Our Stratford logo carries that oyster shell over "1636," the year of the Connecticut Colony and the shared emblem of every Merlin Classics Connecticut place. Printed black-and-white with the worn look of an old oyster-crate label or a seaside sign, the shell reads as shoreline Connecticut: the harbor, the Sound, the long maritime past. What makes this one Stratford is the place behind it — the 1639 oyster town, the lighthouse on the Sound, Shakespeare's namesake on the Housatonic, and the birthplace of the American helicopter.
Boothe Memorial Park preserves the Boothe brothers' eccentric 32-acre collection of buildings — a clocktower museum, chapel, blacksmith shop, windmill, trolley station, and an original Merritt Parkway tollbooth.
Why People Visit Stratford Connecticut
- Tour Boothe Memorial Park, a 32-acre former estate with an eclectic collection of historic buildings on the Housatonic.
- Visit the Captain David Judson House (1750), the Stratford Historical Society's colonial Georgian home.
- See Stratford Point Light, the lighthouse marking the mouth of the river on Long Island Sound.
- Relax at the Lordship beaches and seawall, facing out onto the Sound.
- Explore the National Helicopter Museum and the Connecticut Air & Space Center, telling the town's aviation story.
