The Harbor
Our harbor is easily accessible from both Watch Hill Passage and Fishers Island Sound, the breakwaters provide an open passage into the North East corner of the harbor. Our boatyard's location offers a uniquely protected shelter from Nor' Easters and other storm quadrants. In addition to the harbors ideal location by water, our by land accessibility is that of the utmost convenience. Stonington harbor is a lively and vibrant hub, surrounded by the best food, scenery and rich history.
Stonington History
On November 10, 1837, the Stonington-Providence Railroad Corporation opened for business. At the ceremonies there were speeches by the warden of the Borough, the governors of the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island, the president of the Stonington-Providence Railroad Corp. and other dignitaries. The captain of the paddlewheel steamer NARRAGANSETT which was to ferry passengers and cargo down Long Island Sound to New York City was introduced. Stonington had become a major transshipping port with railroad and steamboat passengers and crews coming and going all day and night. The Borough was a busy, busy place, with bars, hotels, churches, and a host of small businesses. Imagine what it must have been like with three - or more - steam engines belching smoke, shuttling passenger and freight cars around, arriving from or leaving for Providence. Coupled with the coal fired steamboats, their comings and goings, with the stevedores, boat crews and trainmen roaming the streets, Stonington was not the small, quiet, farming and fishing village it had been before the advent of the railroad.
In 1890 the railroad bridges over the Connecticut and Thames rivers had been built and put an end to the hectic activity as the new New York, New Haven & Hartford Railway Company bypassed Stonington and its paddlewheel steamers. Stonington Borough went to sleep. In 1958 with the completion of the New England turnpike,"I-95", the travel time between New York City and Stonington was cut from 5 hours to a mere 2-1/2. Since then, Stonington has become in part a retreat for younger people from New York and Boston in the summer and on weekends. Many have retired in Stonington, giving it a permanence which had been provided by the year-round fishing community.
Many of the older homes of fishermen which had been bought for very little during the 1920s were being sold for many thousands more to the new residents and the prior owners moved back country where real estate was cheaper. The new owners, of course, repainted and fixed over and improved, so the Borough looks better and better each year.
The old, grand houses which belonged to Stonington's ship captains and merchants remain today and can be seen while walking around the Borough. During the course of a year in Stonington, there are a number of activities sponsored by the three churches, The Village Improvement Association, The Garden Club, The Community Center, The Portugese Holy Ghost Society and others. They include concerts, parades, house and garden tours, band concerts, barbeques, a village fair, a farmer's market, the blessing of the (fishing) fleet, the public beach, tennis courts, and on and on.
It is a great community to visit anytime, summer or winter.