The town took its modern name in the same era of ambition. Incorporated in 1838, separating at last from inland Killingworth, the shoreline parish named itself for DeWitt Clinton — the New York governor whose Erie Canal had just remade American commerce and inspired town names across the young country. The new Clinton carried its shipbuilding, fishing, and oystering trades through the 1800s as the Connecticut shoreline's quiet middle: never a city, never asleep.
The twentieth century brought the shoreline a new role. As railroads and then Interstate 95 tied the coast to the cities, Clinton grew into a shoreline suburban community — a place to live and summer as much as to work the water. Schools, neighborhoods, and beach colonies filled in behind the harbor; the marinas filled with pleasure boats where the oyster schooners had anchored; and the premium outlets by the highway now draw shoppers from across the state to a town that once shipped its wealth out by water. The Town Beach and its neighbors made the shore a family destination, and the harbor filled with weekend sails.
Why People Visit Clinton
Clinton offers the Connecticut shoreline at its most relaxed — a real harbor town with beaches, marinas, and a colonial Main Street, plus the surprising distinction of being where Yale began. Visitors come for the water, the history, and the easy shoreline pace, and stay for the beaches, the harbor, and the oysters.
