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Stony Creek connecticut shore

Stony Creek is a shoreline portion of the small town of Branford, near New Haven, on the Connecticut coast. It's a village that manages to be quaint without feeling over-crowded by summer tourists.

The view from shore is unique, because Stony Creek looks out over the Thimble Islands, a small collection of - as the name suggests - small islands that are almost all privately owned. These little rocks in Long Island Sound are among the most expensive pieces of real estate in Connecticut.

One of the occupied Thimble Islands.

You can easily walk the length of the shoreline section of Stony Creek. Most of the side roads, off the main road, are dead ends meant primarily for the use of those who own property. There is a small public boat launch. A small public beach. And there are several small ferries making runs to the Thimble Islands and taking tourists on a weaving path through the islands.

Stony Creek is most definitely a summer place. What shops there are have winter and summer hours and the season is short. A sign on one dock reminds boaters to pull their boats out no later than Columbus Day weekend. After that - the long New England winter sets in.

A few miles north of the shoreline is an active quarry where a distinctive pink granite known as "Stony Creek Granite" is harvested. It is the granite at the base of Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty, and it decorates parts of Grand Central Terminal.

Stony Creek manages to hold on to the vernacular of an old New England seaside village. It is no longer a center of lobstering and shellfishing, but it's easy to see the history in what remains and in what current residents have built on the remnants of the past. Two hours from New York City - this village was and still is a world away.

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© Dean Pagani 2023

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© Dean Pagani 2023

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