I May Just Be an Art Critique From Darien Connecticut
Living in
Darien, Conn.: An Old New England Town With a Decorated Social Life
This affluent coastal community offers residents a variety of ways to become involved, from volunteering to joining one of the many sporting clubs.
It was during the abode inspection on their 1920s colonial in Darien, Conn., that Josh Peschko got the sense that he and his wife, Kristy, had called non merely the correct town, simply the correct neighborhood.
"School had just let out, and there were kids coming out of every nook and cranny, cutting across our lawn and everyone else's," said Mr. Peschko, 36, an asset manager, describing the scene exterior their three-bedroom house, which is situated betwixt Holmes Elementary School and Woodland Park. "There are no fences, and nosotros're correct in the middle of it. It's a shared area, so of class yous've got to like that kind of matter."
Since moving into the house they bought for $985,000 in 2016, the Peschkos accept embraced the communal atmosphere of their new neighborhood and all the rest of this fourteen.9-square-mile coastal town in Fairfield Canton. Boys who live nearby come over to play with their four-year-quondam son, Hudson, while the girls in the neighborhood want to assistance feed their ane-year-sometime daughter, Berkeley, he said. And through a program organized past the YWCA'south Newcomers Lodge, the Peschkos have attended a number of dinners at the homes of other new arrivals to Darien.
Like many young families who accept found their way to this well-heeled town of about 22,000, the Peschkos were drawn to the schoolhouse system, which consistently ranks amongst the highest in the state. Others are attracted to the town's natural beauty, its easy access to New York City, and its active social, arts and sports cultures.
"We're a sports-oriented community, for certain," said Doug Milne, a real estate broker with Houlihan Lawrence who has lived in Darien well-nigh of his life. "A lot of people who come up here don't know anyone, so they put their kids into youth soccer at four and they brand friends for life."
Prototype 
Colleen Thompson said she was concerned about having no social life when she and her husband, Jon, decided to go out their ane-bedroom apartment in Lower Manhattan before this year and move to Darien.
"I was intimidated nigh how we were going to make friends, thinking everyone would exist completely entrenched," said Ms. Thompson, 31, a museum fund-raiser. "Simply nosotros've establish tons of people who are just like united states, with the same nervousness, wondering how they're going to come across each other."
While the Thompsons initially thought they wanted an older home, they realized they knew nothing about renovation and, in March, bought a half-dozen-bedroom, four-and-a-half-bathroom, Cape Cod-style house on the waterfront, built in 2012, for $5.775 million.
They now enjoy walking their Maltese, Ralph, along nearby Rings Cease Bridge and Weed Beach, where Cove Harbor spills into the Long Island Sound. And Ms. Thompson recently learned she is meaning.
"There are so many go-togethers for new parents," she said. "Stroller walks; mom workouts, where you bring your babe; moms' night out, when you can leave the baby at home. At present we just demand the babe so we can participate in all these things."
Paradigm
What You'll Detect
From large houses along the coast to historic homes in the woods, Darien offers a broad variety of desirable housing.
Inland, toward the Merritt Parkway, older homes on large wooded backdrop share the neighborhood with the Ox Ridge Chase Society, the Wee Burn down Country Social club and the Country Club of Darien, each of which holds local and national equestrian competitions.
Closer to the center of town, near the border with neighboring Stamford, the houses and lots are slightly smaller. And forth the town'south 16.5 miles of coastline, where peninsulas jut in and out of the Long Island Sound, are multimillion-dollar houses. The coast is also habitation to two public beaches, every bit well equally the Darien Boat Club, the Noroton Yacht Club and the Tokeneke embankment and tennis club.
Paradigm
With four exits off I-95 and a busy commercial stretch of Boston Post Road running through boondocks, Darien has a bustling, if non particularly up-to-date, downtown. That will likely change with the zoning lath'south final approval, in tardily Nov, of a mixed-use project on a seven.17-acre triangle of underused land at the foot of Leave 11, off I-95.
Expected to break ground side by side spring or summer, the 9-edifice projection will add 116 apartments, fourscore,000 foursquare feet of part space, 32 stores, seven restaurants and a boondocks greenish. David Genovese, the principal executive of Baywater Properties, one of the developers, said the generous site gave them a unique opportunity.
"In an old New England town like this, information technology's very rare that y'all can create a critical mass that allows you to rethink the whole downtown experience," he said. "We wanted to bring dorsum to the community what used to happen in the twenty-four hour period, making public spaces where people can interact."
Mr. Genovese said he hopes the apartments volition give empty-nesters the option to remain in town, while Mr. Milne sees the development, with its "New York City vibe," attracting younger residents.
Paradigm
What You'll Pay
In belatedly November, in that location were 206 houses and 17 condominiums on the market place in Darien. According to the SmartMLS, the median auction toll of a home in 2018, through November. 27, was $ane.385 million, down from the median sale price of $1.42 million during the same xi-month menses in 2017.
The least expensive firm currently bachelor is a 700-square-foot cottage congenital in 1930, with one bedroom and one bath, listed for $359,000. The most expensive is the Ziegler Steinkraus waterfront manor, built in the early 1900s on 63.5 acres of a private island, with a 13,015-square-human foot main house, guest cottages and an equestrian heart, listed for $120 one thousand thousand.
Suzanne Okie, an agent with Halstead Real Manor, said housing inventory is currently plentiful, and sellers are willing to negotiate on price. She attributed this buyers' market to the doubtfulness surrounding the recent elections, among other things.
"People are not jumping to buy their next house," she said. "Information technology'due south been a wait-and-see surround, every bit everyone's looking to run across how the new tax laws will affect them."
Prototype
The Vibe
Participation is the key to living in Darien, whether that means watching your children compete in the sports programs offered by the schools and the town; volunteering with one of the numerous charitable, community, cultural or environmental outreach programs; or joining i of the three golf game clubs, two boat clubs or a beach, tennis, hunt, garden or ice-hockey club.
Keeping upward with the busy social excursion requires a calendar like the ane published in the Darien guide for newcomers, which includes events like the Darien Library's Leap Gala, the summer concert series at Grove Street Plaza, the Ox Ridge Charity Horse Show and the Turkey Bowl, the football showdown between Darien High School and rival New Canaan High Schoolhouse played on Thanksgiving 24-hour interval.
The Schools
Well-nigh 4,800 students — 85 percent of Darien'southward school-age children — attend the town's 5 elementary schools, the middle schoolhouse and the high schoolhouse.
Darien High School, which serves 1,354 students, has repeatedly ranked at or near the top in the state on Sat scores and other measures of accomplishment. In 2017-18, the schoolhouse's average Sabbatum scores were 601 in reading and 605 in math, compared to statewide averages of 524 and 507.
The high schoolhouse'due south athletic program is also highly regarded, and the school campus, built in 2008, includes turf able-bodied fields and a state-of-the-art stadium.
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Individual school options nearby include the Greens Farms Academy in Westport, for prekindergarten through 12th grade, and the New Canaan Country School, for prekindergarten through ninth course.
The Commute
The Metro-North Railroad'due south New Oasis line has ii stops in Darien, from which it takes virtually an 60 minutes to become to New York City. Tickets bought on the railroad train from either station are $18 (or $21 during pinnacle travel time), or $11.fifty ($15.25 at elevation times) in advance. A monthly ticket is $335.
Darien is near twoscore miles northeast of New York Metropolis; driving on I-95 or the Merritt Parkway takes about an hour to an 60 minutes and a half, depending on traffic.
The History
"Admirer's Understanding," the best-selling 1947 novel by Laura Z. Hobson, was set in Darien and neighboring New Canaan, and focuses on an undercover reporter who exposes Americans' anti-Semitism. The book was made into a movie, starring Gregory Peck, that won the Academy Honor for best movie.
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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/05/realestate/darien-conn-an-old-new-england-town-with-a-busy-social-life.html
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