Island Lady Selling Two Thimbles

Christine Chiarella — known in Stony Creek as the ​“Island Lady” because she owns ten of the Thimble Islands — has now put two of them up for sale, including Jepson Island (pictured), which is nearest to the busy harbor.

She and her husband, John G. Chiarella, Jr., a landscaping entrepreneur whom she married two years ago, have restored all the houses and grounds on the 10 islands. Chiarella, previously known as Christine Svenningsen, took her husband’s name when they married in June, 2010. Click here to read our story about their wedding.

According to sources, he is very much her entrepreneurial partner as well as her husband, a prediction made when she, a top landowner and he a top contractor, tied the knot. Over the years they have reshaped the area’s storied island archipelago and changed the economic landscape of Stony Creek. Her family flag along with Palm trees adorn many of her islands.

Now they want to sell two of their islands. Jepson Island, which she purchased for $1.4 million in 2003, is on the market for $1.995 million. Belden Island (pictured), purchased for $2.770 million in 2006, is now on the market for $3.995 million, according to her realtors. Jepson, the smaller island, contains a two-bedroom house and is about 1,000 square feet. Belden Island has a four-bedroom home.

With the help of Chiarella’s company, Ultimate Services, Inc., Mrs. Chiarella transformed her islands, conducting major renovations on the houses and grounds, employing contractors, landscapers and a host of other workers who daily boat to her islands from Stony Creek. Chiariella’s company is known as the ​“Green Army” around Stony Creek. On the mainland she has purchased several houses.

The couple has a home on Rogers Island, for which she paid $22.3 million in 2003, a figure that shocked Creekers back then. They were married at their Rogers Island home over a June weekend that included three major gatherings at three of their islands. 


Chiarella, 59, started his company, in 1971 while still in high school. He began with just one employee, a push lawn mower and a handful of clients, his website says. Now his staff numbers 100 and is located in Greenwich, Westport and Wolcott, the company headquarters.

Christine Chiarella, 54, first came to Stony Creek when she and her late husband, John Svenningsen, purchased West Crib Island in 1976 for $131,500. He was the chairman and CEO of Amscan in Elmsford, N.Y., one of the world’s largest suppliers of party goods, including hats, paper plates and balloons. She worked for the company as an artist. He died in 1997.

Following his death she became a savvy real estate entrepreneur, first purchasing Wheeler Island in 1998 for $520,000. From 2003 to 2007, she went on an island-buying spree, hiring Chiariella’s company to oversee the landscaping, land restoration and ground management of the islands. 

Over the years she has spent more than $30 million for her islands, excluding the costs for major renovations. She views her restoration of the properties as a labor of love and is looking for like-minded buyers who share her commitment to preserving Jepson and Beldon islands, Margaret Muir, of the Madison office of William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty, told the Eagle.

Tony Nuzzo, Muir’s colleague at the realty company listing the islands, said Mrs. Chiarella is selling the two islands because she ​“is trying to simplify.”

As it turns out, Jepson and Belden are not the only Thimbles on the market. Pot Island,which features a 6,300 square Victorian home, previously a hotel with 16 rooms and 11 bedrooms, and other amenities, is listed for $2.85 million. The house is listed with Joe Piscitelli of Coldwell Banker. 

In the last seven years, Mrs. Chiariella has become one of the top three taxpayers in Branford and is also a top employer.

A mother of six, she once told the Associated Press that she wanted each of her children to have an island. Besides Rogers, she owns her original island, West Crib.

She and her husband spend a major portion of their year in Bedford, New York.

###