Guilford, CT – Private Island for Sale, Only $2.1 Million

Guilford, CT – If the humdrum of suburban life is getting to you, one Guilford property for sale is offering a unique alternative: an island of your own.

A husband and wife who bought a small Connecticut island in 1973 are now trying to sell it.
Allyn and Marti Powell are asking $2.1 million for Horse Island and the four-bedroom home on it. Marti Powell says they’re selling the three-quarters-of-an-acre island for “age purposes” after spending every summer there for 36 years.

The house has electricity from a generator, water from the Guilford town water supply, a full septic system and telephone lines, as well as its own pier and dock.

While Branford boasts bunches of seasonal houses and mansions on its well-known Thimble Islands, Guilford has two private islands, Horse Island and Fosdick Island, that are home to summer getaways.

The 0.75-acre Horse Island and its four-bedroom home are in the Sachem’s Head area next to Fosdick Island and recently went on the market for $2.1 million.

Guilford’s Horse Island may be part of the Thimble Islands, but the jury’s still out on that one, its owners say.

“For most the year, it’s what you look forward to. It’s a great way of life. When you get up here, you forget anything about work,” Allyn Powell said.

The island’s first inhabitants may have been horses, which is where the land gets its equine-related name, according to local lore. The animals may have been left there by a passing ship.

In 1735, Ebenezer Talman became its first owner, followed by Ebenezer Stone, according to the book “A Treasury of Guilford Places” by Joel Eliot Helander.

Ebenezer Bartlett and three generations in his family owned the island beginning in 1761, and in 1875, Dan Benton Jr. bought it and land on the nearby shore. The story goes that Benton’s cattle pastured along the shore and wandered out to the island on a sandbar during low tide.

The Powells have walked on that same sandbar to shore, though boats are the primary form of transportation to and from the island.
“When you sit on that deck and see sun setting over the Thimble Islands, it’s breathtaking,” said Realtor Vinni Davis of Page Taft.

A deck wraps around three sides of the house, which has four bedrooms and a small bathroom. A living room leads into a small, open galley-style kitchen. Under the house lie storage drawers, which Allyn Powell jokingly calls the “coffins,” holding boating supplies. A wooden, outdoor shower stall sits a few feet from the house.

Davis says the real bragging rights come from being the only house on the island.
“A lot of the Thimbles have multiple houses on the islands, so this is truly a getaway,” she said.

Will the island be a tough sell in a slow economy? Davis thinks someone will purchase it by spring when the economy might be better, though she admitted this type of “rare” real estate, price point and lifestyle may be a challenge to promote among potential buyers.

The Powells say they feel lucky to have spent so many summers on the island, and to have been able to share it with their family and friends.
“The first thing you want to do when you come here is put on your bathing suit,” Allyn Powell joked. “Every night, we watch the sunset. They’re beautiful sunsets. It’s a lifestyle uniquely different from anything else.”