$14M mansion belonged to one of CT's most lavish estates
The century-old “Riegel Point” mansion in Fairfield, once the centerpiece of one of the most expensive estates along Connecticut’s Gold Coast, is on the market for $14 million.
Located at 1143 Sasco Hill Road in Southport, the Elizabethan Renaissance-style mansion — with its views of Sasco Beach and the Long Island sound — along with its adjacent properties, was built by the same architect behind the Riverside Church in Manhattan. The full property last sold for nearly $50 million in 2001 and was listed at $62 million in 2016. Real estate company William Raveis said the full, 20-acre Southport estate was split into seven lots so more people have an opportunity to live by the water.
The main house sits on three acres of land and has more than 30 rooms across four stories and more than 19,000 square feet. It includes nine bedrooms and 15 bathrooms. An elevator transports residents between levels from the basement — with a safe room, large recreation area, storage rooms and halls — to the third floor and its numerous bedrooms, gym, game room, study and more. The grand entrance on the first floor leads to a library, movie theater, wine tasting room, grand ballroom and more. There are also 11 fireplaces and a detached, six-car garage.
The large, ornately designed rooms with deepbrown wooden accents feature large windows and doors offering panoramic views of the Long Island Sound that, thanks to the owner’s original family, can never be obstructed.
New York architect Henry C. Pelton built “Riegel Point” for Benjamin DeWitt Riegel and Leila Edmonston Riegel in 1923. According to preservationists at Historic New England, DeWitt Reigel was a mill owner and businessman who split his time between Manhattan and Ware Shoals, South Carolina, where he had operated a mill. Preservationists said friends likely brought the family to Connecticut.
“It was most likely Benjamin Riegel’s business acquaintances, like C. B. Sturges of Kenzie’s Point East, and other businessmen, who suggested Fairfield as a location for a country estate,” according to the Riegel-Emory family papers entry at Historic New England. “Many were already involved in plans to develop Sasco Hill as an upscale area or Fairfield starting with a golf club. Riegel did indeed become one of the founders of the Fairfield Country Club, and its first secretary.”
The home stayed in the family for decades and in 1997, Katherine Riegel Emory, daughter of the original owners, deeded a conservation restriction to the Aspetuck Land Trust protecting nearly 2,000 feet of waterfront from development to serve “as one of the last remaining examples of the gracious and expansive open spaces on Long Island Sound that were traditionally a part of the large estates that formerly flourished in the area,” according to the deed.
“The views of this open space have given pleasure, not only to generations of owners and their families, but also to generations of the public, who enjoy the sight of the scenic, undeveloped shoreline from two nearby public beaches, from the public road past Southport Beach, and from the waters of Long Island Sound,” Emory wrote in the deed. “In an area as rapidly and as intensively developing as the Connecticut shore, this remaining, highly-scenic open space is a unique treasure which provides pleasure and spiritual renewal to many, as well as sanctuary to birds and animals.”
The mansion, at $14 million, is an outlier for the area. The parsed property first sold in 2021 for $17.5 million.
Real estate tracking firm Redfin listed median home prices for the home’s ZIP code at $800,000 in December. Redfin notes average homes sell for around one-percent under the asking price and are off the market in about 50 days, while the hottest homes sell for two-percent above asking and are only on the market about a month.
According to Zillow, taxes on the property are estimated to be around $239,000-per-year.
Jackie Davis, the listed agent for the former Reigel home at 1143 Sasco Hill Road in Southport, can be reached at 203-258-9912.