The Stony Creek–Thimble Islands Historic District is a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains historic building, older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal p ...

encompassing a 19th-century summer resort area in

Branford, Connecticut Branford is a shoreline New England town, town located on Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, about east of downtown New Haven, Connecticut, New Haven. The town is part of the South Central Connecticut Planning Regi ...

. Located in the southeastern part of the town, it encompasses the mainland

Stony Creek Stony Creek may refer to the following waterways or communities: Waterways Australia * Stony Creek, a tributary of the Allyn River, in the Hunter region of New South Wales * Stony Creek, a tributary of the Brogo River, in the South Coast region ...

neighborhood, and all of the major

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 ...

which lie offshore from Stony Creek in

Long Island Sound Long Island Sound is a sound (geography), marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York (state), New York to the south. From west to east, ...

. The district includes a well-preserved array of domestic summer resort architecture spanning more than a century preceding

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, as well as worker housing and other artifacts related to the area's brief importance as a granite quarry. The district was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1988.

Description and history

The development of Stony Creek and the Thimble Islands as a summer resort began following the 1852 opening of the railroad through Branford. By the 1860s Stony Creek included hotels and summer cottages, serving a growing middle and upper-class clientele from Connecticut's growing interior industrial base. Around the turn of the 20th century, trolley service to

New Haven New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is the third largest city in Co ...

was introduced, bringing about a gradual increase in the number of year-round residents who commuted to the city for work. Concurrent with this resort development was the growth of the area's granite quarries, which began in the 1840s and peaked in the 1880s. Although a few granite pits are still evident in the landscape, the only significant surviving elements are housing for quarry workers and services supporting them, and the remains of wharves used by the quarrying operations. The area of the district includes much of the

mainland area of Branford, along Thimble Islands Rd. between Rt. 146 and

, and includes all of the major

. Only a few buildings predate the resort period, including examples of Georgian and Federal architecture. There is one notable example of Greek Revival architecture from the 1840s: it is a cottage on Money Island. Italianate houses from the 1850s tend to be modest in scale and style, and are mainly located in the Stony Creek village area, which served the local granite quarries. Later Victorian-style houses are located throughout the area, which is known for its particularly large and well-preserved collection of

Stick style The Stick style was a late-19th-century American architectural style, transitional between the Carpenter Gothic style of the mid-19th century, and the Queen Anne style that it had evolved into by the 1890s. It is named after its use of linear " ...

houses. Probably the most elaborate of these is the

William J. Clark House The William J. Clark House is a historic house at 32 Prospect Hill in the Stony Creek neighborhood of Branford, Connecticut. Built in 1878–80 to a design by New Haven-based architect Henry Austin, it is a particularly fine example of the Sti ...

at 32 Prospect Hill, which is separately listed on the National Register. It was designed by the New Haven architect Henry Austin.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stony Creek-Thimble Islands Historic District Branford, Connecticut Georgian architecture in Connecticut Historic districts in New Haven County, Connecticut National Register of Historic Places in New Haven County, Connecticut Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut

Description and history

See also

References