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Wealthy widow collects Thimbles

Thimble Islands, that is. She says she's saving them from developers as taxes push out some owners.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published December 12, 2006

BRANFORD, Conn. - Some people collect stamps. Christine Svenningsen collects small islands.

The widow, whose private ways and extravagant tastes in real estate have tongues wagging along Connecticut's coast, has spent about $33-million in recent years to buy 10 of the Thimble Islands in Long Island Sound.

The secluded islands, known by the Mattabesec Indians as "the beautiful sea rocks," have attracted legends and luminaries for generations.

Svenningsen's buying spree has created something of a mystery.

"It's like a movie," said Valerie Wiel, who owns a market on the mainland portion of the town of Branford, of which the islands are a part. "Is she going to buy the whole town? ... To me, this points to more change than people would be comfortable with."

Of the dozens of Thimble Islands, about 25 are considered habitable. They are all within 3 miles of the coastline and are reachable only by boat. They were named long ago for thimbleberries, or black raspberries, which once grew wild there.

Svenningsen, the middle-aged widow of a party goods magnate, bought her latest island last week for $2.7-million and has her eye on another. She also typically buys the few houses on the islands.

"There's no master plan," Svenningsen said. "They're like little pieces of art. I get to put my brush to them."

She renovates many of the historic homes and fills her islands with colorful gardens.

"She tends to take very good care of the islands," said John Herzan of the New Haven Preservation trust. "It's not pure preservation, but it's high-quality renovation."

Playground for the rich

Houses on the islands have long been used for social gatherings for the rich and famous, as well as for summer vacations for families of modest means. President William Taft and actor James Earl Jones were among the visitors, while Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau and his wife, newscaster Jane Pauley, own an island home.

Svenningsen's late husband, John, bought a home on the islands in the late 1970s. After he died in 1997, she began to buy more of the islands.

Svenningsen shocked the town in 2003 when she paid $23.5-million for the 7.75-acre Rogers Island, with a mansion, tennis court, docks, pool and bath house. It remains the highest price one of the Thimbles has fetched.

She said developers might otherwise buy up the islands and build condominiums.

Her purchases have come as soaring real estate prices have caused a dramatic jump in property taxes, forcing some owners who lived on the islands and the mainland for generations to sell.

Some worry that the islands are increasingly becoming a playground for the rich. The days when families stayed in small homes with kerosene lamps, no TV and only rainwater for showers are giving way to trophy homes.

"The Thimble Islands were quaint. I don't think they're quaint any more," said Anthony DaRos, a former Branford selectman who has worked on the homes as a contractor. "They were such a great playground for everybody."

[Last modified December 12, 2006, 00:16:03]