Stony Creek is a coastal village located the southeastern section of Branford, Connecticut, centered on a harbor on Long Island Sound. Stony Creek has the ambiance of a small seaside village which retains its roots as a summer vacation location with old Victorian hotels and a working granite quarry. It is known for the Thimble Islands an archipelago of glacial rocks, ranging from 17 acres (6.9 ha) down to stepping-stone size, at the harbor's mouth. Despite their small size, they possess a wealth of history and local lore, as well as providing pleasant scenery. The islands are privately owned but visitors may get an up-close view via several tour boats which run in the spring, summer and autumn. In the past, Stony Creek was also known for lobstering and oystering, but these industries have all but vanished in recent decades.
The Stony Creek Puppet House is a theater on the shoreline of the Stony Creek section of Branford, Connecticut, near New Haven, a stone's throw away from the famed Thimble Islands. Built in 1903 as a movie theater, it became the home for community theater and summer stock productions. Orson Welles staged his short-lived stage production, Too Much Johnson, at The Stony Creek Theatre in 1938. After operating as a parachute factory during World War II, it became a puppet theater. The building is a Connecticut Historical Landmark that awaits renovation and restoration.
Short Beach is a beach neighborhood situated in Branford, Connecticut. It is the westernmost of Branford's seven neighborhoods, the others being: The Hill, The Center, Pine Orchard, Stony Creek, Indian Neck, and Brushy Hill. Short Beach's population is approximately 2,500. About a half mile long, it is situated in New Haven County and is bordered by East Haven to the west, Branford to the north and east and Long Island Sound to the south. It is home to many small islands, the largest being Kelsey's Island which has a few small cabins used as summer homes.
Rogers Island is one of the Thimble Islands off Stony Creek, a section of Branford, Connecticut. Also known as Yon Comis Island, Rogers bears a 27-room Tudor mansion, with tennis and basketball courts and a caretaker's residence on a 7.75-acre (31,400 m2) estate valued at $15.41 million. It sold in 2003 for $22.3 million to Christine Stoecklein Svenningsen, widow of party goods magnate John Svenningsen. It sold again, most recently, in August 2018 for $21.5 million.
Cut in Two Island, East and West, are two of the Thimble Islands off Stony Creek, a section of Branford, Connecticut. It is actually two separate islands, but, as the name suggests, it looks like a single island that was cleaved in two.
Outer Island is a 5-acre island located in Long Island Sound. It is one of the Thimble Islands, a small archipelago just south of Stony Creek, a hamlet of Branford, Connecticut. Outer Island is the southern terminus and most remote island found within this archipelago. It is on the ten units of the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge. The island was transferred to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in 1995 by Elizabeth Hird. This island provides habitat for marine and avian wildlife.
Money Island is one of the Thimble Islands off Stony Creek, a section of Branford, Connecticut. It is named after a legend that Captain Kidd buried his treasure there. The island, 12 acres in size, bears an entire village of 32 houses, a post office, and one library. Former buildings included a school, a church, and a grocery store. There are three roads and several piers. At this time, none of the houses are occupied year-round.
Horse Island, at 17 acres, is the largest of the Thimble Islands off Stony Creek, a section of Branford, Connecticut. It is owned by Yale University and is maintained as an ecological laboratory by Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History. It was purchased and donated to the university in 1971 as a convenient addition to the Yale Coastal Field Station in nearby Guilford, which has its own dock and boats. Since then, however, the thrust of biological research at Yale and elsewhere has turned in the direction of molecular biology, and research conducted on the island is less active.
Governor Island is one of the Thimble Islands off Stony Creek, a section of Branford, Connecticut. It has 14 residences, although none are inhabited year-round.
Pot Island is one of the Thimble Islands in Branford, Connecticut. It was named for the numerous glacial potholes of various sizes.
Davis Island, one of the Thimble Islands off Stony Creek, a section of Branford, Connecticut, was the site of President William Howard Taft's "Summer White House".
The Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge is a 950-acre (384.5 ha) National Wildlife Refuge in ten units across the U.S. state of Connecticut. Located in the Atlantic Flyway, the refuge spans 70 miles (110 km) of Connecticut coastline and provides important resting, feeding, and nesting habitat for many species of wading birds, shorebirds, songbirds and terns, including the endangered roseate tern. Adjacent waters serve as wintering habitat for brant, scoters, American black duck, and other waterfowl. Overall, the refuge encompasses over 900 acres (364.2 ha) of barrier beach, intertidal wetland and fragile island habitats.
Mother-in-Law Island is an island in the Thimble Islands group, part of the Stony Creek-Thimble Islands Historic District on Long Island Sound in Branford, Connecticut. It is also known as Johnson Island, Prudden Island, and Little Stooping Bush. One house, a frame-structured house built around 1965, stands on the island.
The Stony Creek–Thimble Islands Historic District is a historic district in Branford, Connecticut that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1988.
Tuxis Island, sometimes uncommonly spelled Tunxis, is a small, uninhabited island about 1,029 feet (314 m) off the shore of Madison in New Haven County, Connecticut in the United States. Tuxis Island is about 3.42 acres (1.38 ha) in area, and covered mostly in trees. The island's elevation is 16 feet (4.9 m) above sea level. Tuxis Island was formed by glaciers, a fact that is evident by the many glacial potholes and small boulders on the south of the island. The island itself is made mostly of granite, like most of the other islands nearby, although there is some sand. Two other islands, Gull Rock and Round Rock, are relatively close to Tuxis, as is Madison Reef to the south, and several unnamed rocks and islets. These landforms are sometimes associated with the Thimble Islands.
Gull Rock is a small rock ledge 542 feet off the coast of Madison in New Haven County, Connecticut. It is 883 square feet in size and made of glacial granite. It was named due to the large numbers of seabirds that rest there. Some parts of Gull Rock are covered in hardy plants during the summer months, and invertebrates thrive here. The island and its neighbors are occasionally considered to be part of the Thimble Islands, though this is uncommon. A steel seawall, now decrepit and unused, runs submerged from Gull Rock to the shore.
Round Rock is a glacial rock islet of around 119 square feet in size. It is situated 1,163 feet offshore of Madison in New Haven County, Connecticut. In 1914, congressman Thomas L. Reilly requested Round Rock to be connected to Tuxis Island by a breakwater, and extended towards Madison Wharf. It is rarely grouped into the Thimble Islands archipelago. The islet is often represented without a name on maps, and often appears as little more than a small circle, as it is too small to consistently label. Smaller scale maps do, however include the name.
Goose Island is a small, uninhabited rocky island off of the coast of Connecticut, in Long Island Sound. It belongs to the town of Guilford. It is near Falkner Island, North Rocks, Falkner Island Reef, Stony Island, and Three Quarters Rock. Goose Island has eroded to the point that it is 0.5 acre and virtually underwater at high tide, although it was once about 4 acres in size. The strait between the two islands is between 16 and 8 feet deep. The coastline is defined prominently by two small bays that connect during high tide.
