Est. 1895 · LeCount House Sinking 1895 · Connecticut Glacial Lake · New London County History
Gardner Lake occupies 346 acres in the eastern Connecticut town of Salem, New London County. It is a clear glacial lake with a maximum depth of approximately 45 feet, popular with anglers for its bass, perch, and pike populations.
The documented historical event at Gardner Lake is unusually specific. In the winter of 1895, local grocer Thomas LeCount decided to move his summer home from one side of the lake to the other. Rather than haul it overland, he devised a plan: wait for the lake to freeze solid, mount the house on sleds, and slide it across the ice. He initiated the move in February 1895, advancing the house approximately 300 feet from the south shore before stopping for the night.
Overnight, the mill operators at the lake's outlet drew down water for their power operations. The gap this created between ice and water surface was sufficient to destabilize the ice beneath the house. When LeCount returned in the morning, the structure had broken through and pitched over. The second story and attic initially remained above water, creating what witnesses compared to a small lighthouse. Spring thaw eventually sent the remainder to the bottom.
The family recovered some possessions, but the stove, the sofa, and an upright piano were among the items too large to retrieve. They remain in approximately 15 feet of water. Wikipedia's Gardner Lake article documents the incident, and multiple Connecticut history sources have covered it in detail. The lake floor has since been documented by recreational divers who have located the debris field.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardner_Lake
- https://www.damnedct.com/gardner-lake-salem/
- https://moonmausoleum.com/the-sunken-house-at-the-bottom-of-gardner-lake/
- https://www.newenglandstormcenter.com/post/sunken-dreams-the-tale-of-salem-connecticut-s-house-at-the-bottom-of-the-lake
Phantom sounds
The piano went down with the house. That is the documented fact. What fishermen have reported for over a century is something more difficult to categorize.
On quiet evenings — the lake calm, the surrounding woods still — anglers have described hearing music. Faint, indistinct, but recognizable as piano. The direction they point toward is consistent: below. Not from the shore, not from across the water. From under it.
Damned Connecticut's documentation of the legend notes that this report has been circulating among lake users for generations, with different witnesses in different decades describing the same directional quality to the sound. The Brownstone Birding Blog documented the phenomenon in 2010, connecting it to the 1895 sinking and noting that the piano is confirmed to be on the lake floor based on diver accounts.
Acoustic explanations are available: the lake bottom and the water column between a submerged wooden resonating chamber and the surface could theoretically transmit sound in unusual ways, particularly under specific atmospheric conditions. Fishermen tend not to invoke acoustic theory when describing what they hear on a quiet evening on Gardner Lake. They say they hear a piano.
Notable Entities
LeCount's Piano
