November 24, 2024

Photo, above: Tonight -- Sunday -- is Open Mic at the Museum

6 to 9 PM! Admission by donation.

Download our AUTUMN Newsletter pdf.

The Custom House is Open Thurs.- Fri. 1-5 PM,

Sat. 10 AM-5 PM, & Sun. 1-5 PM.

NLMS thanks our MEMBERS!

& cheers to our sponsors: Anthony and Elizabeth Enders Fund - Charter Oak Credit Union - Chelsea Groton Foundation - Community Foundation of Eastern CT - Frank Loomis Palmer Fund, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee - Kozmik Music Services - Ludwick Family Foundation - Maco Family Fund - Louise Novitch - Robinson+Cole - Veolia/NL Water Authority. Thank you!

tonight -- Sunday, November 24, 6-9 pm

Open Mic at the Museum

Co-hosted by Kenny 'Doc' Frazier and Christina Corcoran, our monthly open mic welcomes music, poetry, prose, stand-up, or just state what is on your mind. Show up at 5:45 and get on the list! Open to all ages and abilities for fun and camaraderie. It's a friendly crowd!

Sponsored by Kozmik Music Services. Admission is by donation. The evening is available on the Open Mic at the Museum Facebook page. The Open Mic page also posts many of the individual performances from past sessions. Photo, above: October Open Mic.

New in the Shop: Temporary Tattoos! -- feathers, sharks, ladybugs, ravens, & hearts.

Saturdays, Sundays, & by appointment year-round

a popular destination for more than a century.

Visit Inside NL Harbor Pequot Light

Visit Long Island Sound's oldest and tallest lighthouse.

Climb 116 steps up into the lighthouse lantern. We offer tours every Saturday & Sunday at noon. The views are spectacular! Tours for up-to five people take approximately 40 minutes. To book a tour at other times, send us an email.

Thanks to our friends at the Chelsea Groton Foundation, New London residents may visit inside New London Harbor Lighthouse with a $5 ticket, and admission to the Custom House is Free through 2024. Don't miss this opportunity. Sign up today!

For tour dates in 2025, Sign up here.

Visit Inside Harbor Light!

Saturday, December 7 -- Two great events at the Custom House

2:30 PM -- 41st NLMS Annual Meeting
4 o'clock -- NLMS Holiday Celebration

TUBAS at the CUSTOM HOUSE - a Holiday Singalong

Join us for a real holiday treat! FUN, FREE AND OPEN TO ALL.

Watch for this: Alecia Primer, executive director of NL Landmarks writes: We’ll do our Bank Street tour on Sat 7 Dec at 10, rain date the next day. Tom Couser is giving the tour

Support Urgent Repairs for

Ledge Lighthouse!

Ledge Light committee chairman Capt. David Henry writes: The masonry work has been completed. The only task remaining is the installation of the down spout sleeves. That will take just a couple of hours.

They will be removing all the gear/equipment and tools this week if the barge can get there with the weather. Masonry was color matched and a specialized silica mineral coating was applied to the repaired area. This is a bio friendly product that allows the bricks to breathe rather than trapping moisture within. This is the preferred product type for stone restoration (historic preservation).

If everyone who 'loves Ledge Light', who has gone out on a visit, or who considers the lighthouse their 'Point Alpha' would donate just $10, we'd reach our goal today.

Thank you for your donations to date. We've raised $4,356, which is $20,644 short of the $25,000 needed to cover the shortfall... Please help if you can.

DONATE to Ledge Lighthouse!

The Custom House Museum Gift Shop is full of holiday treats! We've brought back some favorite stocking-stuffers, and have plenty of fun new items!

Saturday, November 30, is Small Business Saturday – a day to celebrate and support small businesses & all they do for their communities. We're offering 10% off of everything that day, (except for lighthouse t-shirts & NLMS mugs -- fundraisers for the lighthouses & roof)!

Now in the SHOP: light-up duck key rings -- they quack!; a new favorite gardener's gift -- a knitted snail in a sack, right. Says the RHS: Slugs and snails are common garden animals. A few species feed on garden plants, but most prefer to eat rotting material and could be considered a gardener’s friend. (Make Friends with Mollusks.)

In the SHOP - from top: temperature-change mugs; erasable creature pens.

In the SHOP - from top: crazy crab multi-tool; wooden whale nail brush.

Below: tea cozies, chowda' bowls, sea salts, hot sauces, linens, and tea towels listing most US varieties of oysters.

What can you do with an NLMS membership?

Buy an NLMS membership & give one as a gift

(it's 50% off additional gift memberships)!

Members receive a 10% discount in the Gift Shop & member prices to special events.

This week at the Custom House

We hosted the final JIBBOOM Club of the season last week at the Custom House -- and it was a doozie.

Capt. Greg DeBrule of Niantic's Black Hawk party fishing boat gave a rousing talk, at one point calling back to his boat -- which was out on a cruise -- where the report was they'd already caught 256 black fish and several large tuna! That's right, blue fin tuna have been part of the haul over the past week and consequently Black Hawk's phone has been ringing off the hook.

A life-long waterman, Greg commented on everything from the harm to whales from underwater vibrations at nearby wind farms to the importance of being pro-active with PR. It's an amazing business Greg and his family run. They provide our fabulous Seal Watch trips every spring. (The seals, he says, will eventually deplete the fish in the area. He estimates there are 900+ living now at Little Gull.) Follow the Black Hawk online.

Search back in the Day newspaper archives and in the 19th century journalists regularly sought out the wisdom of Jibboomers -- aka the local seasoned mariners who often could be found gathered together at some downtown watering hole. Jibboomers commented on all things maritime: the port, boats, storms. We still benefit from their astute observations today at the JIBBOOM Club. Capt. Greg's talk was the last of the season, however. JIBBOOM will resume in March of 2025.

Another captain keeping us informed is Capt. Pat Kennedy of NL's Kennedy Diving & Marine. Pat gave our lighthouse and full-moon tours back in 2011 and still regularly takes us out to Race Rock Light -- a rather tricky undertaking.

Later today Pat receives an award from the Ancient Order of Hibernians -- he is to be NL's Hibernian of the Year -- and deservedly so! Pat helps with the Currach Regatta running their safety boat among other things. Pat performs community-service events year-round -- he is on-call on the water winter through fall! New London Harbor is lucky to have him! Congratulations, Pat!

Make history! You can rent the Custom House for your next special event.

A wedding rehearsal dinner last week brought 35 guests and seven cooks & servers to the Custom House.

The groom-to-be was a tugboat captain, so we pulled out all the stops to feature our tug models and paintings. Fantastic!

--Susan