History of West Haven, Connecticut, p. 4

HISTORY OF WEST HAVEN
At Savin Rock, a busy resort area, known as “The Coney Island of Con¬
necticut’', are many hotels and restaurants where shore dinners may he enjoyed
at the water’s edge. Skating rinks and dance halls cater to carefree throngs.
Special busses bring loads of happy pleasure seekers. High against the sky,
lined in incandescent tracery, tower the roller coasters. Red neon signs glow
over inviting entrances to lobster and soft-shell crab emporiums; soft drink
signs and giant ice cream cones invite trade in shops where bright metal and
spotless white tables glitter under the glare of giant bulbs. Boxing fans attend
fightcards of exceptional quality and midget autos race for record crowds.
Westerly from Savin Rock’s amusements lie the rocks from which the area
takes its name; the point of debarkation for the men from Tryon’s fleet of Brit¬
ish raiders. Within the shadow of the varicolored lights, this lookout point rises
from the otherwise level shoreline and provides an eminence from which the
early settlers once watched for returning whalers and sealers. Dwarf cedars
and sprawling junipers, known as Savin Trees, covered these rocks.
Bradley Point, jutting out into the Sound, is one of West Haven’s delight¬
ful beaches. Both summer cottages and year-round residences have been built
in this section. Colorful beach attire, brightly painted canoes, lawn and beach
furniture in gay color schemes, create a varied pattern on the flat, white sand.
At Cove River, a town bathing beach provides opportunity for a cool, clean
swim for those residents without a cottage or beach of their own. Vendors in
white, selling ice cream cones or soda pop, and sometimes a popcorn peddler’s
cart, frequent the spot. Captain Michael Hammond, who conducts a retail fish
market here, is a veteran fisherman and fondly recalls the days when he operated
a small fleet of his own. Children and their mothers, young people excited at
their freedom from school, all gather at Cove River during the season.
Continuing westerly along the shorefront, rounding the point once called
Oyster River Point, now, Aimes Point, the highway swings into the cove where
Oyster River meets the sea. A West Haven community beach here, well
policed and carefully safeguarded, is usually crowded with merry bathers in sea¬
son.
From the (low of Oyster River, shellfish once received just the amount of
fresh water requ.ied their best grow th. Fisherfolk (flagged their nets here,
and the little l *»niai loops rode at anchor awaiting loads of farm produce
f the New Y ,k market r the West Indies trade.
fl he West Haven si. a beat , fill southern boundary for the broad
7,204 acre township.
Tiii? Back Country
Behind the town itself, gently rolling hills offer many vantage points for a
panoramic view of Long Island Sound, the township, and, on clearer days, even
the island itself. Stone fences divide rolling upland pastures and brushlots, with
here and there a trace of the old rail fences, built of split chestnut. Gray birch,
sweet fern, red cedar and low huckleberry bushes cover many of these hills, with
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