History of Post Road
History & Background
The new nation needed good roads. Independence from Great Britain freed American mechanics and entrepreneurs to join the Industrial Revolution. But they needed access to materials and to markets, and that meant wagons and the roads they traveled on. By the year 1800, “internal improvements” …roads, bridges, canals…had become top national priorities. But who would build the roads? Not the tiny farm towns through which they ran; and states like Connecticut were still struggling to rebuild after being left bankrupt by the Revolutionary War.
Fortunately, the economy was good, and there was money in private hands. Private capital would build and maintain the roads…toll roads, called “turnpikes,” which were owned by the state and franchised to private corporations. Darien’s “Post Road” was one of them, chartered in 1806. It was the 44th such franchise granted by the state. Its official name, then and for many years to come, was “The Connecticut Turnpike.” It ran from the Byram River to “the house of Jonathan Sturges” in Fairfield. Toll gates were in Greenwich and Stamford, at the Saugatuck River bridge, and in Fairfield.
The Connecticut Turnpike never made a profit. In 1854 its operation was taken over by the State, and the toll gates removed. Although it was a commercial failure, it was a brilliant success as a road, and, for more than 200 years, this old road has been main commercial artery of Darien and played a pivotal role in the growth and success of shore towns in Fairfield County.
Based on The Story of Darien Connecticut
by Museum of Darien Historian Ken Reiss
Trail Marker
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