• Southport Connecticut Holiday Ornament, Southport Globe Onion, View 1
  • Southport Connecticut Holiday Ornament, Southport Globe Onion, View 2
  • Southport Connecticut Holiday Ornament, Southport Globe Onion, View 3
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Southport Connecticut Holiday Ornament - Southport Globe Onion

Southport Connecticut Holiday Ornament - Southport Globe Onion

$28.00 USD
$28.00 USD
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Southport Globe Onion. An onion named after a village of about fifteen hundred people, shipped out of its own harbor by schooner, and still listed in seed catalogs today.

Southport is a harbor village on the Connecticut shore that spent the nineteenth century growing onions - not casually, but as its principal business. Local growers developed and fixed distinct varieties, the Southport Globes, in red, white and yellow. The onions were loaded onto schooners at the village dock and sailed to New York and the West Indies, and for a stretch of decades the harbor was busy enough to make the growers wealthy. Blight and competition eventually ended the trade, and the fields became lawns.

The village today is one of the best-preserved in New England - white houses, a small harbor, no industry at all. The onion is the last working evidence of what paid for the architecture, still sold as seed to gardeners who have never heard of the place that bred it.

For the gardener, the Southport family, anyone who enjoys a town whose fortune was made by a vegetable.

Below are excerpts from our Southport history page. The Southport town logo and the full town story are available through the collection link above.

Printed on a three-inch faceted crystal glass round, white-backed so the deep reds stay rich and the fine botanical detail holds on a lit tree. The faceted edge catches light from any angle. Arrives boxed - your choice of white or gold gift box at checkout.

3-inch (76 mm) round crystal glass ornament · faceted gem-cut edge · white-backed print for crisp contrast · red ribbon hanger · your choice of white or gold gift box, included · free U.S. shipping.


QUICK FACTS — SOUTHPORT CT CRYSTAL ORNAMENT — SOUTHPORT GLOBE ONION

Town: Southport, Connecticut

Founded: Settled 1639 as Mill River; Borough of Southport 1831

Known for: The onion port; a 19th-century harbor village rebuilt after the burning of 1779; the Pequot Library

Art: Southport Globe Onion, original Merlin Classics engraving

Blank: 3-inch (76 mm) round clear crystal glass ornament, faceted gem-cut edge

Print: white-backed for contrast; red ribbon hanger

Packaging: white or gold gift box, chosen at checkout

Made to order in the USA



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Wear Local. Feed Local. Stay Classic.

Product FAQs

How does your sizing work?

Every item is made to order, so please check the size chart on this page before you buy. Women's fitted tees run small; size up for a looser fit. Caps are one size with an adjustable strap.

How are items made and when will they arrive?

We make each item to order using premium blanks, embroidery and soft-hand prints. Production takes 2-5 business days (weekends and holidays excluded), then 4-10 days in transit via USPS, UPS or FedEx to U.S. addresses; most orders arrive within 6-15 business days. You'll get a tracking link the moment it ships. Any current shipping offer is shown in the bar at the top of every page and applies automatically at checkout, no code needed.

How do I send a gift?

Enter the recipient's address as the shipping address and your own as the billing address at checkout. Nothing ships with a price; the package includes a plain packing slip. Tracking goes to your email, not theirs. For birthdays and holidays, order two weeks ahead to be safe.

What's the return policy?

Made-to-order items can't be returned or exchanged for size or color, so please use the size chart and photos before ordering. If anything arrives defective, misprinted or damaged, send a photo and your order number within 30 days and we'll replace it or refund you.

How do I care for my item?

Apparel: wash cold, inside out, with like colors; no bleach; tumble dry low or hang dry. Embroidered pieces: iron inside out to protect the stitching. Caps: spot clean. Printed glasses and water bottles: hand wash only, no dishwasher, so the artwork lasts. Mugs and engraved glasses are dishwasher safe. Any item-specific care notes are in the description above.

Who makes this?

Merlin Classics is a small Connecticut brand making original retro designs for the towns people love. Every piece is printed, embroidered or engraved to order in the USA, and the business supports hunger relief in the communities our collections celebrate.

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Today Southport is one of the most beautiful intact village streetscapes on the Connecticut shore — a small, refined harbor village of Fairfield on the Gold Coast, its Greek Revival houses and stone library looking out over the same Long Island Sound that built it. Our Southport designs gather that quiet heritage into wearable form — the harbor, the onion port, the rebuilt village, the oyster-and-1636 emblem. From the burned village of 1779 to the masts at the yacht club — wear a little of the Connecticut shore.

When the railroad arrived in 1848-49 and Bridgeport's deeper harbor took over the coastal trade, Southport's shipping slowly wound down — and that, in a way, is why it survived so intact. The village settled into a quiet, prosperous residential life and never tore its old houses down. The Pequot Library, a stone Richardsonian-Romanesque landmark, opened in 1894. Southport-raised Joseph Earl Sheffield — who went on to found a railroad and endow Yale's Sheffield Scientific School — was one of many whose fortunes traced back to this harbor. Captain's houses, a stone library, a working yacht club, Long Island Sound at the end of the street.

Why People Visit Southport Connecticut

  • Walk the Southport Historic District along Harbor Road and Pequot Avenue, lined with post-1779 Greek Revival and Federal captain's houses.
  • Visit the Pequot Library (1894), a stone Richardsonian-Romanesque landmark with reading rooms and cultural programming.
  • Look out over Southport Harbor at the mouth of the Mill River, with sailboats and the Pequot Yacht Club.
  • Relax at Southport Beach, a small cove looking toward the harbor mouth on Long Island Sound.
  • Find the Meeker House (about 1766), the lone survivor of the 1779 burning.

Southport Connecticut Merlin Classics retro vintage logo featuring an oyster over Connecticut Est. 1636