THE FIRST LIGHTHOUSE withstood the storm!
lighting the way in 1821
added in 1864 featured
when the United States
a bell that worked on
government purchased
a clock mechanism,
four acres of land on
it required almost
Stratford Point from
continuous winding (it
Betsy Walker. It was
took 20 minutes) and
only the third lighthouse
ran for half-an-hour. It
constructed on Long
was replaced in 1911
Island Sound at the time.
with a modern siren
The 28-foot wooden,
foghorn.
octagonal lighthouse
Who’s Knocking?
The fog bell tower
In 1881, the dwelling
was built by Judson
and tower were
Curtis and consisted of
replaced with a 35-
ON A SUNDAY morning in
No explanation for the
March 1850, upon returning
happenings could ever be
to his large home after church
found within the home, which
services, Rev. Eliakim Phelps
was originally built in 1826
and his family found his front
by General Matthias Nicoll for
door hung with mourning
his daughter Elizah and her
crepe and inside the house, a
husband, Captain George R.
figure laid out in a shroud for
Dowdall. The home featured
the grave.
a 70-foot entry hall which
In the months that followed, Stratford Point Lighthouse in 1894.
mirrored the normal length of a
strange noises, apparitions,
ship’s deck during that time, so
knockings, odd figures, moving
that Elizah’s seagoing husband
the light tower and the
foot cast iron tower
furniture, and flying bricks were
could pace the deck and not feel
dwelling house.
and two-story house.
reported. Word spread quickly
far from sea.
The Fresnel lens put
and newspapers reported tales
Gale” of 1822, the worst
in place in 1906 to
of the “Stratford Haunting.” One
other oddities ended when
southeast gale ever
replace older lenses
newspaper wrote of a scissors
the Phelps family moved out.
known to pass over
remained in operation
grinder stopped in front of the
However, during the time that
Stratford, blew over
for many years. Finally,
house, who, in view of several
the home served as the Stratford
houses and uprooted
in 1969, the light was
people, “began to ascend in
Convalescent Hospital, there
hundreds of trees.
automated.
the air, turning his wheels
were stories of buzzers going
The “September
Reports of “knocking” and
and being lost into view to
off by themselves. Was it real,
found on windows and
imagine the hard work
come down to Waterbury the
or did imaginations run wild
leaves as far away as
generations of light
next day.” Another newspaper
with tales of the haunting? Torn
Nichols. At the time,
keepers endured to
termed this account a
down in the 1970s, the tale of the
only the frame of the
secure safety for the
“falsehood” stating that “no such
“Stratford Knockings” lives on
tower existed, yet it
seafarers.
thing happened.”
as town legend only.
Blown salt spray was
One can only
Stratford Connecticut 28 Three Hundred Seventy-Five
PHOTOS COURTESY OF STRATFORD HISTORICAL SOCIETY
THE FIRST STRATFORD lighthouse began