Stony Creek is a coastal village located the southeastern section of

Branford, Connecticut Branford is a shoreline town located on Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut, about east of downtown New Haven. The population was 28,273 at the 2020 census. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a to ...

, 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 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 Sta ...

an archipelago of glacial rocks, ranging from 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. Stony Creek sculptures 186

The village which has several unique attractions: the

, the Stony Creek Legacy Theater , Stony Creek Museum as well as a small public beach, town docks with boat launch, playground and public library. Three local companies offer boat tours and charters of the Thimble Islands from March thru October. Stony Creek is also home to the all-male Stony Creek Fife & Drum Corps, which was founded in 1886. The Corps practices weekly at the renovated Seaside Hall. On occasional summer evenings, the Corps plays aboard the island tour boat, much to the delight of the local residents. In the past, the Corps received many awards and honors, including participating in President Eisenhower's inaugural parade. Stony Creek is also home to the only all-female fife and drum corps, Totoket Ancient Fife & Drum Corps, who holds their practice at Seaside Hall. A large quarry is still working and supplies the distinctive pink/orange Stony Creek

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

. This granite was used for the Brooklyn Bridge, the Stony Creek Library, and the newest House Office Building in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

It can also be seen in the South Station terminal in Boston, Grand Central Terminal in NYC, and in the base of the Statue of Liberty.

Notable people

Harold V. Camp Harold Viets Camp Jr. (March 31, 1935 – February 14, 2022) was an American lawyer and politician. Camp was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and grew up in New Britain, Connecticut. He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1957 and from Columbia La ...

(1935-2022), Connecticut state legislator, businessman, and lawyer *

Joseph Stamler Joseph Howard Stamler (November 19, 1911 – October 16, 1998) was an American lawyer and judge who served for seven years in New Jersey Superior Court, as well as a professor of law at Rutgers University. During his judicial career, Stamler was ...

(1911-1988),

New Jersey Superior Court The Superior Court is the state court in the U.S. state of New Jersey, with statewide trial and appellate jurisdiction. The New Jersey Constitution of 1947 establishes the power of the New Jersey courts.Jeffrey S. Mandel, New Jersey Appellate Pr ...

judge and professor at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

. * The novelist Ayn Rand spent the summer in Stony Creek in the late 1930s while her husband, Frank O'Connor did summer stock. She developed key elements of the plot of her novel ''

The Fountainhead ''The Fountainhead'' is a 1943 novel by Russian-American author Ayn Rand, her first major literary success. The novel's protagonist, Howard Roark, is an intransigent young architect, who battles against conventional standards and refuses to comp ...

'' there. * J. Andre Smith, American artist * Thomas A. Steitz (1940-2018), a towering figure of late-20th-century science who shared a

Nobel Prize in Chemistry ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...

.Kolata, Gin
"Thomas A. Steitz, 78, Dies; Illuminated a Building Block of Life"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', October 10, 2018. Accessed October 11, 2018. "They initially lived in New Haven and then built a home in the Stony Creek section of Branford overlooking Long Island Sound." * Susan Weil (b. 1930), American artist

References

{{authority control Branford, Connecticut Populated places in New Haven County, Connecticut Neighborhoods in Connecticut