The Numbers
Between 1960 and 1970, Westport's population increased approximately 46 percent. To put that in perspective, a town built by farming families over two centuries absorbed nearly half again its population in ten years. The new residents were not farmers. They were employees of nearby businesses, factories, and schools. Westport was transforming from a rural agricultural community to a commuter town, and the landscape was changing with it.
The Tract Homes
In northern Westport, modern tract homes became common. Built on small plots, showing only slight variations in style, they represented a trade-off the country was making everywhere: lower construction costs allowed working-class families to escape the crowded nearby cities. Places like Holly Heights brought new families to town. The homes lacked the fine workmanship and individuality of the older Westport houses, but they opened the door for people who couldn't afford a hand-built colonial on a waterfront lot. Not every chapter of a town's story is romantic. Some chapters are just practical.
What Was Lost, What Was Gained
The tract homes of Holly Heights and northern Westport don't have the decorative brackets of the Valentine House, or the widow's walks of the Federal-era whaling homes, or the columned porticos of the Greek Revivals at the Point. They were built efficiently, not lovingly. But they brought families who put their kids in Westport schools, who bought groceries at Westport stores, who eventually became the neighbors and volunteers and town meeting voters who shape the community today. A town that only preserved its past without absorbing new people would be a museum. Westport stayed alive.
The Older Homes
What makes the contrast so sharp is the quality of what came before. The older homes throughout Westport are characterized by fine craftsmanship, individuality, and quality materials. Every one had a personality. The builders cared about details that nobody would notice unless they were looking: millwork, window proportions, the way a porch column meets the roofline. The kind of work that lasts two hundred years. The tract homes weren't built to last two hundred years. They were built to house a family that needed a home now. Both of these impulses are honest. Only one of them ages well.
Still Building
Westport hasn't stopped building. Modern dwellings of individual and creative design still go up. One house near Central Village caused considerable controversy due to its open construction, large windows, and geometric organization. It looked nothing like its neighbors. Despite the controversy, it served its owners' specific needs, the same way the older homes served theirs. That's the thread that runs through all of Westport's architecture, from the 1700s colonials to the mid-century tract homes to the modernist experiments: people building what they need, where they want to live.
What is the name of the housing development in northern Westport that represents the 1960s building boom?