Stonington Borough

When was the spur into Stonington Borough, and the accompanying trackage on the old Stonington Line dock, finally lifted? Did it survive until the 1938 hurricane, or was it removed when the Stonigton steamboat service was cancelled? And, incidentally, when did that occur?

This was the first trackage laid in the State of Connecticut (dating to 1833) and some of the earliest ancestral trackage of the NYNH&H.

New England Steamship Lines ended Stonington Line boat service about 1903. There was a series of mishaps that year involving vessels of several other NESS routes and the Stonington vessels were pressed into service on other routes. Given the fact that New London, served by NESS, was not all that far away and NESS also served a number of ports to the East, Stonington Line service was never resumed. However, NESS docked spare boats and boats awaiting disposal at Stonington for many more years. About 1915 a number of stored vessels, PILGRIM and PURITAN, built for Fall River Line, and oscillating engine CONNECTICUT, built for Stonington Line, were cleaned out of Stonington. In the book SPLENDOR SAILED THE SOUND, there is a 1929 inventory of NESS properties and the first item listed is the dock at Stonington, 128,415 sq ft, 603 ft south side, 365 ft north side, rail connection.