante (Italian), La Bretagne and Chez Jean-Pierre (French), Kujaku (Japanese and sushi), Ocean 211 (fine seafood), and Giovanni's Steak House (American).

Visitor Information: Coastal Fairfield County Convention & Visitors Bureau, 297 West Avenue, Norwalk, CT 06850; telephone (800)866-7925. State of Connecticut Tourism Division, 865 Brook St., Rocky Hill, CT 06067-3405; toll-free (800)CT-BOUND