Today is Thursday, March 28, 2024 The Water Taxi is not running.

Fort Griswold

“Fort Griswold: Protecting the Past, Planning for the Future”

The Groton Bank Historical Association (GBHA) invites you to join them on Sunday, January 31, 2016, at 2pm at the Monument House Museum located at Fort Griswold Park for a special presentation:

“Fort Griswold:Protecting the Past, Planning for the Future”

Henry Alves, Connecticut DEEP State Parks and Recreation Supervisor,who is now in charge of Fort Griswold, will discuss current and future projects at the fort and park, as well as the role that education brings to the facility.

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When relatives come to the area for the holidays . . .

. . . take them to parts of the new Heritage Park!

That is what your blogger did when her sister visited from Manhattan this Thanksgiving. We grew up in what is called the Groton Bank neighborhood. It’s full of historic homes (ours was one), including of course the Avery Copp house, the Mother Bailey House, and Fort Griswold, but when we were kids it was just one big playground, especially one of our favorite places on earth—Fort Griswold.  And as far as bells and whistles go, the Fort may not be all that, but there is something quite magical about the place that stays in your imagination and continues to draw visitors from both far away and down the road. As we were walking through it that mild Friday afternoon, we both admitted that the feeling here is a lot like Gettysburg—you really get a sense that something monumental, scary, and visceral happened on this ground. Even as kids we could almost hear the soldiers, their footsteps down the dirt embankments. So here is a little photo-tour of what you might see if you take a water taxi over to the foot of Fort Street and walk up to Fort Griswold.

Here is the Thames Street entrance, which actually is not considered the “main” entrance, but it’s what you see as soon as you get off the dock on the Groton side.

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On your right is the Ebenezer Avery house (not to be confused with the Avery-Copp house), which served as a makeshift hospital for British soldiers, and which was moved from Thames Street to this location in the 1970’s and then restored later.CIMG3938

You can go into the Fort this way, which will put you at the bottom of the fort, or if you have a car or like to walk you can continue on up to Monument Street and enter through the main gate.CIMG3939

This is where you can read about the Battle of Groton Heights of September 6, 1781, and see the plaque listing all the colonial soldiers who died here. You can also read about past and current efforts to restore and maintain the “earthworks—” the mounds of dirt and stone that protected the fort’s highest area. CIMG3940You can also have your photo taken sitting on the cannons—I think it’s almost a law. CIMG3948I understand why you can’t climb on the earthworks now, but I have to say, being a kid here was a ton of fun.

looking down from the higher battlefield (where Col. Ledyard surrendered); New London is across the river
looking down from the higher battlefield (where Col. Ledyard surrendered); New London is across the river. Fort Street and the Ebenezer Avery house is out of the photo, about 500 yards to the right

Then you can go through the tunnel to the protective gulley that leads down to the main battlefield bordered on two sides by gun mounts facing the river. CIMG3962The fort, in that days of your blogger’s callow youth, was completely overgrown and it was impossible to pass through these earthen canals—the State has done a great job of restoring the site to the way it must have looked (minus a few of the cannons) at the time of the battle.CIMG3945

Down in the main part of the fort you can look at the shot furnace and the Powder Magazine,IMG_20151127_160010524CIMG3951

check out the gun mounts, with New London winking across the river, CIMG3960

and then take a look over your shoulder at the earthworks and the Monument in the background.

CIMG3959There is something indescribably lovely about being here, and I can say that after all these years, I never get tired of visiting it.

But wait! Our trip is not complete. The sun was setting so we took a quick drive down to Eastern Point Beach, at the tip of the Thames River, to enjoy the beautiful sky and the New London shoreline.

This is the Tyler House at Eastern Point beach, preserved by local residents in 1970 and used for offices, snack bar and first aid/lifeguard station.
This is the Tyler House at Eastern Point beach, preserved by local residents in 1970 and used for offices, snack bar and first aid/lifeguard station.

CIMG3967For some reason it’s hard to get a non-fuzzy photo of New London Light—it keeps moving, or something. But you can see how, even this late in the season, families and walkers and admirers are still spending time near the Thames River; it’s really that spectacular. (Ledge Light is in the background in the photo below.)

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the view from the Tyler House upriver
the view from the Tyler House upriver
UConn's Avery Point campus
UConn’s Avery Point campus

So for those of you who are wondering, “Just what is there to do in the new Heritage Park?” here are two of possibly two hundred stories.

Forts Trumbull and Griswold are highlighted in the news this week

Forts on both sides of the river got a lot of press this week, and with good reason. Thursday’s “Night and Day” section of the New London Day announced the annual commemoration of the Battle of Fort Griswold (September 6, 1781) that will be held  at the Ebenezer Avery House, located on the lower part of the fort on Fort Street. Reenactors will be battling it out this Sunday (September 6th of course), the British side featuring—of course—Norwich native Benedict Arnold. The following week the Avery-Copp House on Thames Street will host Groton History Day, and will feature a soldiers’ encampment, a musket firing demonstration, activities and artisan crafts. Both events are free.

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But as former submariner Phil Houk reminds us in his “History Around the Corner” article in the Mystic Times, there’s “lots to learn at Fort Trumbull State Park and Museum.” Extolling the virtues of both the site and the exhibit space, Mr Houk writes that “the stone fort has been used over its 225-year history for striking at British invaders and for storage while the site housed a modern research and development center for anti-submarine warfare. It its current form of restoration it should be visited by young and old and its story told.” A state-issued Charter Oak pass (for residents age 65 and older), as well as museum and state park passes obtained from local libraries, allow you to visit sites like Fort Trumbull free of charge; otherwise the admission is $10.

Ft trumbull aerial

So even though you won’t be able to get there on a water taxi (yet!) why not plan to spend the weekend soaking up history at two incredible forts just minutes away from each other?

The TRHP Communications Sub-Committee Visits Fort Trumbull

Ft trumbull aerialWhen the Communications sub-committee met at the Fort Trumbull Visitors’ Center in New London, members were so impressed that they suggested it as one of the possible venues for a TRHP informational presentation for key supporters this fall or next spring. Indeed, anyone living in the are who hasn’t visited the fort really owes it to themselves to see the amazing structures, state-of-the-art museum, and vista of the Thames River that make up one of the TRHC’s main attractions.

The Friends of Fort Trumbull has a great website with lots of photos and information on the history of the fort and upcoming events. Also make sure to visit DEEP’s official Fort Trumbull website. But after you’ve done that, by all means go over to the park itself (Walbach Street off Howard Street) and make a day of it.

FT TRumbullJoining the sub-committee at the Visitors’ center were Al Levere, State Parks Historian and author of the about-to-be-published State Parks Centennial History, Diane Joy, Supervisor of State Parks, Outreach and Education, and Bruce MacDonald, Director of the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival, coming up soon (September 9-12) so mark your calendars.

Aug. 6 meetingThe TRHP Communications sub-committee and guests, from left: Deborah Donovan, Ellen Cummings, Tom Tyler, Al Levere, Diane Joy, Penny Newbury, Chris Cox, Laura Nadelberg, and a bit of Bruce MacDonald. Not pictured: Penny Parsekian, Chair (taking the photo).

As with the Finance sub-committee, the Communications committee agreed to take its marching orders from the Governance and Organizational sub-committee, who will be meting shortly to draft a mission and vision for the new agency, as well as a short-and longer term strategic plan. However, this didn’t seem to slow the Committee down; a preliminary marketing plan draft was shared with other members, who agreed to combine it with some additional marketing documents and build upon it once the Governance Committee had met.

The Committee also appointed Chris Cox as the Team’s spokesman, with Penny Parsekian as backup, for answering queries from the public and media outlets.

An important discussion point at the meeting was the need to identify, prioritize and target all potential stakeholders in the heritage park plan, in order to make sure that everyone understands the purpose of the park and its inclusionary nature, the goals of the Transition Team, and the importance of the THRP to the unification and connection of all the sites. As the Chair so succinctly put it, “We’re trying to make a visitor experience coherent.”   So the first group from which to elicit continued support will be representatives, employees and volunteers from the heritage sites themselves. The second group would be community leaders and funders, followed by the business community in and around the park (whose initial core encompasses Fort Trumbull, Fort Griswold, and the New London Downtown area, to be followed by the Nautilus Museum). Then, agreed the Committee, we would have a great support base from which to begin to conduct outreach to potential visitors.

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