Darien, Connecticut

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 31. Chapters: History of Darien, Connecticut, Government and politics of Darien, Connecticut, Darien High School, Darien EMS - Post 53, List of people from Darien, Connecticut, Noroton River, Darien Public Schools, Noroton Heights, Middlesex Middle School, Hindley School, Tokeneke School, Stephen Tyng Mather Home, Friends of Animals, Connecticut Panhandle, St. John Church (Darien, Connecticut), Boston Post Road Historic District (Darien, Connecticut), Pear tree point school, Hay Island, Meadowlands (Darien, Connecticut), Ziegler's Cove, Pond-Weed House, Noroton Heights Fire Department. Excerpt: Darien is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. A relatively small community on Connecticut's "Gold Coast", it is one of the most affluent towns in the United States. The population was 19,607 at the 2000 census. Situated between the small cities of Norwalk and Stamford, the town is a bedroom community with relatively few office buildings. Most workers commute to the adjacent cities, and many also work in New York City. Two Metro North railroad stations - Noroton Heights and Darien - link the town to Grand Central Terminal and the rest of the New Haven Line. Although Darien has an increasingly vibrant downtown, residents often shop at the big-box stores and chain stores in neighboring Norwalk and Stamford. For recreation, the town includes four small parks, two beaches on Long Island Sound, four country clubs, a hunt club, and two yacht clubs. With a median home price of approximately $1 million, Darien is one of the most expensive places to live in North America, and was rated one of the best places to live in America by CNN in 2005. The public library in Darien, the Darien Library, has consistently ranked in the top ten of its category in the HAPLR (Hennen's American Public Library Ratings) Index of libraries. Residents say the proper pronunciation of the town should rhyme with "Mary Ann," with the stress on the last syllable: ). More common in the mid-to-late 20th Century was "dare-i-YEN" (with the "e" sound as ), spoken quickly. "You can always tell when someone is not from here, because they do pronounce it the way it's spelled," Louise Berry, director of the town library, said in a 2006 interview. The town name was "frequently pronounced 'Dairy Ann'" (as )at least as far back as 1913, as reported in a travel book published that year. The village of Darien, Wisconsin shares this pronunciation. See: Government and politics of Darien, Connecticut Elected bodies in the town government are a five-member Board of Selectmen, a nine member Board of E