Geography | |
---|---|
Location | Long Island Sound |
Coordinates | 41°19′56″N71°58′5″W / 41.33222°N 71.96806°W |
Administration | |
United States | |
State | Connecticut |
County | New London |
City | Stonington, Connecticut |
Enders Island is an 11-acre island located within the town of Stonington, just off the coast of the Mystic section of the town, in the U.S. state of Connecticut. [1] The island located in the Fisher's Island Sound at the base of the Mystic River and is connected to neighboring Mason's Island by a causeway. Mason's Island is connected to the mainland by another causeway. [2] The Catholic Society of Saint Edmund operate a retreat center and art school. Enders Island is also home to a bi-annual residency offered by Fairfield University to Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program students. The island is available to the public, with a chapel, surrounding views of the Atlantic, walking paths with flower gardens and a gift store.
The island was referred to by various names before it became known as Enders Island: Willcock's Island, Dodge's Island, Barker's Island and Keeland's Island. [3]
In 1787 (and likely also 1773) Dodge's Island was used to isolate patients for smallpox inoculation. [4] [5]
In 1910, [6] Dr. Thomas B. Enders, the son of the president of Aetna Insurance Company, purchased the then-uninhabited [7] island from the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul and in 1918 he and his wife Alys VanGilder Enders designed and oversaw the construction of a private estate with a grand main house decorated in Arts and Crafts style. [2] The grounds still feature the Enders' imported Italian tiles in the house and garden, and a surrounding wall of large boulders that serves as a windbreak.
Before her death in 1954, Alys searched for a suitable religious institute to take over the care of her island. She approached the Bishop of the Diocese of Norwich, which saw no use of Enders Island but referred her to Father Purtill, Superior General of the Society of Saint Edmund. Thus the island was willed, requesting that it be used as a retreat and place of spiritual training for priests in the diocese. [2] [1] [8] An independent ministry was established on the island in 2003. [2]
In 2018, the Society sought permission from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to repair a deteriorating seawall on its property. This led a group of Mason's Island private residents to sue with the aim to make the Society lose its rights to the island, thought to be worth tens of millions of dollars, so the island reverted to a group of 36 groups and individuals. Their argument was the Retreat Center fails to conform to the original intent when Mrs Enders bequeathed the property: its use as novitiate for the society and a place of retreat, and that it violates Stonington zoning laws. [9] The report found the arguments were without merit; that "the use of the property is a preexisting, legal nonconforming use". [10] As of 2024 [update] the court case is pending. [11]
A relic of Edmund of Abingdon, the saint's severed arm, is enshrined in the Chapel of Our Lady of the Assumption at St. Edmund's Retreat. [12]
The St. Edmund's Center residential addiction and recovery program began in the 1960s and is based on the 12-step recovery program with an emphasis on prayer and meditation. Its spiritual ministry hosts private and guided retreats for individuals, couples and groups.
The Sacred Art Institute at Enders Island was founded in the 1995 and offers classes and workshops to the public. With a focus on religious art formats and techniques, classes include iconography, stained glass, mosaics, calligraphy, wood-carving and manuscript illumination. The Institute also offers workshops in Gregorian chants with live recordings performed in the onsite Chapel of Our Lady of the Assumption. [2]
Every other year, Fairfield University offers its Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program students a 10-day residency at Enders Island. [13]
Edmund of Abingdon was an English Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Canterbury. He became a respected lecturer in mathematics, dialectics and theology at the Universities of Paris and Oxford, promoting the study of Aristotle.
Mystic is a village and census-designated place (CDP) in Groton and Stonington, Connecticut.
North Stonington is a town in New London County, Connecticut which was split off from Stonington in 1724. The town is part of the Southeastern Connecticut Planning Region. The population was 5,149 at the 2020 census.
Stonington is a town located in New London County, Connecticut. The municipal limits of the town include the borough of Stonington, the villages of Pawcatuck, Lords Point, and Wequetequock, and the eastern halves of the villages of Mystic and Old Mystic. Stonington is part of the Southeastern Connecticut Planning Region. The population of the town was 18,335 at the 2020 census.
Nathaniel Brown Palmer was an American seal hunter, explorer, sailing captain, ship designer, and a whale hunter. He gave his name to Palmer Land, Antarctica, which he explored in 1820 on his sloop Hero. He was born in Stonington, Connecticut, and was a descendant of Walter Palmer, one of the town's founders.
The Pequot War was an armed conflict that took place in 1636 and ended in 1638 in New England, between the Pequot tribe and an alliance of the colonists from the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Saybrook colonies and their allies from the Narragansett and Mohegan tribes. The war concluded with the decisive defeat of the Pequot. At the end, about 700 Pequots had been killed or taken into captivity. Hundreds of prisoners were sold into slavery to colonists in Bermuda or the West Indies; other survivors were dispersed as captives to the victorious tribes.
Groton is a town in New London County, Connecticut located on the Thames River. It is the home of General Dynamics Electric Boat, which is the major contractor for submarine work for the United States Navy. The Naval Submarine Base New London is located in Groton, and the pharmaceutical company Pfizer is also a major employer. Avery Point in Groton is home to a regional campus of the University of Connecticut. The town is part of the Southeastern Connecticut Planning Region. The population was 38,411 at the 2020 census.
Roger Ludlow (1590–1664) was an English lawyer, magistrate, military officer, and colonist. He was active in the founding of the Colony of Connecticut, and helped draft laws for it and the nearby Massachusetts Bay Colony. Under his and John Mason's direction, Boston's first fortification, later known as Castle William and then Fort Independence was built on Castle Island in Boston harbor. Frequently at odds with his peers, he eventually also founded Fairfield and Norwalk before leaving New England entirely.
John Mason was an English-born settler, soldier, commander and Deputy Governor of the Connecticut Colony. Mason was best known for leading a group of Puritan settlers and Indian allies on a combined attack on a Pequot Fort in an event known as the Mystic Massacre. The destruction and loss of life he oversaw effectively ended the hegemony of the Pequot tribe in southeast Connecticut.
Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running in a general east–west compass direction for 111.57 miles (179.55 km) in Connecticut, from the New York state line to the Rhode Island state line. I-95 from Greenwich to East Lyme is part of the Connecticut Turnpike, during which it passes through the major cities of Stamford, Bridgeport, and New Haven. After leaving the turnpike in East Lyme, I-95 is known as the Jewish War Veterans Memorial Highway and passes through New London, Groton, and Mystic, before exiting the state through North Stonington at the Rhode Island border.
Mason's Island is an inhabited island at the mouth of the Mystic River, in Stonington, Connecticut. The island was named after Major John Mason who was granted the island in recognition for his military services in the 1637 Pequot War in nearby Mystic. This island remained in the Mason family for over 250 years, from 1651 to 1913. Since then the Allyn family have been stewards of it, and most of the island is owned by the Mason's Island Company and regulated by property deeds under the Mason's Island Property Owners Association. The Mason's Island Marina and the Mystic River Marina are located on the north end of the island. Mason's Island is connected to the mainland by a causeway.
The Society of Saint Edmund, also known as the Edmundites, is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of pontifical right for men founded in 1843 in Pontigny, France, by Jean Baptiste Muard. The congregation is named after Saint Edmund. The members of the congregation add the postnominal letters S.S.E.
Mystic station is an intercity train station on the Northeast Corridor, located off Roosevelt Avenue east of downtown Mystic, Connecticut. It is served by a limited number of trains on Amtrak's Northeast Regional service, with three to five daily trains in each direction. Amtrak's Acela also passes by this station, but does not stop. Mystic is one of only three stations on the Northeast Corridor to be served exclusively by Amtrak, with no commuter rail service.
Sherwood Island State Park is a public recreation area on the shore of Long Island Sound in the Greens Farms section of Westport, Connecticut. The state park offers swimming, fishing, and other activities on 238 acres (96 ha) of beach, wetlands, and woodlands. Sherwood Island is numbered as Connecticut's first state park because state purchase of land at the site began in 1914. The park is managed by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
The Fairfield Swamp Fight was the last engagement of the Pequot War and marked defeat of the Pequot tribe in the war and the loss of their recognition as a political entity in the 17th century. The participants in the conflict were the Pequot and the English with their allied tribes. The Fairfield Swamp Fight occurred July 13–14, 1637 in what is present-day Fairfield, Connecticut. The town of Fairfield was founded after the battle in 1639.
The Connecticut Audubon Society, founded in 1898 and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to "conserving Connecticut’s environment through science-based education and advocacy focused on the state’s bird populations and habitats." Connecticut Audubon Society is independent of the National Audubon Society (NAS), just as in the neighboring state of Massachusetts, where Massachusetts Audubon Society is independent of the NAS.
The Norwich and Westerly Railway was an interurban trolley system that operated in Southeastern Connecticut during the early part of the 20th century. It operated a 21-mile line through rural territory in Norwich, Preston, Ledyard, North Stonington, and Pawcatuck, Connecticut to Westerly, Rhode Island between 1906 and 1922. For most of its length, the route paralleled what is now Connecticut Route 2.
Manresa Island is a former island located in Norwalk, Connecticut, at the mouth of Norwalk Harbor in the Long Island Sound. The earliest name for the landform was Boutons Island, which dates to 1664. By the 19th century, the island had been purchased by John H. Keyser, who lived there and cultivated rare vegetation. He built a causeway in 1860, connecting the island to the mainland of South Norwalk. This gave rise to the name Keyser Island, which was sold to the Jesuits toward the end of the century.