Stratford is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located on Long Island Sound at the mouth of the Housatonic River. It was founded by Puritans in 1639.
The population was 49,976 at the 2000 census. It has a historical legacy in aviation, the military, the arts, and environmentalism. In 1942, Igor Sikorsky with his Sikorsky Aircraft company in Stratford, developed and produced the first successful single-rotor helicopter; every Marine One (the helicopter of the President of the United States) has been manufactured in Stratford from 1957, and projected to at least 2008. The town was also the home of the Stratford Army Engine Plant for the United States military from 1939 to 1998.
In 1955, Stratford, having the same name as Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare's hometown in England, became home to the nationally renowned American Shakespeare Festival, which was housed, until its closure, at its 1,100 seat Stratford Festival Theatre on the Housatonic River. The theatre featured such luminaries as Katharine Hepburn, Paul Newman, Jessica Tandy, Jane Alexander, Hal Holbrook, Roddy McDowall, Nina Foch, and John Houseman.
Stratford is also home to Sikorsky Memorial Airport, and the Great Meadows Unit of the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge, which neighbors the airport. Today, Stratford has two Superfund sites as designated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
Stratford is bordered on the west by Bridgeport, Connecticut, on the north by Trumbull, Connecticut and Shelton, Connecticut, and on the east by Milford, Connecticut (across the Housatonic).
Recently, controversy has arisen due to decades of asbestos waste dumping by the Raybestos corporation, housed in Stratford.
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