Welwyn Preserve County Park is a public

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

in Glen Cove, on the

North Shore of Long Island The North Shore of Long Island is the area along the northern coast of New York's Long Island bordering Long Island Sound. Known for its extreme wealth and lavish estates, the North Shore exploded into affluence at the turn of the 20th centur ...

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...

. Welwyn Preserve was originally Welwyn Estate, the estate of the industrialist

Harold I. Pratt Harold Irving Pratt (February 1, 1877 – May 29, 1939) was an American oil industrialist and philanthropist. A director of Standard Oil of New Jersey, he also served on the Council of Foreign Relations from 1923 to 1939. Early life He was bor ...

. The main house, Welwyn, was one of the

Gold Coast Mansions Gold is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a Brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, s ...

. The Welwyn estate also includes woodland and other natural habitats, as well as part of the coast facing north onto

Long Island Sound Long Island Sound is a marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York to the south. From west to east, the sound stretches from the Eas ...

. The mansion is currently used as the

Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County The Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County (HMTC) is a Holocaust memorial, a museum and a tolerance center in Glen Cove, on the North Shore of Long Island in New York State. The museum and tolerance center is situated within th ...

History

Welwyn was originally the estate of

Harold Irving Pratt Harold Irving Pratt (February 1, 1877 – May 29, 1939) was an American oil industrialist and philanthropist. A director of Standard Oil of New Jersey, he also served on the Council of Foreign Relations from 1923 to 1939. Early life He was bor ...

, an American oil industrialist and philanthropist who was born in 1877, and died at Glen Cove in 1939. Harold Pratt, the owner of Welwyn, was one of the sons of

Charles Pratt Charles Pratt (October 2, 1830 – May 4, 1891) was an American businessman. Pratt was a pioneer of the U.S. petroleum industry, and he established his kerosene refinery Astral Oil Works in Brooklyn, New York. He then lived with his growing fam ...

, who was also an oil industrialist and was the founder of the

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. Welwyn includes the estate's original Georgian-style mansion, which was built in 1906, and was designed by

Babb, Cook & Willard Babb, Cook & Willard was a New York City-based architectural firm established in 1884 that designed many important houses and commercial buildings. The principals of the firm were George Fletcher Babb (1836–1915), Walter Cook (1843–1916), ...

. The home was renovated in 1920 by

Delano & Aldrich Delano & Aldrich was an American Beaux-Arts architectural firm based in New York City. Many of its clients were among the wealthiest and most powerful families in the state. Founded in 1903, the firm operated as a partnership until 1935, when Ald ...

. Pratt's wife, Harriet, was an avid horticulturist, leading to the installation of numerous

greenhouses A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse, or, if with sufficient heating, a hothouse) is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of transparent material, such as glass, in which plants requiring regulated climatic conditions are grown.These s ...

on the grounds as well as a luxury garden adjacent to the western side of the main home.

As a preserve

Welwyn Preserve is owned by

Nassau County, New York Nassau County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of New York. At the 2020 U.S. census, Nassau County's population is 1,395,774. The county seat is Mineola and the largest town is Hempstead. Nassau County is situated on western Long Island ...

, and is operated as a public preserve."Hiking Welwyn Preserve"
Dr. Patrick Cooney, NY-NJ-CT Botany Online, accessed 14 December 2010 The preserve includes a butterfly garden, extensive mature woodland, salt marsh and a tidal inlet. Dogs are not allowed in the preserve, in order to safeguard the wildlife.

The museum

In 1992, the

was founded at Welwyn, with the museum officially opening in 1994.

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

survivor Boris Chartan served as the first chairman of the museum until 2003. As of 2014, the museum is open on Mondays to Fridays from 10 am to 4:30 pm, and on Saturdays and Sundays from 12 pm to 4 pm.

References

External links

Welwyn Preserve
– Nassau County
Welwyn Preserve
– New York-New Jersey Trail Conference {{coord, 40.884, -73.639, type:landmark_region:US-NY_dim:2000, display=title Nature reserves in New York (state) Glen Cove, New York Protected areas of Nassau County, New York Mansions of Gold Coast, Long Island