Wealthy Family Selling $35M Private Island They've Owned for 100 Years

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A family that got rich selling baking powder is selling 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.

Summer vacations on a private island are a dream for most families.

They were a luxurious reality, however, for descendants of William Ziegler Sr., an industrialist who cofounded the Royal Baking Powder Company in the 1800s.

Over 100 years ago, the Ziegler family acquired Hay Island, an 18-acre spit of land off the Connecticut coast with a 8,684-square-foot New England colonial home, a two-bedroom guest house, an infinity-edge pool, and two beaches.

While it previously served as summer “cottage,” it was recently used as a full-time residence. As family members moved to other places in the country, though, they no longer needed the island in the Long Island Sound. Now, the family has put Hay Island on the market for $35 million.

The Zieglers have recent experience offloading a private island for a eight-figure sum. In 2023, the family sold Great Island — just across Ziegler Cove from Hay Island, for $85 million to the town of Darien, which 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 investment in a cigar company.

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

Hay Island has been in the Ziegler family for over 100 years.

An aerial view of a private island in Connecticut.

William Ziegler Sr. amassed the family’s wealth in the late 1800s after cofounding the Royal Baking Powder Company.

The current house on the property was built in 2010.

The island was used as a full-time residence. Before the construction of the current house, it was used as a summertime retreat.

The 8,684-square-foot home was designed by architect Austin Patterson Disston.

Now the island is on the market for $35 million.

Leslie McElwreath of Sotheby’s International Realty’s Greenwich brokerage has the listing.

The family has relocated south and no longer regularly visits the Connecticut home.

Helen M. Ziegler, an heiress to the baking-powder fortune, sold a home in Palm Beach for $15.9 million in 2024, Palm Beach County property records show.

The family also owned other islands in Connecticut, and this is the last of their collection.

The Ziegler family listed Great Island, a 60-acre island across Ziegler Cove from Hay Island, for $100 million in 2022. Darien, a small town know for its wealthy residents, bought Great Island for $85 million with plans to turn it into a public park.