“Music that would liven a cemetery!  Ladies dance for 35 cents!”

So went the adverts for the Willow Point Casino, just around the corner from what is now Mystic Shipyard, until a massive fire destroyed it in 1931. It was the source of the name that today confounds so many: Casino Road on Willow Point.

The old Willow Point Casino, like many in New England at the turn of the last century, was built as a recreation and dance hall – not a gambling facility as casinos are generally known for today. It had been the site of the West Mystic Boat Company, and was purchased by Silas Maxson for a “casino” in 1915. 

Maxson built a rather rustic-looking hall, and put Ebenezer Morgan in charge of entertainment. Morgan hired a lively five-piece band led by Bill Noyes or sometimes Nick Danz. A ferry called “The Summer Girl” brought customers from Noank, Mason's Island, and elsewhere to the Casino.

A train station right at the tracks on School Street was dropping off other eager customers from many neighboring towns.  (That train station was moved just across the street after the ‘38 Hurricane, and it still stands today – now privately owned.)

Customers got off the train and made the short walk down the road to the casino.

The casino had 6,000 square feet of dance floor, and “Japanese fairyland decorations” – whatever those were. Men wore white flannels, straw hats and blue jackets, and the women, of course, would have been decked out in organdy, white gloves and  bonnets in those days.

Casinos and dance halls were popular all over the country, and in Europe, too, but there were always some who frowned on them. An elderly man is recorded as writing “the morals there rival those of Sodom and Gomorrah…” He saw a woman with her head on a man’s shoulder, “… which upset my moral equilibrium.” But half the village there “roared with laughter” at his complaints.

When WWI broke out, the “Home Guard” held their drills at the casino, and by war’s end, boxing matches were being held: Pinky Burns of New London against a sailor from the Sub Base! read one advert.

Alas, in 1931, a fire completely destroyed the casino on the night just before the new owner, Mr. Hoxie, was to open with an elaborate, brand new show. The burned hulk stood for a while, and then much of what was left was later blown away by the great Hurricane of ‘38, as were so many other buildings and homes on Willow Point and elsewhere along the shore. 

Right after WWII, the old casino property became the site of the Willow Point Woodworks, who advertised that they “built anything that could be built of wood.”  They did a fine business until some kids playing with firecrackers set a pile of sawdust afire. That building, too, went up in flames. For years after this, Zigmond “Ziggy” Szestowicki then ran a small marina on the site.

Meanwhile, in 1904 (possibly earlier), Minnie and Theron McCreery purchased land on the end of Casino Road and thereon built a boat shop on it, along with a big house that is still standing. He built launches, smacks, seine boats and a 28-foot hunting cabin launch in his shop.

He also invented a ‘mud-digger’ with which he dredged a 30-foot-wide channel clear from his shop to the main channel out in the river.  It was so successful that others as far as Stonington rented his mud-digger from him.

He was building boats and tinkering with his dredger till he sold his business to the West Mystic Boatyard. 

The site of the old casino has now been purchased by Little Gull Marine, Inc., and it is being restored as a small boatyard for the restoration of classic boats. The intent is to restore the waterfront for ‘limited use’ and to a circa 1930s look. There will be probably less than a half-dozen slips there. Little Gull Marine is working with MP&G Wood Boat Restoration LLC who practice traditional plank-on-frame wood construction, and specialize in extensive restorations of sailboats.  

The old McCreery property, now Harbor View Landing, is restored with high-end vacation rental cottages. Owner Matt McCormack is looking for old photographs of the original site and activities on Willow Point that he can place in the cottages.

So, what’s in a name? A lot, sometimes.

G.S. Casale is president of the Willow Point Homeowners Association.