Things to Do in Stonington Borough, CT: A Full Guide

Old Lighthouse Museum: A Granite Tower with a Real, Unfinished Renovation Story

At 7 Water Street stands the Old Lighthouse Museum, home to the Stonington Harbor Light. The first lighthouse on this site was built in 1823 on Windmill Point, a granite structure that did not last. The current octagonal granite tower replaced it in 1840, built by John Bishop: a 36-foot tower with a 62-foot focal height and a 10-foot diameter. It was first lit in 1840 with an oil lamp and parabolic reflectors, then upgraded in 1856 to a sixth-order Fresnel lens -- that original lens is now displayed inside the museum -- and later fitted with a fifth-order Fresnel lens.

The light was decommissioned in 1889 once the Stonington Breakwater Light took over the job of guiding vessels into the harbor. The building then sat unused for 36 years before the Stonington Historical Society converted it into a museum in 1925, which is the organization that still operates it today. The tower earned a place on the National Register of Historic Places on January 1, 1976 (Reference No. 76002000).

The honest, current chapter here is a renovation that is genuinely in progress rather than finished. Planning began around 2015, and a groundbreaking followed on October 26, 2019. Phase one addressed insect damage, water damage, deteriorated wiring, HVAC, floors, and masonry, and required moving the museum's artifacts offsite during the work. Phase two, as planned, would add a roughly 480-square-foot wheelchair-accessible addition -- one Historical Society representative was quoted making the point plainly: in 179 years, there had never been a wheelchair inside the lighthouse. Reporting from November 2019 noted construction costs had risen 18% since 2015, and a spring 2020 reopening was the stated target at that time. That target lands right at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and this page did not find independent confirmation that the reopening actually happened on that schedule -- so treat any specific current opening status, hours, or completed-renovation claim as something to verify directly with the Stonington Historical Society before a visit, rather than assuming it from a 2019 news target date.

Cannon Square: The Two Guns That Held Off a British Squadron

Cannon Square displays the actual two 18-pounder cannons used in the Battle of Stonington, alongside a granite obelisk memorial to the engagement. The battle ran August 9-12, 1814, when a British squadron of four warships carrying roughly 1,275 men, under Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy, demanded the Borough's evacuation. The reply that is still quoted today: "We shall defend the place to the last extremity; should it be destroyed, we shall perish in its ruins."

As few as four named defenders -- William Lord, Asa Lee, George Fellows, and Amos Denison -- worked the two 18-pounder cannons, reinforced by roughly sixteen militiamen who came over from Mystic. American fire struck the British ship HMS Dispatch below the waterline, and the squadron withdrew on August 12 at noon. British losses were 21 killed and 50 wounded. On the Borough side, out of roughly 750 inhabitants, 40 of the 100-120 buildings in the settlement were damaged and property losses totaled about $3,500 -- but remarkably, no one in the Borough was killed by British fire. One notable casualty did tie back to the Borough afterward: British Midshipman Thomas Barrett Powers died and is buried in Stonington Cemetery.

The battle has been commemorated nearly every year since 1815, and it remains an active subject of historical research: in 2018, a National Park Service Battlefield Protection Program grant funded GIS mapping and underwater archaeological research tied to the engagement. Standing in Cannon Square today, in other words, means standing next to the actual guns, not replicas -- a rare thing for a battle this old.

James Merrill House: A Pulitzer Poet’s Home, Now a Working Writer Residency

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet James Merrill spent every summer at 107 Water Street -- within the Borough -- from 1954 until his death in 1995. The third-floor turret dining room hosted the Ouija-board sessions Merrill held with his partner David Jackson, sessions that became the source material for Merrill's book-length poem "The Changing Light at Sandover."

The house was designated a National Historic Landmark on October 31, 2016. Rather than operating purely as a static house museum, it now runs as a rent-free, roughly month-long writer-in-residence program administered by the Stonington Village Improvement Association, and more than 100 writers have stayed there since 1995 -- meaning the house has functioned as a working literary residency for nearly as long as it existed as Merrill’s private summer home.

The Nathaniel Palmer Antarctica Story (and Where the House Actually Is)

Stonington’s connection to Antarctic exploration is real and worth knowing, but it deserves a geographic correction that a lot of casual write-ups skip: Captain Nathaniel Palmer sighted the Antarctic Peninsula in mid-November 1820 -- sources give the date as the 16th, 17th, or 18th, so this page states it only as mid-November 1820 -- while sailing the sloop Hero at just 22 years old. His name now marks two places on the continent he glimpsed: Palmer Land and the Palmer Archipelago.

The Capt. Nathaniel B. Palmer House itself, built 1852-54 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1996, has operated as a museum since 1995. It sits north of the Borough, in the wider Town of Stonington -- it is not a Borough attraction, even though the Palmer name and story are inseparable from Stonington's identity as a whole. Worth visiting on the same trip, but plan the geography accordingly rather than expecting to find it on a Borough walking loop.

Dodge Paddock/Beal Preserve: Trails and Water Views Inside the Borough

For a quieter, outdoor counterpoint to the Borough’s history-heavy sights, the Dodge Paddock/Beal Preserve is an Avalonia Land Conservancy property located within the Borough itself, offering walking trails and water views. It is a useful stop for stretching your legs between the lighthouse, Cannon Square, and downtown without leaving the Borough’s small footprint.

Walking Downtown: Water, Main, and Pearl Streets

The Borough's entire commercial core is walkable, built around three parallel or connecting streets. Water Street is the main commercial spine -- a Patch feature once described it as feeling like "a smaller, quieter Newport" -- and it is home to Grand & Water Antiques, part of the region's Art & Antiques circuit, and Noah's Restaurant, founded in 1979 and still a local fixture. Main Street runs parallel to Water Street, and Pearl Street leads down toward the town docks, tying the shopping streets to the working waterfront.

This page does not attempt a comprehensive current business directory beyond these specifically confirmed names -- shops and restaurants change -- so treat Water, Main, and Pearl Streets as the framework for an afternoon of browsing rather than a fixed list of what will be open when you visit.

Blessing of the Fleet: A Community Tradition Tied to a Working Fishing Fleet

The Blessing of the Fleet is a genuine annual tradition, begun in 1954 and organized around St. Mary Church, which was established in 1851. The event includes a Fishermen’s Mass, a boat procession through the harbor, and a family dinner hosted afterward at the Portuguese Holy Ghost Society. It is a participatory community event, not a staged tourist spectacle, and it is directly tied to Connecticut’s last commercial fishing fleet -- a reminder that the Borough is still a working waterfront, not only a historic one.

A Fun Footnote: Ted Danson’s Family Roots in the Borough

One lighter, well-documented detail for anyone who likes this kind of trivia: according to an episode of the PBS series "Finding Your Roots," actor Ted Danson’s fifth great-grandfather, Oliver Smith, built a home in the Borough around 1760 and led a militia force during the August 1775 British attack. This is a documented ancestral connection rather than any claim about current residency, but it is a real, citable detail that adds a bit of pop-culture color to an already dense stretch of American history.