And that's only half of it. This one patch of ground has lived four industrial lives. It built steel cargo ships in the First World War. It became one of the most advanced fish plants in America in 1927. It launched submarines in the Second World War — the boats that made Groton the Submarine Capital of the World. And in 1946 it started brewing penicillin by the ton. Ships, fish, submarines, medicine — the same riverbank, reinvented again and again.
But the buildings stood. In 1946 Pfizer bought the yard for under a million dollars and filled those same halls with towering fermentation tanks. Groton went on to brew penicillin by the ton — enough to supply most of the United States and half the world — and helped drive the price of the miracle drug from twenty dollars a dose down to under two cents. The antibiotics perfected here traveled with medics to the front-line MASH tents of Korea, and then reached everyone else. Today that rocky point on Eastern Point holds a gleaming research campus where nearly every one of the company's medicines is shaped, in part. From a fish dock to a cure that circled the globe — the same half-mile of Thames riverbank.
Why People Visit Groton Connecticut
- Tour the free Submarine Force Museum and step aboard the Historic Ship Nautilus, the world's first nuclear submarine, berthed on the Thames.
- Walk the ramparts of Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park and climb the 135-foot Groton Monument for views over the harbor.
- Hike or bike the wooded trails of Bluff Point State Park out to its tidal coves and rocky point.
- Visit Avery Point — the Branford House mansion, the University of Connecticut campus lawns, and Avery Point Light, the last lighthouse built in Connecticut.
- Relax at Eastern Point Beach, a small family cove with breakwater views across the river mouth.
- Take a guided tour of the Gungywamp State Archaeological Preserve to see its colonial stone chambers and double stone circle.
