Branford is a shoreline town located on Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, about 6 miles (10 km) east of downtown New Haven. The town is part of the South Central Connecticut Planning Region. Branford borders East Haven to the west, Guilford to the east, and North Branford to the north. The population was 28,273 in the 2020 census.
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.
Bear Island is one of the Thimble Islands off Stony Creek, a section of Branford, Connecticut, USA. It is the site to a former granite quarry, which exported high-quality pink granite to such constructions as the Lincoln Memorial, Grant's Tomb and the base of the Statue of Liberty. The famous Stony Creek granite is still quarried in Stony Creek.
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.
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, and is also managed by Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History.
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.
One of the Thimble Islands, High Island once served as a hideout for famed pirate Captain Kidd. Kidd's Harbor on the island, as well as nearby Kidd's Island, were named for him. Money Island was named for the legend that he allegedly buried a portion of his treasure here.
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.
Whitney Avenue is a principal arterial connecting Downtown New Haven with the town center of Hamden in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Most of the road within the city of New Haven is included in the Whitney Avenue Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The designation begins at Grove Street in the northern part of Downtown New Haven and extends through the town of Hamden up to the Cheshire town line. North of Dixwell Avenue in Hamden Center, the road is a state highway and designated as part of Route 10. From the New Haven town line to Dixwell Avenue, the road is state-maintained with an unsigned designation of State Road 707. Within New Haven, Whitney Avenue is a town road. The J route of Connecticut Transit New Haven, which connects New Haven to Waterbury, runs along Whitney Avenue.
The Thimble Islands is an archipelago consisting of small islands in Long Island Sound, located in and around the harbor of Stony Creek in the southeast corner of Branford, Connecticut. The islands are under the jurisdiction of the United States with security provided by the town of Branford police and the US Coast Guard.
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.
