A Wealthy Family Owned A Private Island For Over 100 Years. They Moved South And Sold It For $26.5 Million.

• A family that got rich selling baking powder has sold a private island priced at $35 million.
• The Ziegler family has owned Hay Island, just off the Connecticut coast, for over a century.
• Family members have moved to other spots in the US, so they no longer need such a large property.

Many families dream of having a private island to call their own. In Connecticut, a new family just made that a reality.

Hay Island, an 18-acre piece of land off the coast of Connecticut, was sold for $26.5 million.

The last owners owned it for over 100 years. The Zielgler family acquired the island over 100 years ago, according to property records. The family is descended from industrialist William Ziegler Sr., who cofounded the Royal Baking Powder Company in the 1800s.

The island remained in his family as a summer cottage but was most recently used as a full-time residence by Cynthia Ziegler and her husband, Renfrew Brighton, according to Mansion Global.

The earlier summer cottage has been replaced with an 8,684-square-foot New England colonial home. The property also includes a two-bedroom guest house, an infinity-edge pool, and two beaches.

Property records show the island was sold in two transactions in November 2025 to Hay Island CT II LLC, one for $6,360,000 and the other for $20,140,000.

While this wasn't the first island the Ziegler sold, it was the last. In 2023, the family sold their other island, Great Island — just across Ziegler Cove from Hay Island — for $85 million to the town of Darien. The town plans to turn it into a public park.

The Ziegler family's current net worth is unclear, but Forbes estimated it to be $2.8 billion in 2015, due in part to investments in a cigar company.

Take a look around Hay Island to see where the Zieglers once lived and vacationed.