What's with Savin Rock? For nearly a century it was the brightest place on Long Island Sound. Savin Rock was West Haven's seaside amusement park — ‘Connecticut's Coney Island,’ the ‘playground of New England’ — a waterfront packed with wooden roller coasters, a carousel, a midway, and a long lighted pier reaching out over the water. In its early-1900s heyday they called it the ‘White City’ for the thousands of electric bulbs that turned night into day, and at its peak more than a million people a year came to ride, to stroll the boardwalk, and to eat fried clams by the Sound. The rides are gone now — the park closed in 1966 — but the boardwalk still runs, and the name still carries the whole summer with it.
The shore has not always been peaceful. In July 1779 a British and Hessian force landed on the West Haven beaches on its way to raid New Haven, and the local militia fought a running skirmish across the flats. The raid is remembered today for a British officer, Adjutant William Campbell, who was killed after sparing the life of an elderly minister — ‘the humane Briton,’ local memory calls him. He is believed to be the only foreign soldier buried on American soil with military honors, and Campbell Avenue, West Haven's main street, still carries his name.
Why People Visit West Haven
West Haven appeals with simple shoreline beauty and strong local pride. Visitors pair long beach and boardwalk walks with small museums, the historic Green, and the nostalgia of Savin Rock. It is relaxed, local, and close to the water, with year-round appeal in its parks, paths, and public spaces. The vintage-summer feeling of the old amusement park is evergreen, and history and everyday shoreline life sit side by side in a welcoming way.
