Stratford Point Light

Theodore Judson spent four decades tending Stratford Point Light, going 39 years without a vacation. But of all the things he witnessed from his post on Long Island Sound, one was considerably harder to explain.

In 1915, Judson told a local newspaper that on July 4 he had spotted a group of 12 to 15 mermaids gathering around the rocks off Stratford Point. One sat apart from the others, combing her long golden hair. He described her as fair-skinned and human-like from the waist up, with silver-spangled scales below and a tail stretching roughly three feet. Naturally, he decided to catch her.

According to Judson, the mermaid scratched him, hissed, and slipped back into the water. What remained was her hairbrush, which his wife later produced as evidence. Judson had an explanation for the suspiciously ordinary object: mermaids, he said, collected their brushes from the staterooms of wrecked steamers. His wife supported his story, and friends reportedly never managed to persuade him to retract it.

The tale became part of the legend surrounding one of Stratford’s most colorful lighthouse keepers. Judson served at the point for roughly 40 years and became known locally for the stories he accumulated during his long watch over Long Island Sound.

The first Stratford Point Lighthouse was built on the west side of the mouth of the Housatonic River in 1822. In 1881, it was replaced by the present 35-foot tower, one of the earliest prefabricated cylindrical lighthouses built in the United States. Whether its signal still attracts mermaids is another question entirely.