Branchville (Ridgefield)

Branchville
Neighborhood
Branchville (ca. 1888-1889) by John Henry Twachtman (1853-1902)
Country	United States
State	Connecticut
County	Fairfield
City	Ridgefield
Time zone	Eastern (UTC-5:00)
• Summer (DST)	Eastern (UTC-4:00)
Area code(s)	203

Branchville is a Ridgefield, Connecticut neighborhood crossing into portions of Wilton and Redding, Connecticut, and is also the name of a Metro North railroad station (Branchville Station).

Some people consider Branchville a part of Georgetown, Connecticut, an adjoining, non-incorporated community at the intersection of Redding, Ridgefield, Wilton and Weston, noting many residences and businesses there share Georgetown's 544- telephone number exchange. Others disagree, pointing to a community vote in the 1950s not to be served by the Georgetown Post Office, which is closer than the Ridgefield Post Office.

Branchville was named for the Danbury and Norwalk Railroad's “branch” line extending west to Ridgefield village, a four-mile (6.4 km) run on a long incline [Branchville's elevation is 342 feet (104 m) while the old village station was about 900 feet (270 m) above sea level].

Native Americans had previously referred to the southeast corner of present-day Ridgefield as Wheer Cock. Later it was called Copps Corner, after the Norwalk man who surveyed the town in the early 18th century and was the first town clerk. When workers completed in 1852 the railroad line from Norwalk to Connecticut, the neighborhood was at first called Beers Station or Ridgefield Station, after the stop there.

The first recorded use of the term Branchville appears in an 1870 deed for 4 acres (16,000 m²) “lying in the town of Ridgefield at Branchville.” It was the same year that the branch line was built, suggesting that the railroad rather than neighborhood residents had invented the name to distinguish the station from the new one at Ridgefield center. Previously, the station at Branchville had been known as Ridgefield Station or Beers Station.

An 1893 atlas labels this territory as “Plattsville,” possibly a mapmaker’s error.

While the area had been mostly farmland and a mill or two, the coming of the railroad sparked the development of a booming, albeit small-scale, industrial community. It included mills, stores, a hotel, a machinery factory, and a post office.