Cannondale, Connecticut

Cannondale is in the east-central part of Wilton, just north of Wilton Center (Wilton's downtown area). Route 7, the Norwalk River and the train tracks (now the Danbury Line of Metro-North Railroad) all run close to each other from south-southwest to north-northeast through the neighborhood. At its widest, the neighborhood stretches from east to west and from north to south. The Norwalk River valley is above sea level in the north of Cannondale and descends to above sea level at the southern end of the neighborhood. Turner Ridge, the western border of Cannondale, rises as high as , but the ridges east of the river are high. At the far eastern side of the neighborhood are the Saugatuck River and Wilton's border with the town of Weston. According to Cannondale: A Connecticut Neighborhood (hereafter referred to as "CACN"), published by the Wilton Historical Society, "The soil that graces Cannondale [...] remains, arguably, the best in the state", with dark brown, sometimes red-tinted, surface soil of a type that extends from New Milford in the north down to the shore of Long Island Sound and named "Wilton Loam". ==Public open space==

In the northeast area of Cannondale is the Gregg Preserve, the Belknap preserve and the Honey Hill Preserve. The Belknap Preserve is a tract with an entrance on Wampum Hill Road, south of its intersection with Honey Hill Road. The preserve has the Loop Trail (1.5 miles long), Cut-Across Trail (0.25 miles) and access trails (0.6 miles). The preserve was bought by the town government from the Belknap family in 1999. The preserve has woodland, open pastures, wetlands, and Mayapple Brook valley. The trails cross several old fields in different stages of reforestation. Stone walls mark off the property lines and many run across the tract. At the southwest corner of the preserve, a trail connects to the Gregg Preserve. The entrance to the Gregg Preserve is located at the cul-de-sac of Mayapple Road. One trail follows the perimeter of the property, with interior trails crossing it. Horseback riding is allowed if permission is granted by the Wilton Land Conservation Trust, which owns the property. The Connecticut chapter of The Nature Conservancy transferred ownership of the property to the Wilton Land Conservation Trust starting in 1979. Most of the land in the preserve consists of mostly open deciduous woods, with some stands of planted evergreens and some open fields. Honey Hill Road forms part of the northern boundary of the preserve, which is east of the Danbury Line railroad tracks and east of Seeley Road (which forms part of the border at the southern end of the tract). A pond just east of the railroad tracks is not part of the preserve. The Honey Hill Nature Preserve consists of about , most of it in Weston, and is entered from Wampum Hill Road. No parking area is provided, but visitors may park on Wampum Hill Road south of its intersection with Honey Hill Road. The preserve is owned by the Aspetuck Land Trust, which established it in 1968. In 1974 and 1978 the original was expanded. The parcel occupies the northern end of an oval hill, the crest of which is parallel to the north-south Wilton/Weston town line. ==Transportation==

The Cannondale station is part of the Danbury Line of Metro-North railroad. ==History==

To the late 18th century The Algongian name for the area was spelled in various ways by early colonists, with "Pimpewaug" being one common spelling. The area known as Pimpewaug covered a somewhat larger area than present Cannondale – from Honey Hill and the Split Rock in the north to the site of the present Wilton railroad station, and west from Drum Hill to Buckingham Ridge in the east. The neighborhood, like the rest of Wilton, was originally a part of Norwalk, founded in 1651. By 1726, a separate parish was created for Wilton, allowing area residents to avoid the long trek into Norwalk for Sunday church services (and for men to travel down to Norwalk for militia drilling). Organizationally, the parish was split into a church and an "ecclesiastical society" responsible for secular matters such as levying taxes for support of the church, schools and the militia, as well as for building roads and maintaining them and cemeteries. Cannon Crossing, an restoration of a pre-Civil War village, with 19th-century buildings just across the railroad tracks from the Cannondale train station, was created by actress June Havoc, who sold the property in 1989. ==Notes==