New London Harbor Light
— a brownstone tower older than the country it warns ships toward.
Not only on a wall.
New London Harbor Light, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
“An octagonal brownstone tower on the western shore of New London Harbor, 89 feet from the ground to the lantern. The first light here went up in 1761, the fourth lighthouse built in the American colonies. The current tower replaced it in 1801 and has held the harbour mouth since. The light is white, fixed, and visible 15 miles out into Long Island Sound on a clear night.
The place, in three passes.
New London Harbor Light stands on the western shore at the mouth of the Thames River, marking the entrance to one of the deepest natural harbours on the southern New England coast. The first tower on the site was authorised by the Connecticut General Assembly and lit in 1761, making it the fourth lighthouse built in the American colonies and the oldest light station in Connecticut. The current octagonal tower of brownstone and freestone was completed in 1801, stands 89 feet tall, and was automated in 1912. It remains an active U.S. Coast Guard aid to navigation, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The light marks the boundary between Long Island Sound and the lower Thames River, a working channel that carries the Cross Sound Ferry, the Block Island Ferry, and Electric Boat's submarine traffic out of Groton. The harbour mouth runs 35 to 50 feet deep at chart datum, which is why the colonial port grew into one of the largest whaling harbours in the country by the 1840s. The fourth-order Fresnel lens shows a fixed white light visible roughly 15 nautical miles in clear conditions, with a red sector warning of the shoal at Sarah Ledge.
The lighthouse stands on private grounds at the end of Pequot Avenue in New London's south end and is not open for routine interior visits. The tower is best seen from the water — the Cross Sound Ferry to Orient Point passes within a few hundred yards on every crossing — and from Ocean Beach Park to the west or the Avery Point overlook in Groton across the river. The New London Maritime Society, which owns the station, runs seasonal weekend boat tours from City Pier; check their schedule for current dates and fares.
