Wilton
About Wilton
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Wilton is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the town population was 17,633.
Settled in the early eighteenth century, Wilton became an independent town in 1802. Today, Wilton, like many other Fairfield County towns, is an expensive residential community with open lands (a testament to its colonial farming roots), historic architecture and extensive town services. Residents commonly commute to Stamford, New York City and White Plains, although there are a number of office buildings in town.
Its town center contains the Village Market, a CVS, a Starbucks, a Gap, a Stop & Shop, Subway (restaurant) and a four screen movie theater owned by Bowtie Cinemas. However, some of these stores were added around the year 2000. These new stores were built adjacent to the old Wilton Center. The old Wilton Center consists of the Wilton Library, the Wilton Post Office, a CVS, a hardware store, the Old Post Office Square, and the Village Market. In the Southern part of town, on Route 7, is a commercial section containing a Borders and an Outback Steakhouse. Until the early 1990′s, Wilton was a “dry” town (it was illegal to sell alcohol in any form), but now alcohol can be sold in limited establishments and liquor licenses are strictly controlled (selling packaged alcohol is still prohibited).
Wilton, like its neighbors, is one of the most affluent small communities in the United States. Wilton has, by some estimates, more than 500 restored 18th and 19th century homes.
“Teardowns have become quite an issue in town,” Marilyn Gould, Wilton’s second selectman and director of the Wilton Historical Society, told a reporter for the New York Times in 2005. “People aren’t taking down historic houses but the more modest homes that were built in the 50′s and 60′s,” she said. “What that’s doing is changing the affordability of the town and the demographic of the town. Wilton used to have a wide demographic of people who worked with their hands – artisans, builders, mechanics. Now it’s management and upper management.” From 1999 to 2005, the town’s voters have endorsed spending $23 million through municipal bonds to preserve land.
The southwest corner of town includes part of the Silvermine neighborhood (which also extends into New Canaan and Norwalk). Georgetown, which is primarily in Redding and partly in Weston, extends a bit into the northeast corner of town. Other neighborhoods in town are South Wilton, Wilton Center, Gilbert Corners, Cannondale, and North Wilton.
Four designated historic districts exist in Wilton and feature examples of early American homes. Stately traditional houses and impressive contemporaries as well as luxury condominiums are integrated among historic structures. One- and two-acre lots help give many parts of the town a pastoral character.