Baking powder clan sell private island for first time in 120 years

A private island in the United States has changed hands for the first time in over a century. 

Hay Island, in the state of Connecticut, was bought in the early 1900s by William Ziegler Senior, a Gilded Age industrialist who co-founded the Royal Baking Powder Company. 

Born to a humble farming family, Ziegler had amassed a $US10 million fortune by the time of his death in 1905 – equivalent to about $558 million in today’s Australian dollars. 

For the next century, Hay Island was passed between generations of the Ziegler dynasty.

The last family members to own the island were Cynthia Ziegler and her husband, Renfrew Brighton. 

The couple put Hay Island on the market in March 2025 with an asking price of $US35 million ($53.8 million). 

The listing by Sotheby’s International Realty Greenwich billed it as a “private island at the end of a gated causeway on Darien’s cherished waterfront coast”. 

It is possible to travel to the island by car thanks to a driveway that connects the retreat to the mainland. 

An ample weatherboard house with six bedrooms and seven bathrooms was added in 2010 to replace a historic summer cottage. 

Inside, the home features six fireplaces, a country kitchen and a wood-panelled library with stunning sea views. 

Outside there is a two-bedroom guest cottage, pool house, infinity pool, boat dock and private sandy beach. 

Hay Island sold last week to an anonymous buyer for $US26.5 million ($40.8 million), according to online price records. 

It may sound like a lot of money, but this isn’t the most expensive island the Ziegler family has sold in recent years. 

In 2023, the clan offloaded nearby Great Island to the Town of Darien for $US85 million ($131 million). 

The same year, they sold a farm next door to Great Island for $US57.5 million ($88.5 million).