Griswold Point in Old Lyme

Griswold Point in Old Lyme, located at the mouth of the Connecticut River and within the Gateway Conservation Zone, received its name from the fact that, in 1645, Colonel George Fenwick, one of the original Saybrook Colony patentees (land owners) gave the land to Saybrook Colony resident and stone mason Matthew Griswold. Matthew's descendants continue to live and own land in this part of Old Lyme. The grant of land, also known as "Black Hall", was given to Griswold in payment for the perpetual care of his wife's gravesite and monument, originally located in Fort Saybrook near Old Saybrook's Pashebashauke Pavilion. Lady Alice Fenwick's tomb is now located in historic Cypress Cemetery on Saybrook Point (also within the Conservation Zone), having been moved there from the riverfront in 1870 when railroad construction leveled the riverfront area to construct the railway and ferry facilities.

Griswold Point (seen in this photo from a location over the mouth of the river) forms the southeasternmost corner of the Gateway Conservation Zone where the Connecticut River meets Long Island Sound. The Griswold Point spit, here shown broken by coastal storms into numerous individual emergent sand formations, is one of the most dynamic coastal features along the Connecticut shoreline. An important piping plover nesting sanctuary, it was only a few years ago that the spit was continuous from where it begins in the upper center to a point just to the south (right) of Great Island, seen in the foreground. In this photo, the very end of the spit finally connected to Great Island. The Black Hall River, which flows from the left above Great Island in the photo, flows directly through the openings in the spit instead of having to pass around the spit at the mouth of the river. The spit will shortly change forms again, perhaps reconstituting itself, extending once more in a continuous manner from its origin point.