Visiting a Nearby 'Ghost Beach'

A mere half hour to the east of Norwalk lies Connecticut’s largest and newest ghost town, a barrier island between Bridgeport and Stratford that was once home to a popular amusement park and 45 private cottages.

From 1892 until the late 1950’s Pleasure Beach was a beehive of oceanside fun, with a beer garden, bandstand, carousel, and various amusements and arcades, all accessed by ferry and a wooden bridge built in 1927. Today there is only the wind and the surf … and echoes of laughter from more than a century ago.   

The only way to reach the ghost town now is by kayak, small motor boat, or a long shoreline hike from Long Beach in Stratford. Four of us “ghost hunters” made the long trek recently under a threatening, grey sky, a fitting setting for our spooky expedition.

Parking at Long Beach, we slogged southward for more than a mile through a graveyard of shells, the Sound eerily still. The only living things we observed were the many species of birds that have made the jetties and shoreline of Pleasure Beach their home -- seagulls, cormorants, snowy egrets, and even endangered osprey.

 The beach is a sad sight, littered from years of neglect. I’m reminded of the sense of hopelessness one feels while reading Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic novel, The Road. I observe a rusted lawn chair in the surf, its canvas resembling seaweed that gently sways with each small wave. My fellow ghost hunters pick up and discard several items: a plastic dinosaur, some beat up sunglasses, and a metal pole that serves as a javelin.   

 As we reach the tip of the island, a large, imposing structure comes into view.  The “Restaurant” sign for Pleasure Beach is intact, yet the grand old structure is choked by weeds and riddled with graffiti. Protruding from the restaurant is a boardwalk to nowhere.  The surrounding area and out buildings are littered with trash from vandals and partygoers.

We step gingerly around nails, broken glass, and rotting boards — what’s left of the Pleasure Beach carousel — reportedly demolished by vandals in 2009. We continue past downed light poles and along an abandoned road to the wooden bridge, littered with shells and charred near the mainland side.

The bridge was apparently torched by arsonists in 1996, leaving the park and its cottages cut off from the rest of the world. Many of the cottages have since been destroyed, though the towns have since made it illegal to trespass near the home sites.  

As the ghost hunters begin the long trudge back to the car, a pall falls over us.  Yes, there are scattered efforts to rebuild and reclaim, but at present this ghost beach is caught in limbo between its colorful past and an uncertain future. The real tragedy here is this island contains one-fourth of the remaining undeveloped beachfront in Connecticut, and yet we've allowed it to fall into neglect.  We need to either restore it to its natural glory, or tear it all down and give Pleasure Beach to the birds.

See the slasher movie trailer “Pleasure Beach”, filmed on site ,by clicking here.

View a poignant mini-documentary on Pleasure Beach by clicking here.

Editor's note: This article originally appeared on the New Canaan Patch website.