Nice to talk to you again. I’m Dan Pearson, an Assistant Director of Admission. Nearly all (99 percent) of the students who attend Connecticut College live on campus, so the campus is the life of the College. As a result, there is quite a bit of activity on any given evening, with live music, performances, matches, or debates. One of the beautiful things about the College is the ability for students to add to this energy by forming new groups or launching their own campus initiatives (some of the College’s most progressive environmental efforts, for example, were inspired by students.) Yet, the College benefits from its location in an interesting region which provides off campus diversions as well. Having grown up nearby in Mystic, I just wanted to take the time here to mention a few things off campus that might enhance or enrich your four years at Connecticut College.
In no specific order:
The beaches at Watch Hill. Located just across the border in Rhode Island, Watch Hill is a summer enclave home to two distinctive and largely undeveloped beaches. The community was one of the worst hit during the Hurricane of 1938, as winds and water literally moved long stretches of sand and dune to form a new island. The tip of Napatree, one of the two beaches, is home to an abandoned Spanish-American War era fort, while East Beach, the village’s other beach, is home to rare birds and the region’s best surfing, particularly when southern storms kick up the seas. The beaches are great for a jog. Parking in the summer is tight, but the best time in Watch Hill is September, when the water is warmest and you can have vast expanses of sand all to you and your friends.
Fried clams at Sea Swirl. Located between an auto repair shop and a drive-through bank, Sea Swirl seems an unassuming site for culinary greatness. Yet, the clam stand on Route 1 in Mystic is considered by many, including Yankee magazine, the arbiter of all things New England, to have the best fried clams in the northeast. It is also an interesting melting pot, where yachtsman in Nantucket Reds, leathered bikers, teams of Little League players, locals, and tourists all converge for ice cream. (If you are vegetarian or vegan, or not keen on deep-fryolation, don’t miss Puritan and Genesta, a whole-foods store nearby in downtown Mystic. Great selections, informative staff, and a deli.)
The Book Barn. The Book Barn in Niantic is by no means a barn. It’s a sprawling, six-building compound (containing over 350,000 used books,) which just happens to have its own anthem and manicured gardens. The staff are bibliophiles all, with a keen eye for rare publications, making it a literary pilgrimage site for many traveling in the region.
Florence Griswold Museum. Just a few miles down I-95, near the Connecticut River in Old Lyme, the Florence Griswold Museum is the spiritual home to American Impressionism and former home to artists who made up the Lyme Art Colony, including Willard Metcalf and Childe Hassam. In 2001, the museum received the Hartford Steamboiler collection of early American paintings. Combined with exhibitions at the Lyman Allyn Museum, located on the Connecticut College campus, the two museums complement each other and offer an expansive and diverse view of American art.
Mystic Disc. The Internet has made music shopping easy, but not for the diligent DJ who is looking for rare plastic and who views their record search as a happy mix of happenstance and grail. To these individuals, may I recommend the Mystic Disc. Located in downtown Mystic, the Disc is filled to the ceiling with music (I just recently picked up the “Why Are People Grudgeful” single by The Fall for a friend,) but also serves as a forum for debate on everything from the merits of 13th Floor Elevators and Biz Markie to the wisdom of the Knicks’ front office and the Orioles chances in October. The Disc is as good as a metropolitan record store, but executed on a slightly smaller scale. Historically, many of the DJs for Connecticut College’s great radio station, WCNI, have maintained a relationship with the store. In turn, Connecticut College students have been a good friend to independent music, from the early 1980’s, when the campus was one of the first in the northeast to host R.E.M., to more recently, when groundbreaking bands such as Mogwai and American Analog Set played at the Cro’s Nest in the student center.
Sunset at Stonington Point. Stonington Borough is a tiny village of meticulously preserved historic houses packed on a peninsula that just happens to have unimpeded water views out to Rhode Island and, in the form of Fishers Island, the state of New York. Located at the very tip of the peninsula is Stonington Point. In warm weather, many people converge here at dusk for picnics or to watch the draggers returning to dock (Stonington is home to Connecticut’s last commercial fishing fleet.) In rougher weather, Stonington Point provides dramatic views of whitecaps, seagulls suspended in the gale, shifting skies, and brave/foolhardy windsurfers riding the breeze out into the Sound. The walk through the village to the Point is worth the trip on its own, as the village has seen a substantial amount in its centuries. Stonington families successfully repelled a British onslaught during the War of 1812. Some houses still bear cannonball markings as evidence of the conflict. Moreover, those who have called Stonington home include the man who discovered Antarctica and the poets Stephen Vincent Benet and James Merrill.
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