The origin of the name “Lordship” is not clearly established; as there are several contradicting traditions to account for it, some of which are quite romantic. It is certain however that, for time out of mind, one of the largest farms now included in the Park layout has been so called and it is frequently referred to in Orcutts’s “History of the Town of Stratford.” The Lordship Park Association was organized October 1896, under a special charter obtained from the Connecticut Legislature. Address for prices of building lots or other information – LORDSHIP PARK ASSOCIATION, Warner Building, Bridgeport, Connecticut. William R. Hopson, President; William T. Howes, Treasurer; Arthur B. Burritt, Secretary; Nathan F. Barrett (New York) Landscape Architect; Scofield and Starr, Civil Engineers.
Lordship Park on the Sound |
Lordship Park Layout. |
Connecticut map Lordship Park. |
Lordship Park waterfront |
Oyster Fleet off Park |
An Easterly View |
New Staples House |
A very pleasant way for cottagers to reach the shore is to have their carriages meet them at the railroad station in Stratford, in which township the Park is situated. Photographic views of Main and Elm Streets, through which one would naturally go, are reproduced in this pamphlet. The drive is through streets bordered by well-kept lawns and stately old elms, by houses of historic interest and colonial architecture; past Fresh Pond, across the little bridge, up the hill to the crest, where opens upon the sight the wide expanse of Long Island Sound; with Long Island in the distance and off to the right, but close at hand, the cottage settlement already established at Lordship Park. Having reached the Park one finds that it is a peninsula extending one mile farther into Long Island Sound than any other point or headland on the Connecticut shore. Its five hundred acres are surrounded on three sides by the waters of the Sound and are almost constantly swept by sea breezes from the east, west or south. Land breezes coming as they must from the north only are rarely too warm. With a beach two miles or more on the southern or longest side of the triangular peninsula, nevertheless the houses are not as those built upon the sand; as the land rises abruptly somewhat back from the high water mark, forming a bluff varying from but a few feet to some forty feet above mean high water. Thence it rises gradually to the crest of the northern slope. This insures good views and healthful building sites.
A Mile of Shorefront |
A Cottage Settlement |
Bennett's Cove and Bluff |
Westerly View from Bluff |
The Old Lordship House |
Off the Park |
The Barnum House |
Woods in Northern Lordship |
On the New Jersey coast, winds from this quarter are land breezes and pass over miles of hot sands. Even in Bridgeport, adjacent to Lordship Park, a southwest wind is a land breeze rendering the city from five to seven degrees hotter than the Park. Building sites are sold with restrictions, which are effective but not burdensome. These restrictions prohibit liquor saloons and the erection of buildings for business purposes. A minimum limit is placed on the cost of cottages and sanitary regulations are enforced. Shore resorts particularly residence parks by the shore situated within twice the distance of this Park from Greater New York, feel the effects of its phenomenal growth. Then too, all the nearby cities are growing rapidly. The increase in wealth in the country at large is very much greater than the increase in population. These considerations combined with the fact that undesirable features of some other resorts will be kept out by restrictions in the deeds of sale, make it reasonably certain that those who buy at present prices may enjoy all they have with a feeling that the almost certain increase in value will be a good return for investment in Lordship Park lands.
The end of Lordship Road |
Ocean Avenue and Center |
Stratford Point |
Lordship Woods |
Lordship Beach |
Lordship Park Meadow |
View at Lordship Park |