Gold Coast Mansions
Encyclopedia
The north shore
of Long Island
, New York, USA in a sixteen mile stretch from Great Neck
to Huntington
, was a favorite retreat for the rich and the famous. Many were wealthy industrialists of the Gilded Age
who pioneered great industries. These captains of industry spent fortunes on their lavish lifestyles. Many worked in and around New York City
and created large estates on the north shore of Queens County, now Nassau County
, today commonly referred to as the "Gold Coast."
, great fortunes were made in steel, transportation and other industries.
America was a land of unparalleled natural resources, rapid growth, open space and the biggest cities had begun to form. Transportation had exploded across the landscape and those who could keep up with or facilitate the growth were the beneficiaries of great wealth.
Many new millionaires were created. Beginning in the early 1890s there was a great increase in fine home building on what became known as the Gold Coast of Long Island, NY.
, Astors
, Whitneys, Morgans, Pratts, Hearsts, and Guggenheims spent fortunes on lavish lifestyles including opulent mansion
s, castle
s and chateau
s. These are commonly referred to as Gold Coast Mansions, the topic of many books and articles (see references below) since the building spree began. One of these was the second largest residence in the U.S., Otto Kahn's Oheka Castle
. Over 500 mansions were built for the wealthy families of the industrial revolution along Long Island's north shore during in the beginning of the 20th century, most concentrated in 70 square miles (181.3 km²). Only about 200 survive.
The greatest architects, landscapers, decorators and firms including Stanford White
, John Russell Pope
, Guy Lowell
, and Carrère and Hastings
were employed. Architectural styles included English Tudor, French Chateau, Georgian, Gothic, Mediterranean, Norman, Roman, Spanish, and combinations of all of these. Rooms, outdoor structures, and entire buildings were dismantled in Europe to be reassembled on the North Shore. Besides the great houses there were formal gardens, gazebos, greenhouses, stables, guest houses, gate houses, swimming pools, reflecting pools, ponds, children’s playhouses, pleasure palaces, golf courses, and tennis courts. Activities such as horse riding, hunting, fishing, fox hunting, polo, yachting, golf, swimming, tennis, skeet shooting and winter sports, were accommodated by the estates or the exclusive clubs nearby: the Beaver Dam Club, the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club
(1871), Meadow Brook Club (1881), Manhasset Bay Yacht Club (1892), Piping Rock Club
(1912), and Creek Club (1923). Privacy was maintained with the huge land holdings, hedges and trees, fences, gates and gate houses, private roads, and lack of maps showing the location of the houses.
, poor financial decisions, increasing requirements for upkeep, and increasing income taxes depleted family fortunes. Houses built to last 500 or more years were gone in 50.
Thirteen of the notable mansions that are now gone are included in the table below with some of their features.
Beacon Towers was the inspiration for Gatsby’s mansion in F. Scott Fitzgerald
’s The Great Gatsby
.
North Shore (Long Island)
The North Shore of Long Island is the area along Long Island's northern coast, bordering Long Island Sound. The region has long been the most affluent on Long Island, as well as the most affluent in the New York metropolitan area, which has earned it the nickname "the Gold Coast." Though some...
of Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
, New York, USA in a sixteen mile stretch from Great Neck
Great Neck, New York
The term Great Neck is commonly applied to a peninsula on the North Shore of Long Island, which includes the village of Great Neck, the village of Great Neck Estates, the village of Great Neck Plaza, and others, as well as an area south of the peninsula near Lake Success and the border of Queens...
to Huntington
Huntington, New York
The Town of Huntington is one of ten towns in Suffolk County, New York, USA. Founded in 1653, it is located on the north shore of Long Island in northwestern Suffolk County, with Long Island Sound to its north and Nassau County adjacent to the west. Huntington is part of the New York metropolitan...
, was a favorite retreat for the rich and the famous. Many were wealthy industrialists of the Gilded Age
Gilded Age
In United States history, the Gilded Age refers to the era of rapid economic and population growth in the United States during the post–Civil War and post-Reconstruction eras of the late 19th century. The term "Gilded Age" was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their book The Gilded...
who pioneered great industries. These captains of industry spent fortunes on their lavish lifestyles. Many worked in and around New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and created large estates on the north shore of Queens County, now Nassau County
Nassau County, New York
Nassau County is a suburban county on Long Island, east of New York City in the U.S. state of New York, within the New York Metropolitan Area. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,339,532...
, today commonly referred to as the "Gold Coast."
Industrial Revolution & The Expansion of the Gold Coast
During the Second Industrial RevolutionSecond Industrial Revolution
The Second Industrial Revolution, also known as the Technological Revolution, was a phase of the larger Industrial Revolution corresponding to the latter half of the 19th century until World War I...
, great fortunes were made in steel, transportation and other industries.
America was a land of unparalleled natural resources, rapid growth, open space and the biggest cities had begun to form. Transportation had exploded across the landscape and those who could keep up with or facilitate the growth were the beneficiaries of great wealth.
Many new millionaires were created. Beginning in the early 1890s there was a great increase in fine home building on what became known as the Gold Coast of Long Island, NY.
Lavish Homes and Estates - the Gold Coast Mansions
Wealthy industrialists and bankers such as the VanderbiltsVanderbilt family
The Vanderbilt family is an American family of Dutch origin prominent during the Gilded Age. It started off with the shipping and railroad empires of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and expanded into various other areas of industry and philanthropy...
, Astors
Astor family
The Astor family is a Anglo-American business family of German descent notable for their prominence in business, society, and politics.-Founding family members:...
, Whitneys, Morgans, Pratts, Hearsts, and Guggenheims spent fortunes on lavish lifestyles including opulent mansion
Mansion
A mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. real estate brokers define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...
s, castle
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
s and chateau
Château
A château is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor or a country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally—and still most frequently—in French-speaking regions...
s. These are commonly referred to as Gold Coast Mansions, the topic of many books and articles (see references below) since the building spree began. One of these was the second largest residence in the U.S., Otto Kahn's Oheka Castle
Oheka Castle
Oheka Castle, also known as the Otto Kahn Estate, is located on the Gold Coast of Long Island, in Huntington, New York. It was the country home of financier and philanthropist Otto Kahn. Built by Kahn between 1914 and 1919, it was and remains the second largest private home in the United States,...
. Over 500 mansions were built for the wealthy families of the industrial revolution along Long Island's north shore during in the beginning of the 20th century, most concentrated in 70 square miles (181.3 km²). Only about 200 survive.
The greatest architects, landscapers, decorators and firms including Stanford White
Stanford White
Stanford White was an American architect and partner in the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White, the frontrunner among Beaux-Arts firms. He designed a long series of houses for the rich and the very rich, and various public, institutional, and religious buildings, some of which can be found...
, John Russell Pope
John Russell Pope
John Russell Pope was an architect most known for his designs of the National Archives and Records Administration building , the Jefferson Memorial and the West Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.-Biography:Pope was born in New York in 1874, the son of a successful...
, Guy Lowell
Guy Lowell
Guy Lowell , American architect, was the son of Mary Walcott and Edward Jackson Lowell, and a member of Boston's well-known Lowell family....
, and Carrère and Hastings
Carrère and Hastings
Carrère and Hastings, the firm of John Merven Carrère and Thomas Hastings , located in New York City, was one of the outstanding Beaux-Arts architecture firms in the United States. The partnership operated from 1885 until 1911, when Carrère was killed in an automobile accident...
were employed. Architectural styles included English Tudor, French Chateau, Georgian, Gothic, Mediterranean, Norman, Roman, Spanish, and combinations of all of these. Rooms, outdoor structures, and entire buildings were dismantled in Europe to be reassembled on the North Shore. Besides the great houses there were formal gardens, gazebos, greenhouses, stables, guest houses, gate houses, swimming pools, reflecting pools, ponds, children’s playhouses, pleasure palaces, golf courses, and tennis courts. Activities such as horse riding, hunting, fishing, fox hunting, polo, yachting, golf, swimming, tennis, skeet shooting and winter sports, were accommodated by the estates or the exclusive clubs nearby: the Beaver Dam Club, the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club
Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club
The Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club is one of the oldest yacht clubs in the Western Hemisphere , located in Oyster Bay, New York, with access to Long Island Sound.-History:...
(1871), Meadow Brook Club (1881), Manhasset Bay Yacht Club (1892), Piping Rock Club
Piping Rock Club
Piping Rock Club is a country club in Locust Valley, New York.-History:The Piping Rock clubhouse was designed by American designer Guy Lowell, and built in 1911. Lowell based his designs on American colonial architecture a desire to link the house with the landscape...
(1912), and Creek Club (1923). Privacy was maintained with the huge land holdings, hedges and trees, fences, gates and gate houses, private roads, and lack of maps showing the location of the houses.
Demolished Mansions
Some mansions burned down, others that were abandoned were vandalized or overtaken by vegetation. Many were torn down to make room for developments, as the Great DepressionGreat Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, poor financial decisions, increasing requirements for upkeep, and increasing income taxes depleted family fortunes. Houses built to last 500 or more years were gone in 50.
Thirteen of the notable mansions that are now gone are included in the table below with some of their features.
| Mansion | Construction | Rooms | Acres | Architects | Status | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beacon Towers | 1917-1918 | 60 | 18 | Hunt & Hunt | demolished 1945 | 40°51'53"N 73°43'40"W (gate house) |
| Burrwood | 1898-1899 | 40+ | 1,000 | Carrère and Hastings | demolished 1995 | 40°53'1"N 73°28'12"W |
| Farnsworth | c. 1914 | 50 | Guy Lowell | demolished 1966 | 40°51'50"N 73°33'58"W (stable and garage) | |
| Ferguson Castle | 1908 | 40 | Allen W. Jackson | demolished 1970 | 40°53'39"N 73°25'6"W (gate house) | |
| Garvan | 1891 | 60 | 101 | demolished mid 1970s | 40°47'59"N 73°36'43"W | |
| Harbor Hill | 1900-1902 | 688 | Stanford White | demolished Spring 1947 | 40°47'57"N 73°38'18"W (approx) | |
| Laurelton Hall | 1902-1906 | 65 | 600 | Louis Comfort Tiffany | burned down 1957 | 40°52'22"N 73°29'1"W |
| Matinecock Point | 1913 | 41 | 257 | Christopher Grant La Farge | demolished 1980/1981 | 40°53'59"N 73°37'53"W |
| Meudon | c. 1900 | 80 | 300 | Charles P.H. Gilbert | demolished 1955 | 40°53'51"N 73°36'15"W |
| Pembroke | 1914-1916? | 82 | 62 | Charles P.H. Gilbert | demolished 1968 | 40°52'21"N 73°39'11"W |
| Roslyn House | 1891 | James Brown Lord | demolished 1974 | 40°47'55"N 73°36'43"W | ||
| Westbrook Farms/Knollwood Knollwood estate The Knollwood estate was a Gold Coast era castle-esque house and estate. Located in Muttontown, New York, USA, its ruins are now part of the Muttontown Preserve.... |
1906-1920 | 60 | 262 | Hiss & Weekes | demolished 1959 | 40°49'33"N 73°32'11"W |
Beacon Towers was the inspiration for Gatsby’s mansion in F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost...
’s The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby is a novel by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. First published in1925, it is set on Long Island's North Shore and in New York City from spring to autumn of 1922....
.
The Remaining Gold Coast Mansions
Many are now gone, yet many remain. Some are privately owned and others are public (colleges, monasteries, museums). Some are restored, while others are in distress. There are ruins of mansions and other structures that are of interest to many. Many of these mansions still exist, but many that once occupied large sections of land have made room for smaller and additional homes.See also
- CaumsettCaumsett State Historic ParkCaumsett State Historic Park is on Lloyd Neck, a peninsula extending into Long Island Sound, in the village of Lloyd Harbor, New York. Lloyd Neck was originally part of Queens County, New York....
, formerly the Marshall Field III Estate - Coindre HallCoindre HallCoindre Hall is a 40 room, mansion in the style of a medieval French château constructed in 1912 for pharmaceutical magnate George McKesson Brown. It overlooks of rolling land including a boathouse on the north shore of Long Island adjacent to Long Island Sound. Brown lost ownership of the...
- Delamater-Bevin MansionDelamater-Bevin MansionThe Delamater-Bevin Mansion, also known as The Bevin House, is a historic 22-room Victorian mansion on the north shore of Long Island, at 76 Bevin Road, within the Incorporated Village of Asharoken, New York...
- Estate (house)Estate (house)An estate comprises the houses and outbuildings and supporting farmland and woods that surround the gardens and grounds of a very large property, such as a country house or mansion. It is the modern term for a manor, but lacks the latter's now abolished jurisdictional authority...
- GreentreeGreentreeGreentree is a estate in Manhasset, New York on Long Island. Payne Whitney purchased the estate for his bride, Helen Julia Hay, in 1904. Later, John Hay Whitney and his second wife, Betsey, occupied the main house, where Mrs...
- Harbor HillHarbor HillHarbor Hill was a spectacular Long Island mansion built from 1899-1902 in Roslyn, New York, commissioned by Clarence Hungerford Mackay. It was designed by McKim, Mead, and White, with Stanford White supervising the project...
- Harry E. Donnell HouseHarry E. Donnell HouseThe Harry E. Donnell House, also known as The Hill, is a historic 33-room Tudor mansion located on the north shore of Long Island, at 71 Locust Lane, Eatons Neck, Suffolk County, New York. The mansion was designed by prominent New York City architect Harry E. Donnell for his wife, Ruth Robinson...
- Hempstead HouseHempstead HouseHempstead House, also known as Castle Gould or Gould-Guggenheim Estate, is a large estate located in Sands Point, New York . Measuring , , Hempstead House has three floors and contains 40 rooms, punctuated by an...
- Indian Neck HallIndian Neck HallIndian Neck Hall was a country residence of Frederick Gilbert Bourne, president of the Singer Sewing Machine Company. Located on the Great South Bay in Oakdale, New York, it was reputed to have been the largest estate on Long Island when it was built in 1897. The Georgian-style home was designed...
- Laurelton HallLaurelton HallLaurelton Hall was the home of noted artist Louis Comfort Tiffany, located in Laurel Hollow, Long Island, New York. The 65-room mansion on 600 acres of land, designed in the Art Nouveau mode, combined Islamic motifs with connection to nature, was completed in 1905, and housed many of Tiffany's...
- Nassau County Museum of ArtNassau County Museum of ArtThe Nassau County Museum of Art is located 20 miles east of New York City on the former Frick Estate, a property in Roslyn Harbor in the heart of Long Island’s Gold Coast. The main museum building, named in honor of art collectors and philanthropists Arnold & Joan Saltzman, is a three-story...
, formerly The Clayton Estate - Oheka CastleOheka CastleOheka Castle, also known as the Otto Kahn Estate, is located on the Gold Coast of Long Island, in Huntington, New York. It was the country home of financier and philanthropist Otto Kahn. Built by Kahn between 1914 and 1919, it was and remains the second largest private home in the United States,...
- Old Westbury GardensOld Westbury GardensOld Westbury Gardens is the former estate of John Shaffer Phipps , heir to a U.S. Steel fortune, in Nassau County, New York. It has been open to the public for tours since 1959....
- Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic ParkPlanting Fields Arboretum State Historic ParkPlanting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park, which includes the Coe Hall Historic House Museum, is an arboretum and state park covering over located in the Village of Upper Brookville in the town of Oyster Bay, New York....
- Vanderbilt MuseumVanderbilt MuseumThe Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum is located in Centerport on the North Shore of Long Island in Suffolk County, New York, USA. Named for William K...
- Webb InstituteWebb InstituteThe Webb Institute is a specialized private college in Glen Cove, New York that has only one program, which is undergraduate. Each graduate of Webb Institute earns a Bachelor of Science degree in naval architecture and marine engineering.- History :...
, formerly The Braes
External links
- GoldCoastMansions - Photos and history of the Gold Coast Mansions of Long Island, New York
- Long Island's Gold Coast - Guide to Long Island's Gold Coast mansions and ruins.
- wikimapia.org LIGC - Over 800 tags identifying Long Island's Gold Coast mansions and gardens
- oldlongisland.com - Dedicated to the preservation of Long Island's Gold Coast estates and other things old