Many of the historical attractions in New Rochelle are located in the Long Island Sound. Some of these attraction are actually part of New Rochelle, and visitors can check many of them out on their visits to the area. Some of the area’s main attractions include Execution Rocks Lighthouse, Huckleberry Island, and Columbia Island.

Execution Rocks, it is thought, got its name from the Revolutionary War. It’s said that British officers would chain people to the rocks at low tide so that they were slowly, inexorably executed as the tide came in. No one knows whether or not this is really true, but it makes for interesting folklore.

Execution Rocks holds a granite lighthouse that’s still in use. You can still see the attached light keeper’s house, but it hasn’t been occupied since the lighthouse was automated in 1979. Right now the US Coast Guard controls the lighthouse, and the public isn’t allowed on the island. However, you can get a closer view during the Spring Cold Coast Cruise that the Long Island Lighthouse Society puts on each year.

Huckleberry Island and Columbia Island are two other islands off the coast of New Rochelle. Columbia Island was once the home of a major television studio, but it’s now a private residence. Huckleberry Island is largely uninhabited, but it’s interesting because it’s a favorite nesting place of many of the coastal birds that inhabit the New Rochelle area.

These islands are just some of the interesting things you can see when you visit New Rochelle. Sometimes you can take special cruises out just to explore these islands, and you can see them with binoculars or telescopes if you stand on the shore of the Long Island Sound. They simply add some interesting history to New Rochelle.