Industry came ashore in 1888, when the stone American Velvet Mill rose on Bayview Avenue. From 1892 the American Velvet Company wove there for a century, and at its 1950s peak it was the largest velvet producer in the United States — roughly 300 broad looms and 450 workers in a town you can walk end to end. The mill now houses artist studios and makers; the fishing fleet, Connecticut's last, still works the docks below.
The town beneath these stories is one of Connecticut's oldest. Settled in 1649 on the Pequot coastal homeland and established as a town in 1662, Stonington incorporated its village core as a borough in 1801 — the oldest borough in the state. By 1842 its small fleet of fishing, whaling, and sealing vessels traded busily enough that the federal government made the harbor a port of entry, and the little granite Customs House still faces Main Street just north of Cannon Square. In the decades that followed, Portuguese fishing families made the borough their own, and their Blessing of the Fleet each July remains the harbor's great annual rite.
Why People Visit Stonington Connecticut
- Tour the Old Lighthouse Museum at 7 Water Street, the 1840 granite lighthouse that since 1925 has been the oldest lighthouse museum in America, holding the original sixteen-star battle flag from 1814.
- Visit Cannon Square, where the two surviving 18-pounder cannons that defended the borough in 1814 still point toward the harbor entrance.
- See the Captain Nathaniel B. Palmer House at 40 Palmer Street, home of the 21-year-old sea captain who first sighted Antarctica in 1820.
- Relax on DuBois Beach, sandy cove at the tip of the borough with views across Fishers Island Sound to Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New York.
- Walk Water Street, tree-lined with white picket fences, antique shops, and historic sea captains' homes.
- Watch the working fleet at Town Dock, Connecticut's last commercial fishing fleet, with views of the harbor and surrounding islands.
- Explore the historic American Velvet Mill on Bayview Avenue, built in 1888 to attract new industry to the borough. The American Velvet Company opened there in 1892 and at its 1950s peak was the largest velvet producer in the United States, operating roughly 300 broad looms with around 450 workers. The company moved operations to Virginia late in the 20th century, and the building has since been repurposed as a maker space.
- Come in December for the Lobster Trap Tree by the Town Dock — the borough's internationally photographed Christmas tree built entirely of stacked lobster traps.
