Sandy Hook, Connecticut

History

Sandy Hook was founded in 1711 when several proprietors with land in the area relocated together to reduce isolation. Within a year of the settlement of Newtown, some of its proprietors began moving away from the central village to some of their larger parcels. Colonists found that the Pootatuck River at Sandy Hook allowed for saw and gristmills, leading to it becoming one of the first outlying areas to be settled.

In 1839, the chemist and engineer Charles Goodyear accidentally invented the process of vulcanization while living on Glen Road, to the north of Sandy Hook center. This led to the creation and prosperity of the Goodyear Rubber Packing factory in the following 15 years, and hugely impacted the manufacturing industry in the following decades.

The Sandy Hook neighborhood did not grow dramatically until the mid-19th century post-industrialization, due to innovation and economic growth caused by businesses such as the Goodyear Rubber Packing Factory.

2012 school shooting

Main article: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

NOTE: This section is a short summary of the event. The expanded details should be put in the main article at Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

, 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed his mother at home, and then drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School where he killed 20 children aged 6–7 along with six adults. He died by suicide when police arrived at the school. It was the mass shooting in U.S. history at the time, after the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings. NOTE: This section is a short summary of the event. The expanded details should be put in the main article at Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

Following the shooting, both the Lanza family home and Sandy Hook Elementary School were demolished, in 2013 and 2016 respectively; a new school being rebuilt at the same site.

Geography

Located within Newtown, Sandy Hook borders the Newtown borough and the village of Botsford to the south, as well as the towns of Monroe, Southbury, and Oxford along the Housatonic River, to the east. The immediate area surrounding Sandy Hook village contains multiple amenities and green spaces including Rocky Glen State Park and Paugussett State Forest, as well as Timothy B. Treadwell Memorial Park and the Sandy Hook Memorial Park.

Sandy Hook includes the communities of Berkshire, Riverside, Walnut Tree Hill, and Zoar. It also extends for a short distance into the town of Monroe along Old Zoar Road and Bagburn Hill/Jordan Hill Road.

Landmarks

Sandy Hook has a few historic landmarks on the National Register of Historic Places.

• Nathan B. Lattin Farm
• New York Belting and Packing Co.
• Sanford–Curtis–Thurber House

Religious sites

The Newtown United Methodist Church was created for the Newtown Methodist in the 1850s. In 1972 it was moved to its current location, in the centre of Sandy Hook.

Notable people

• Mackie Samoskevich, NHL player
• Maddy Samoskevich, PWHL player
• John Angel, sculptor
• Luther Meade Blackman, major during the American Civil War accused of forging the Bat Creek inscription
• Suzanne Collins, American television writer and author of The Underland Chronicles and The Hunger Games trilogy
• Anthony Edwards, actor
• William Hamilton Gibson, 19th-century illustrator, author, and naturalist
• Charles Goodyear, gained renown in 1839 for the technique of the vulcanization of rubber
• Ruth Gordon, actress and wife of Garson Kanin
• Arthur Twining Hadley, 13th president of Yale University
• Charles R. Jackson, 1950s writer and novelist, author of The Lost Weekend
• Caitlyn Jenner, 1976 Summer Olympics decathlon gold medalist
• Elia Kazan, stage/motion picture director and author
• Steven Kellogg, illustrator
• Grace Moore, operatic soprano and actress in musical theater and film
• Valentin Panera, Spanish actor, husband of Grace Moore
• Molly Pearson, 20th-century stage actress
• Albert Berger Rossdale, U.S. Representative from New York
• James Thurber, writer, satirist, cartoonist, author of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"
• Marcus Tracy, professional soccer player
• Mead Treadwell, 13th Lieutenant Governor of Alaska and former chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission
• Jenna von Oÿ, actress and singer
• Thelma Wood, sculptor
• Wally Cox, actor
• Antonio Fargas, actor
• Max Nacewicz, professional football player

References

References

1. {{Cite gnis. 2805967. Sandy Hook Census Designated Place
2. "U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Sandy Hook CDP, Connecticut".
3. "Newtown and Sandy Hook CT Things to Do".
4. Cruson, Daniel, [http://www.newtownhistory.org/the-settlement.html "A Brief History of Newtown"] {{webarchive. link. (January 28, 2013 , Web page at Newtown Historical Society Web site, accessed December 14, 2012.)
5. "Sandy Hook Organization for Prosperity {{!}} Sandy Hook Village".
6. Crevier, Nancy. (March 28, 2008). "Part 2: The People Behind The Names Of Newtown's Roads".
7. (December 14, 2012). "20 Children Died in Newtown, Conn., School Massacre". ABC News.
8. (December 15, 2012). "28 dead in school shooting". BBC News.
9. Christoffersen, John. "Official: 27 dead in Conn. school shooting". ap.org.
10. Castillo, Mariano. (March 25, 2015). "Home of Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza demolished".
11. Steinberg, Avi. (September 16, 2016). "Can You Erase the Trauma From a Place Like Sandy Hook?". The New York Times.
12. Klein, E. Sue. "Our History - Newtown United Methodist Church".
13. Gendreau, LeAnne. (March 15, 2012). "Anticipated Film Based on Local Author's Book". NBC Connecticut.
14. "New England Magazine".