The North Shore of Long Island is the area along the northern coast of

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

bordering

Long Island Sound Long Island Sound is a sound (geography), 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 (state), New York to the south. From west to east, ...

. Known for its extreme wealth and lavish estates, the North Shore exploded into affluence at the turn of the 20th century, earning it the nickname the Gold Coast. Historically, this term refers to the affluent coastline neighborhoods of the towns of North Hempstead (such as Great Neck and Port Washington), Glen Cove, and Oyster Bay in Nassau County and Huntington in Suffolk County. Some definitions may also include the parts of Smithtown that face the Sound. The region is also largely coextensive with the Gold Coast region of Long Island, though this region excludes Smithtown, as the easternmost Gold Coast mansion is the Geissler Estate, located just west of Indian Hills Country Club in the Fort Salonga section of Huntington. Being a remnant of the

Harbor Hill Moraine The Harbor Hill Moraine, in the geography of Long Island, forms the northern of two ridges along the "backbone" of Long Island. Description The Harbor Hill Moraine, skirting the North Shore, represents the terminal moraine of the most recent ...

the North Shore is somewhat hilly, and its beaches are more rocky than those on the flat, sandy

outwash An outwash plain, also called a sandur (plural: ''sandurs''), sandr or sandar, is a plain formed of glaciofluvial deposits due to meltwater outwash at the terminus of a glacier. As it flows, the glacier grinds the underlying rock surface and c ...

plain of the South Shore along the Atlantic Ocean. Large boulders known as

glacial erratics A glacial erratic is a glacially deposited rock (geology), rock differing from the type of country rock (geology), rock native to the area in which it rests. Erratics, which take their name from the Latin word ' ("to wander"), are carried by gla ...

are scattered across the area.

History

Colonial Era

The North Shore was first settled by Europeans in the mid-1600s. Much of the area was initially controlled by the Dutch colony of

New Netherland New Netherland () was a colony of the Dutch Republic located on the East Coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva Peninsula to Cape Cod. Settlements were established in what became the states ...

. Towns in the eastern part of the North Shore were settled by the English under the jurisdiction of the

New Haven Colony New Haven Colony was an English colony from 1638 to 1664 that included settlements on the north shore of Long Island Sound, with outposts in modern-day New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. The colony joined Connecticut Colony in 16 ...

and

Connecticut Colony The Connecticut Colony, originally known as the Connecticut River Colony, was an English colony in New England which later became the state of Connecticut. It was organized on March 3, 1636, as a settlement for a Puritans, Puritan congregation o ...

. This arrangement ended in 1664 with the English takeover of New Netherland, when all of Long Island was transferred into the new

Province of New York The Province of New York was a British proprietary colony and later a royal colony on the northeast coast of North America from 1664 to 1783. It extended from Long Island on the Atlantic, up the Hudson River and Mohawk River valleys to ...

. In its early days the North Shore was largely agricultural. Whaling was also a component of the early economy, as is commemorated in Cold Spring Harbor's Whaling Museum & Education Center.

Gilded Era

During the

Second Industrial Revolution The Second Industrial Revolution, also known as the Technological Revolution, was a phase of rapid Discovery (observation), scientific discovery, standardisation, mass production and industrialisation from the late 19th century into the early ...

, great fortunes were made in steel, transportation and other industries. Beginning in the early 1890s, lavish private estates were erected on what became known as the "Gold Coast" of Long Island. In all, over 500 mansions were built during this spree, concentrated in . Among those were expansive faux chateaux and castles belonging to the Vanderbilts, Astors, Whitneys,

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 ...

J. P. Morgan John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. As the head of the banking firm that ...

F. W. Woolworth Frank Winfield Woolworth (April 13, 1852 – April 8, 1919) was an American entrepreneur, the founder of F. W. Woolworth Company, and the operator of variety stores known as "Five-and-Dimes" (5- and 10-cent stores or dime stores) which featured a ...

, and others. Otto Kahn's Oheka Castle was reputed to be the second largest private home in the United States, second only to the

Biltmore Estate Biltmore Estate is a historic house museum and tourist attraction in Asheville, North Carolina, United States. The main residence, Biltmore House (or Biltmore Mansion), is a Châteauesque-style mansion built for George Washington Vanderbilt II ...

Asheville, North Carolina Asheville ( ) is a city in Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. Located at the confluence of the French Broad River, French Broad and Swannanoa River, Swannanoa rivers, it is the county seat of Buncombe County. It is the most populou ...

. Alternatively, some eschewed formal mansions and erected large shingle-style and clapboard "cottages", such as Theodore Roosevelt's Sagamore Hill. The greatest architects, landscapers, decorators and firms were employed, including

Stanford White Stanford White (November 9, 1853 – June 25, 1906) was an American architect and a partner in the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White, one of the most significant Beaux-Arts firms at the turn of the 20th century. White designed many houses ...

John Russell Pope John Russell Pope (April 24, 1874 – August 27, 1937) was an American architecture, architect whose firm is widely known for designing major public buildings, including the National Archives and Records Administration building (completed in 193 ...

, Guy Lowell, and

Carrère and Hastings Carrère and Hastings, the firm of John Merven Carrère ( ; November 9, 1858 – March 1, 1911) and Thomas Hastings (architect), Thomas Hastings (March 11, 1860 – October 22, 1929), was an American list of architecture firms, architecture firm ...

. Architectural styles included English Tudor, French Chateau, Georgian, Gothic, Mediterranean, Norman, Roman, Spanish, and combinations of these. Rooms, outdoor structures, and entire buildings were dismantled in Europe and reassembled on the North Shore. Complementing the great houses 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 held at the estates or exclusive clubs nearby such as the Beaver Dam Club, the

Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club The Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club is one of the older yacht clubs in the Western Hemisphere, ranking 18th after the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron, New York Yacht Club, Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, Mobile Yacht Club, Pass Christian Yacht C ...

(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 estates.

Post-War era

Following World War II many Gold Coast mansions were demolished and their estates subdivided into suburban-style developments. Only about 200 of the original 500 survive. As fortunes faded some of the largest or most prominent Gilded Era showpieces, such as Daniel Guggenheim's Gould-Guggenheim Estate, Theodore Roosevelt's Sagamore Hill, William Vanderbilt II's Eagle's Nest, the Alexander P. de Seversky Mansion, Otto Kahn's Oheka Castle, and

John Shaffer Phipps John Shaffer Phipps (August 11, 1874 – April 27, 1958) was an American lawyer and businessman who was an heir to the Phipps family fortune and a shareholder of his father-in-law's Grace Shipping Lines. He was a director of the Manufacturer' ...

' Westbury House were turned into museum homes, conference centers, and resorts. Others repurposed for non-residential uses include Herbert L. Pratt's Glen Cove country home, The Braes, turned into the

Webb Institute Webb Institute is a private college focused on engineering and located in Glen Cove, New York. Each graduate of Webb Institute earns a Bachelor of Science degree in naval architecture and marine engineering. The school is noted in the marine indu ...

Walter Chrysler Walter Percy Chrysler (April 2, 1875 – August 18, 1940) was an American industrial pioneer in the automotive industry, automotive industry executive, and the founder and namesake of American Chrysler, Chrysler Corporation. Childhood Chrysler ...

's Kings Point estate, "Forker House", turned into the

United States Merchant Marine Academy The United States Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA or Kings Point) is a United States service academies, United States service academy in Kings Point, New York. It trains its midshipman, midshipmen (as students at the academy are called) to serv ...

, and

U.S. Steel The United States Steel Corporation is an American steel company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It maintains production facilities at several additional locations in the U.S. and Central Europe. The company produces and sells steel products, ...

heir

Childs Frick Childs Frick (March 12, 1883 - May 8, 1965) was an American vertebrate paleontologist. He was a trustee of the American Museum of Natural History and a major benefactor of its Department of Paleontology, which in 1916 began a long partnership wi ...

's "Clayton" the Nassau County Museum of Art.

Geography

Delineated perceptually by the Queens-Nassau border, the North Shore is marked by a series of necks (peninsulas) and populated harbors. North Hempstead, Oyster Bay and Huntington comprise the land of this area, which is noted for its preservation of Gilded Age Estates. Beyond here, the towns of Smithtown and Brookhaven feature a similar trend of peninsulas and sheltered harbors are the sites of often similarly affluent areas such as Stony Brook, Port Jefferson, Wading River, etc., though the inclusion of these areas in the North Shore region is varied. Once the island splits into two forks at its east end, the hills largely flatten out (and enter the town of Riverhead) to an out-wash plain and becomes largely rural (and enters the Town of Southold), with an economic stronghold on agriculture, particularly in the shape of wineries and vineyards. This recent trend, beginning in the 1980s with the conversion of potato farms, has given the North Fork the distinction of being the most productive agricultural area in New York State. Despite this, the North Fork, contrasts starkly with the more populated and more well-known South Fork's

Hamptons The Hamptons, part of the East End (Long Island), East End of Long Island, consist of the town (New York), towns of Southampton (town), New York, Southampton and East Hampton (town), New York, East Hampton, which together compose the South Fork ...

. The North Fork terminates at Orient Point, where the Cross Sound Ferry Company has a terminal for ferries bound for New London, CT. and Block Island, RI. The North Fork is almost never considered part of the North Shore, but is rather a separate, more rural geographic area. Greenport, a village in Southold midway between Orient and Riverhead, is a major economic center for the North Fork and as such, is the eastern terminus of the Long Island Rail Road's Main Line. The North Fork is also geographically tied to Shelter Island, an island town in the Peconic Bay accessible via ferry that leaves from Greenport, adjacent to the railroad station. The island also has a ferry on its south side that connects with North Haven on the South Fork.

In popular culture

*In 1925, the North Shore is the setting of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel ''

The Great Gatsby ''The Great Gatsby'' () is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with Jay Gatsby, a mysterious mi ...

'', which centers on the area's wealth and the aspiration of the title character to be accepted into its high society. The novel's "West Egg" and "East Egg" were fictionalized versions of the real North Shore villages of Kings Point and Sands Point, respectively. *In 1990, the novel ''Gold Coast'' by

Nelson DeMille Nelson Richard DeMille (August 23, 1943 – September 17, 2024) was an American author of Adventure fiction, action adventure and Thriller (genre), suspense novels. His novels include ''Plum Island (novel), Plum Island'', ''The Charm School (nov ...

is set on the North Shore. *The distinctive

upper class Upper class in modern societies is the social class composed of people who hold the highest social status. Usually, these are the wealthiest members of class society, and wield the greatest political power. According to this view, the upper cla ...

speech pattern known as " Locust Valley lockjaw" takes its name from the North Shore's Locust Valley area. The aristocratic cachet persists despite suburban infill converting much of the North Shore into commuter towns.

Extant Gold Coast estates

* Caumsett, formerly the Marshall Field III Estate * Coindre Hall * Delamater-Bevin Mansion * Greentree * Harry E. Donnell House * Hempstead House *

John E. Aldred Estate John E. Aldred Estate, also known as St. Josaphat's Monastery, is a historic estate located at Lattingtown in Nassau County, New York. It was designed in 1916 by architect Bertram Goodhue, with landscaping by Olmsted Brothers, for public uti ...

* Killenworth * Nassau County Museum of Art, formerly The Clayton Estate * Oheka Castle * Old Westbury Gardens * Planting Fields site of Coe Hall, home of Williams Robertson Coe and Mary (Mai) Huttleston Rogers Coe *

Salutation A salutation is a greeting used in a Letter (message), letter or other communication. Salutations can be formal or informal. The most common form of salutation in an English letter includes the recipient's given name or title. For each style of ...

* Rynwood, original estate of Samuel Agar Salvage (designed by architect, Roger Bullard) *

, formerly Forker House * Vanderbilt Museum *

, formerly The Braes * Welwyn Preserve, formerly the Welwyn Estate

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 Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

, poor financial decisions, increasing requirements for upkeep, and increasing income taxes depleted family fortunes. Some of the notable mansions that are now gone are included in the table below with some of their features.

List of communities

* Asharoken * Baxter Estates * Bayville * Belle Terre * Brookville * Calverton * Carle Place * Centerport * Centre Island * Cold Spring Harbor * Commack * Cove Neck * Dix Hills * East Hills * East Setauket * East Shoreham * East Northport * East Norwich * East Williston * Eatons Neck * Elwood * Flower Hill * Fort Salonga * Garden City Park * Glen Cove * Glen Head * Glenwood Landing * Great Neck * Great Neck Estates * Greenport * Halesite * Harbor Hills * Head of the Harbor * Herricks * Huntington * Huntington Bay * Huntington Station *

Jericho Jericho ( ; , ) is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, and the capital of the Jericho Governorate. Jericho is located in the Jordan Valley, with the Jordan River to the east and Jerusalem to the west. It had a population of 20,907 in 2017. F ...

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

* Kings Park * Kings Point * Lake Success * Lattingtown * Laurel Hollow * Locust Valley * Lloyd Harbor *

Manhasset Manhasset is an affluent hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in Nassau County, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. It is considered the anchor community of the Greater Manhasset area. The population was 8,176 ...

* Manhasset Hills * Manorhaven * Matinecock * Mattituck * Mill Neck * Miller Place * Mineola *

Mount Sinai Mount Sinai, also known as Jabal Musa (), is a mountain on the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. It is one of several locations claimed to be the Mount Sinai (Bible), biblical Mount Sinai, the place where, according to the sacred scriptures of the thre ...

* Muttontown * New Cassel *

New Hyde Park New Hyde Park is a village in the Towns of Hempstead and North Hempstead in Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York, United States. It is the anchor community of the Greater New Hyde Park area. The population was 10,257 at the time of the ...

* Nissequogue * North Hills * North New Hyde Park * Northport * Oyster Bay * Oyster Bay Cove * Old Brookville * Old Field * Old Westbury *

Orient The Orient is a term referring to the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of the term ''Occident'', which refers to the Western world. In English, it is largely a meto ...

* Plandome * Plandome Manor * Poquott *

Port Jefferson Port Jefferson, also known as Port Jeff, is an Administrative divisions of New York (state)#Village, incorporated village in the Administrative divisions of New York (state)#Town, town of Brookhaven, New York, Brookhaven in Suffolk County, New Y ...

* Port Jefferson Station * Port Washington North * Port Washington *

Ridge A ridge is a long, narrow, elevated geomorphologic landform, structural feature, or a combination of both separated from the surrounding terrain by steep sides. The sides of a ridge slope away from a narrow top, the crest or ridgecrest, wi ...

* Rocky Point * Roslyn * Roslyn Estates * Roslyn Harbor * Roslyn Heights * Saddle Rock * Saddle Rock Estates * Sands Point *

Sea Cliff A cliffed coast, also called an abrasion coast, is a form of coast where the action of marine waves has formed steep cliffs that may or may not be precipitous. It contrasts with a flat or alluvial coast. Formation In coastal areas in whic ...

* Setauket * Shoreham * Smithtown * Sound Beach * Southold * South Huntington * Stony Brook * Strongs Neck * Syosset * Terryville * Thomaston * Upper Brookville * Wading River * West Hills * Williston Park * Woodbury

References

Citations

General sources

* ''AIA Architectural Guide to Nassau and Suffolk Counties''. American Institute of Architects. Long Island Chapter, 1992. * Frelinghuysen, Alice Cooney. ''Louis Comfort Tiffany and Laurelton Hall: An Artist's Country Estate''. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2006. * Hewitt, Mark Alan. ''The Architect and the American Country House, 1890–1940''. Yale Univ. Press. 1990. * MacKay, Robert B. ''Long Island Country Houses and Their Architects 1860–1940''. W. W. Norton, 1997. * Mateyunas, Paul J. ''North Shore Long Island: Country Houses 1890–1950''. Acanthus Press, 2007. * Mensing, Kenneth G. and Rita Langdon. ''Hillwood: The Long Island estate of Marjorie Merriweather Post''. Long Island University, 2008. * Randall, Monica. ''The Mansions of Long Island's Gold Coast''. Rizzoli, 1979. * Randall, Monica. ''Winfield: Living in the Shadow of Woolworths''. Thomas Dunne, 2003. * Sclare, Lisa and Donald. ''Beaux-Arts Estates: A Guide to the Architecture of Long Island''. Viking Press, 1980. * Spinzia, Raymond E. and Judith A. ''Long Island's Prominent North Shore Families: Their Estates and Their Country Homes'' Vol. 1–2. VirtualBookworm.com, 2006. * Wilson, Richard Guy. ''Harbor Hill: Portrait of a House''. W. W. Norton, 2008.

External links

Old Long Island - Dedicated to the preservation of Long Island's Gold Coast estates

LIGC - Over 700 tags identifying Long Island's Gold Coast mansions and gardens
at Wikimapia
Gold Coast Mansions of Long Island, New York
*
"Gold Coast Mansions"
��episode of the PBS television documentary series ''Treasures of New York''
History, NYIT de Seversky Mansion
{{authority control American upper class Geography of Long Island Geography of Nassau County, New York Geography of Queens, New York Geography of Suffolk County, New York Long Island Sound New York metropolitan area