A four-bedroom summer home on its own tiny island off the coast of Connecticut could be yours – if you have $1.3 million to spend.
The 2,000-square-foot house, which was first built in 1912 and sits alone on the acre-wide Belden Island off the coast from Branford, has gone on the market for roughly $1.295 million.
The property is located in the Long Island Sound just 75 minutes from New York City, and comes fully furnished, with an eat-in kitchen featuring two refrigerators.
It boasts four bedrooms and two bathrooms, an irrigated grass lawn, hardwood floors, two stone fireplaces and deeded shellfish beds and a wraparound porch, which allow the homeowners to enjoy the views of Connecticut’s 365 Thimble Islands.
‘From sunrise to sunset, the feeling of being out there on this wraparound rocking chair porch is really something that has to be experienced,’ Margaret Muir, the listing agency for the property, told Realtor.com.
The four-bedroom summer home sits alone on the acre-wide Belden Island, off the coast from Branford, Connecticut
The house is 2,000-square-feet and the property includes an irrigated grass lawn. It is selling for nearly $1.3 million
A wraparound porch offers residents a stunning view of the 365 Thimble Islands
‘You have an occasional boat going by or someone paddling by in a canoe or kayak at a distance, but it’s so serene and it’s so special.’
She said the interior of the house has intentionally not been updated much, with a gas stove and griddle.
‘It’s part of the life there,’ she said. ‘You’re not rushing to get through the meal and get things cleaned up to get somewhere. You’re taking things at a slower pace, and I think there’s something to be said for that.’
Water for the property comes from the city, and a generator and propane power the house during the spring and summer months, after which, Muir said, ‘you would drain the pipes and close it up, and look forward to next spring.’
The house features wainscotted walls and ceilings, giving it a rustic-looking interior
Some of the bedrooms, like this one, offer views of the Long Island Sound. The property is just 75 minutes from New York City
The house has two stone fireplaces, making the living room a comfy place to warm up at night
The kitchen purposely has not been updated, with a gas stove and griddle, to maintain the slow lifestyle of the island
The home features an eat-in kitchen, with enough room for eight people to gather around the table
The island is located off the coast of Connecticut in the Long Island Sound
The house is only reachable by ferry from the seaside community of Stony Creek, Connecticut, which has its own restaurants and downtown area.
Once on the shore, Thimble Island residents can either park their cars or find other ways to the Branford Amtrak and Metro North train stations, which is also not far from the city of New Haven.
‘The mainland town or village is called Stony Creek, and it is a charming fairy-tale location to begin with,’ Muir said in the Realtor.com article. ‘Then you leave the shore and you head into the Thimble Islands, and each one is different, but they all have a common history.’
The Thimble Islands are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and are 365 independent islands in the Long Island Sound, prompting locals to joke there is an island for each day of the year.
‘A lot of people who live in the Thimbles have vacationed there for generations,’ Muir said. ‘It’s just part of who they are, and they look forward to it very much every year.’
‘They know other island homeowners and other families who’ve been there over the generations.’
Belden Island is just one of the 365 islands that make up the Thimble Islands in the Long Island Sound
The property comes with a dock for the ferry that brings residents to their homes, as well as two deeded shellfish beds
The summer home overlooks a sandy beach that leads directly into the Sound
The group of islands were believed to have been the tops of hills prior to the last Ice Age and have since served as deep-water anchorage for sailors on the Sound
The largest island in the archipelago is known as Horse Island, a 17-acre property that is owned by Yale University and used as an ecological laboratory.
Money Island, the next largest at 12 acres, has 32 houses on it, according to Realtor.com, and others are so small that they appear to be no more than rocks at low-tide.
The group of islands were believed to have been the tops of hills prior to the last Ice Age and have since served as deep-water anchorage for sailors on the Sound.
Today, 23 of the islands are inhabited, with Belden Island, Jepsen Island and the mysterious Wheeler Island – where Captain William Kidd’s treasure is said to be buried, now on sale for a total of $5.3 million.
Jepson Island has 0.28 acres of land and a 1,018 square-foot home. Belden Island has slightly more room with 1.04 acres and 2,038 square feet. Wheelers Island is the largest island at 0.77 acres and 2,462 square feet of living space.
The Wheelers Island property features eight bedrooms, five bathrooms, wraparound porches, an eat-in kitchen with granite counter tops and year-round electricity, according to Mansion Global.
Sellers Christine and Edmund Stoecklein previously sold two of the islands, the Cut-in-Two Island and the eight-acre Rogers Island, but decided to keep some others.
They are now living in Washington State.
