Village Creek is not only one of South Norwalk’s best kept secrets because of the beautiful land, private beach and marina and modern houses – but it is also one of CT’s – and the United States – best kept secrets because it is riddled with history!
The community was built specifically to encourage racial and religious equality. While the idea is nice, it doesn’t sound too impressive today until you realize that Village Creek was built in 1949 when the United States was teeming with racial and religious discrimination!
The founders (three of whom still live there - Roger Wilcox, Emily and Phil Oppenheimer ) – not only carefully planned and built their community, but they also faced discrimination themselves. The FHA in Hartford CT refused loans to Village Creek, and therefore no resident of Village Creek has ever had an FHA loan. Real Estate agents also refused to show homes in Village Creek - so the Village Creek Home Owners Association created their own Real Estate Committee to show and sell their houses.
Later, during and after the McCarthy Era, they were dubbed “Commie Creek”. Some even said that the homes – many built with large windows facing the water – were constructed that way to guide Soviet Submarines to New York City!
Still the community pushed on – and always maintained their racial and religious diversity. (The right of the association to buy a house back from owners wanting to sell, and then find their own buyer, has allowed them to even make sure that the diversity is spread throughout the community)
In fact in a 1962 law suit Vaught v. Village Creek Homeowners Assn., Inc a prominent African American family sued Village Creek because they were not allowed to buy a specific house in the community – the Village Creek Home Owners Association offered other homes but felt that if the family resided in that specific home that section of Village Creek would be too segregated. Because of their clear covenant the NAACP actually sided with the Village Creek Home Owners Association!
Members today say that Village Creek still lives up to its founders ideals - in fact some founders still live there. The community is also known to have 2nd generations buying homes in Village Creek as well.
They just celebrated their 60th anniversary and were named to the Connecticut Register of Historic Places and the National Registry of Historic Places. Norwalk Museum also had an exhibit about Village Creek running from September 2010 to January 2011 called "Village Creek, Open by Design".
This is a wonderful community that Connecticut can be proud of!
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