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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Bradley Point and a Beat Hero

Savin Dawning (Bradley Point Park, West Haven, Connecticut)
“Savin Dawning”
Bradley Point Park, West Haven, Connecticut

Beach grasses are deathly still with snow at their stems and frigid winter air creeping forth from Long Island Sound. But the incendiary spectacle upon the horizon, where the sun is just beginning to shine forth through the clouds, offers at least the prospect of some warmth come late morning.

Connecticut’s municipal beaches are usually not exceptionally well-known in the state outside of their host town or county, but owing to hundreds of years of recorded history along the coast, almost all of them were the backdrop for at least a couple interesting stories.

Southwest Ledge from Afar (Southwest Ledge Light, New Haven, Connecticut)
“Southwest Ledge from Afar”
Southwest Ledge Lighthouse as seen from the shores of Bradley Point Park, New Haven, Connecticut

Bradley Point, for example, was for a short time the home of famous Beat poet and novelist Jack Kerouac. His father had moved the family from Massachusetts to West Haven, Connecticut after securing work. Though their first dwelling in the city proved deplorably unfit, they finally settled on renting a cottage on the West Haven shoreline at Bradley Point. Biographer Paul Maher says of Kerouac’s time there that “he swam in the Sound, labored over his writings, and prepared for his sophomore year of college while his mother worked hard to make her new house a home.”

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Categories
All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Jewel of Morris Cove

Jewel of Morris Cove (Five Mile Point Lighthouse at Lighthouse Point Park on New Haven Harbor, New Haven, Connecticut)
“Jewel of Morris Cove”
Five Mile Point Lighthouse at Lighthouse Point Park,
New Haven Harbor, New Haven, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Amidst sandy beaches and gently swaying reeds, the iconic Five Mile Point Lighthouse rises from the shores of New Haven Harbor.

Dawn on Five Mile Point (Five Mile Point Lighthouse at Lighthouse Point Park, New Haven Harbor, New Haven, Connecticut)
“Dawn on Five Mile Point”
Five Mile Point Lighthouse at Lighthouse Point Park,
New Haven Harbor, New Haven, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Five Mile Point Lighthouse, built from countless tons of locally quarried brownstone, was completed in 1845 to replace the original wooden lighthouse established on Morris Cove in 1805. But long before even that early lighthouse was built, the shores of this cove hosted a desperate battle which is remembered to this very day.

Darkness on New Haven Harbor (Pier at Lighthouse Point Park, New Haven Harbor, New Haven, Connecticut)
“Darkness on New Haven Harbor”
Pier at Lighthouse Point Park,
New Haven Harbor, New Haven, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

In 1779, as the American Revolution raged, British troops landed on this beach to launch an invasion of New Haven. Patriot forces fought back and the British are said to have buried their fallen troops quite close to where the lighthouse would eventually be constructed decades later. Although the redcoats managed to push forward and burn several houses and farms, they suffered such heavy casualties that the decision was made to abandon their advance on the city.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases

Lighthouse Point: A Truly Special Place

On this day last year, I had recently returned from a fantastic honeymoon in the Caribbean. My wife, Mary, and I had spent several days on the mountainous tropical island of St. Lucia, and even though we were back in Connecticut and had been back to work for a handful of days already, I probably still had a couple East Caribbean Dollars lingering in my wallet. Even now, a full year later, so many aspects of that once-in-a-lifetime getaway are fresh in my mind: breath-taking views of the thickly-forested Piton mountains, a rejuvenating ocean breeze sweeping endlessly over the coastline, a seemingly endless array of fresh food and drink… and all of it with the love of my life beside me!

So why the reminiscing? Because my latest piece, “Morning on Lighthouse Point”, comes to you from Lighthouse Point Park in New Haven, Connecticut. It was here at this seaside park on the Connecticut coast that my wife and I got married a little over a year ago in view of the old Five Mile Point Light. So while it may have been the distant beaches of the Caribbean where we celebrated our marriage for days afterward, it was the soft rhythm of the waves coming off Long Island Sound that serenaded our ceremony.

Morning on Lighthouse Point (Lighthouse Point Park, New Haven, Connecticut)
"Morning on Lighthouse Point"
Lighthouse Point Park, New Haven, Connecticut
© 2013 J. G. Coleman

The lighthouse seen in “Morning on Lighthouse Point”, known traditionally as the Five Mile Point Light for its distance from the center of New Haven, was activated in 1847 after being constructed from a variety of locally-quarried stone. It had replaced an earlier lighthouse which was shorter, dimmer and terribly insufficient when it came to protecting sailors from running their ships into jagged rock outcroppings of New Haven Harbor. This newer lighthouse was a vast improvement over the older structure and cost roughly $10,000, a small fortune in the mid-1800s. Yet for all the improvements that went into the new light on Lighthouse Point, it’s usefulness was short-lived. By 1877, only three decades after its completion, it was rendered obsolete once the Southwest Ledge Light was constructed at a more visible point out in the harbor.

Despite being 166 years old and out of service for more than a century, the Five Mile Point Light probably enjoys a greater “iconic status” now than it ever did back when it was thought of as a mundane navigational aid. While it no longer acts as a beacon for sailing ships, it nonetheless serves as the centerpiece and namesake of a beautiful stretch of shoreline along New Haven Harbor, quietly watching over countless beach-goers and proudly standing witness to several weddings every year.

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