What's with Roton Point? On the point just west of the village, where the land runs out into Long Island Sound, there once stood one of the great shore resorts of the region. From the 1880s into the years around the Second World War, Roton Point drew summer crowds by steamboat and trolley to a beach, a carousel, a roller coaster, and a grand dance pavilion — a Coney Island of the Connecticut shore. Most of it is gone now, the grounds long since a private association, but in its day Roton Point is how the whole country first learned to spend a summer Sunday in Rowayton.
Today that character runs to art and sail as much as to oysters. The Rowayton Arts Center anchors a creative community on the river; Pinkney Park fills with summer concerts and markets; Bayley Beach looks out on the Sound; and the harbor stays busy with the sailboats and regattas that are the village's modern signature. Offshore lie the Norwalk Islands and the 1868 Sheffield Island light, and just up the shore the marshes of Farm Creek Preserve. It is a small, salt-aired place that has kept its bearings.
Why People Visit Rowayton
Rowayton offers the Connecticut shore at its most relaxed and characterful — sailing, art, and quiet beaches in a village that has kept its scale and its salt-water soul. Visitors come for the harbor and the shore parks and stay for the unhurried, distinctly New England feel. From the oyster sloops that once worked the Five Mile River to the regatta sails of today, the harbor still sets the village's rhythm. It is welcoming, walkable, and beautiful in every season on the Sound.
