5 Things That Split Connecticut Right Down the Middle
Connecticut may be small, but there’s room for some big disagreements.
Where Connecticut residents live can decide which side they’re on, from football to area codes.
Here are the lines that divide the state, so you can see which side feels like yours.
1. Giants or Patriots
National Public Radio reported in 2012 that the Connecticut River might be the 50-yard line between Giants fans and Patriots fans.
There’s no consensus on exactly where the border runs.
One fan put Giants loyalty in the southwest and Patriots loyalty in the northeast.
Without an agreed border, you can argue about where it falls from either side.
2. Area Codes 203 and 860
For years, one area code, 203, covered all of Connecticut, according to Connecticut by the Numbers.
In 1995 the state split in two, with Fairfield and New Haven counties keeping 203 and the other six counties moving to the new 860.
That put a Stamford number and a Hartford number on opposite sides of the line from then on.
Overlay codes came later: 475 joined the 203 region in December 2009, and 959 joined the 860 region in August 2014.
Two codes became four.
You can still see the 1995 line in the codes themselves: 203 and 475 on one side, 860 and 959 on the other.
3. Hartford’s Colony and New Haven’s
Connecticut began as separate colonies, and the Connecticut Colony formed in 1636.
Hartford, Windsor and Wethersfield joined together that year as the Connecticut Colony, according to a timeline on the Connecticut History site.
Thomas Hooker and a group of settlers from Massachusetts founded Hartford in 1636.
John Davenport, Theophilus Eaton and a group of fellow Puritans founded the New Haven Colony in 1638.
In 1639, the towns of Wethersfield, Hartford and Windsor adopted the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut.
Some of Davenport’s parishioners were rich London merchants, and his followers went further than Hartford’s congregation in limiting church membership and a say in government.
If you live in New Haven, your city began as a colony founded separately from Hartford’s.
In 1661, John Winthrop Jr. petitioned King Charles II for a charter covering both colonies.
The royal Charter of 1662 put New Haven inside Connecticut’s bounds, and authorities completed the union in 1665.
That charter ended up serving as Connecticut’s constitution for the next 156 years.
Saybrook, the Third Colony
Connecticut’s colonial map had a third piece besides Hartford’s colony and New Haven’s.
The Saybrook Colony merged with the Connecticut Colony in 1644.
That was twenty-one years before the New Haven merger was complete in 1665.
4. Fairfield County’s TV Market
Television measurement treats Connecticut as two places: Nielsen counts Fairfield County with the New York market, according to Connecticut by the Numbers.
Polidata’s regional maps, built on 2000 data, assign the other seven counties to a single Hartford and New Haven market.
On those maps, Fairfield County had 25.9 percent of the state’s population.
That makes the New York market about a quarter of the state, with Hartford and New Haven sharing the rest.
If you live in Fairfield County, Nielsen counts you with New York.
5. Two Capitals
In 1701, the General Assembly proposed two co-capitals with separate state houses, according to the legislature’s history page.
Lawmakers met in Hartford for the May sessions and in New Haven for the October sessions until 1818.
If you lived in New Haven, lawmakers came to you for the October sessions.
Hartford’s first State House served from 1720 until 1796, when the adjacent Old State House opened.
The 1873 Referendum
If you had voted in the fall of 1873, you would have been picking between the two cities.
Hartford emerged victorious in a public referendum, becoming Connecticut’s sole capital effective in 1875.
Hartford had offered the state a plot of land, previously occupied by Trinity College, and $500,000 toward a new capitol building on the site.
New Haven’s last State House was demolished in 1889, according to the legislature’s history.
A 1933 newspaper item cited by Connecticut History said New Haven had not realized the value of its structure.
New Haven’s Choice
New Haven’s 1665 choice had more than one option.
Adriaen Block sailed up the Connecticut River in 1614.
In 1633, the Dutch established a fort, the House of Hope, at the site of modern Hartford.
William Holmes of the Plymouth Colony set up a trading post that same year where the Farmington River meets the Connecticut River, and it ultimately became the town of Windsor.
In August 1664, an English fleet forced the surrender of New Amsterdam, and New Netherland became part of what is now New York.
Facing a choice between Anglican New York and Puritan Connecticut, New Haven’s residents accepted union with Connecticut in January 1665.
Psst! How much do you know about Connecticut’s official state symbols? Take our quiz and see if you can ace it.
Quiz
Connecticut Symbols IQ
Answer nine questions on Connecticut’s official state symbols. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
Connecticut’s official state animal is which of these?
The Stadium That Fell Through
A stadium deal that fell apart deepened the Giants-Patriots split for at least one fan, National Public Radio reported.
Patriots owner Robert Kraft agreed in 1998 to move the team's home games from Massachusetts to a new publicly financed stadium in Hartford.
Then the deal fell apart.
One fan said the collapse felt personal and moved his allegiance to the Giants.
If you root for the Patriots here, you're rooting for a team that once agreed to play in Hartford.
6 Things Nutmeggers Argue About That Have No Right Answer
Connecticut's nickname is one of six topics Nutmeggers argue about.
Not one of them has a right answer.
