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New Canaan is a wealthy Town in Fairfield County , Connecticut , United States , 8 miles (13 km) northeast of Stamford , on the Five Mile River . In 1900, 2,968 people lived in New Canaan, and in 1910, 3,667. The population was 19,395 at the 2000 census. The town is one of the most affluent communities in the United States. New Canaan has two Metro-North railroad stations: the New Canaan Station and the Talmadge Hill Station , both on the New Canaan Branch of the New Haven Line. Travel time to Grand Central Terminal is approximately one hour. The Hickock Road bridge in town has been rated in critical condition by state safety inspectors. As of early August 2007, the bridge was one of 12 in the southwestern part of the state (including New Haven) with safety inspection ratings so low they are deemed to be in critical condition. The ratings for these bridges were worse than the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis, which collapsed during rush hour on August 1 , 2007 .Kaplan, Thomas, Martineau, Kim, and Kauffman, Matthew, "12 state bridges are judged to be in critical condition" article in '' The Advocate '' of Stamford, Connecticut , article reprinted from '' The Hartford Courant '', August 5 , 2007 , pp1, A6 GEOGRAPHY ]]According to the United States Census Bureau , the town has a total area of 58.2 Km&2 (22.5 Mi&2 ). 57.3 km&2 (22.1 mi&2) of it is land and 0.9 km&2 (0.3 mi&2) of it (1.56%) is water. The town is served by the Merritt Parkway, and by a spur line of the Metro North railroad. The downtown area consists of many restaurants, an old movie theater, and antique shops. There are also several churches in town, as well as the historic Roger Sherman Inn . The town is bounded on the north by Lewisboro in Westchester County , New York , on the east by Wilton , on the southeast by Norwalk , on the south by Darien and on the southwest and west by Stamford . The Silvermine neighborhood (which also extends into Norwalk and Wilton) is in the southeast part of town. HISTORY In 1731, Connecticut's colonial legislature established Canaan Parish as a religious entity in northwestern , 2006 , accessed August 2 , 2006 Until the Revolutionary War , New Canaan was primarily an agricultural community. After the war, New Canaan's major industry was shoe making. As New Canaan's shoe business gathered momentum early in the nineteenth century, instead of a central village, regional settlements of clustered houses, mill, and school developed into distinct district centers. Some of the districts were centered on Ponus Ridge, West Road, Oenoke Ridge, Smith Ridge, Talmadge Hill and Silvermine, a pattern which the village gradually outgrew. With the 1868 advent of the railroad to New Canaan, many of New York City's wealthy residents discovered the quiet, peaceful area and built magnificent summer homes. Eventually, many of the summer visitors settled year-round, commuting to their jobs in New York City and creating the residential community that exists today. Lewis Lapham, a founder of Texaco and father of long-time Harpers Magazine Editor Lewis H. Lapham , spent summers with his family at the estate that is now part of the 300-acre Waveny Park. Next to Talmadge Hill and the Merrit Parkway. On July 31 , 1967 , George Lascelles, 7th Earl Of Harewood and 39th in line to the British throne, married Patricia Tuckwell , an Australian violinist, in New Canaan. On , 2006 , page A4 The " Harvard Five " and modern homes New Canaan was an important center of the modern design movement from the late 1940s through roughly the 1960s, when about 80 modern homes were built in town. About 20 have been torn down since then. {Link without Title} "Architect for All Seasons", by David Gurliacci, Fairfield County Business Journal, January 9 , 2006 . "During the late 1940s and 50s, a group of students and teachers from the Harvard Graduate School of Design migrated to New Canaan ... and rocked the world of architectural design", according to an article in PureContemporary.com, an online architecture design magazine. " Philip Johnson , Marcel Breuer , Landis Gores , John Johansen and Eliot Noyes -- known as the Harvard Five -- began creating homes in a style that emerged as the complete antithesis of the traditional build. Using new materials and open floor plans, best captured by Johnson's Glass House , these treasures are being squandered as buyers are knocking down these architectural icons and replacing them with cookie-cutter new builds." {Link without Title} PureContemporary.com accessed July 2 , 2006 "Other architects, well known (, 2006 , web page accessed July 2 , 2006 Some other New Canaan architects designing modern homes were Victor Christ-Janer, John Black Lee and Allan Gelbin. The film '' The Ice Storm '' (1997) shows many of New Canaan's modern houses, both inside and out. On the National Register of Historic Places
EDUCATION New Canaan has five public schools:
New England Association Of Schools And Colleges rating: Superb. There were 3,980 students enrolled in grades K-12 in the 2003-2004 school year and the total expenditure was $50,786,700. Class of 2003 statistics:
New Canaan also has private schools:
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