Community Corner
Historical Organizations Unite to Promote L.I. Tourism
Long Island historical organizations came together to designate May as Long Island History Month in Nassau and Suffolk counties for year's to come.
A new website and Historic Alliance is trying to attract tourists to Long Island's Gold Coast mansions, symbols of Roaring '20s wealth that at one time lined the North Shore from Nassau to Suffolk counties. One of the participating organizations is the Sands Point Preserve.
"If it brings people to these magnificent properties and allows them to have an opportunity to enjoy them, it is advancing their preservation and sustainability," said Karli Hagedorn, Board Chairmen of the "Preserving the past is serving the future. We live by these words and believe that the future is ours to respect and embrace."
Nancy Melius-Murton, founder of the Historic Mansion and Sites Alliance, said that there are hopes that the website will make the Long Island historical sites more familiar to the public, much like Newport, R.I., and help promote its historical mansions through the Internet. There are also hopes that the site will encourage film productions to shoot at those locations.
"We're reviving history," Melius-Murton said. "That's what's really exciting. We're not only uniting all the Gold Coast mansions but we're letting the world know about it." The unveiling was held at Oheka Castle in Huntington late last month.
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In addition, the website features a "historic homes for sale" and a "bygone mansions" page, a list of Long Island tour guides and an events calendar which lists events being held at historic places throughout Long Island each month.
From the 1880s through the 1940s, the North Shore of Long Island became known as the Gold Coast. The height of its popularity was the 1920s, about the time it was made famous in the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel "The Great Gatsby," published in 1925 and set in 1922 when about 12,000 mansions were located from Great Neck to Centerport. Some that still exist include Oheka, Old Westbury Gardens, Eagle's Nest-Vanderbilt Museum, Planting Fields-Coe Hall, Glen Cove Mansion, Sands Point Preserve, and Chelsea Mansion.
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"To get all of the mansions and historic sites together helps us promote one another," said Stephanie Gress, director of curatorial affairs at the Vanderbilt Museum, in which the Vanderbilt Eagle's Nest is located. "And in doing so, when tourism to Long Island is high, especially during the summer months, it will prevent people from overlooking the North Shore and its historic sites as places to visit."
The Sands Point Preserve, which is a 216-acre estate made up of the Hempstead House mansion, Harry Guggenheim's house called Falaise, and Castle Gould (the stable building) modeled after an Irish Castle. The main house, Hempstead House, was a 40-room mansion. It was built in 1912 in the style of a European Castle by Railroad company heir Howard Gould. Gould eventually sold the home and property to Daniel and Florence Guggenheim in 1917.
The Guggenheims hosted many events in the home. The family was fascinated with aviation and funded a lot of the early rocketry research work that eventually landed men on the moon. The mansion was host to many guests throughout the years including some of the most famous pioneers in aviation, including Charles Lindbergh, Wilber Wright and Robert Goddard.
Today, the Sands Point Preserve is a museum and nature preserve.
Long Island author Nelson DeMille, who wrote two best-selling books, "Gold Coast" and "Gate House," both set in Gold Coast mansions, was on hand to lend his support to the idea and the alliance.
"I think it's a great idea," DeMille said. "Everybody on Long Island has seen these mansions fall and be subdivided. We're now at a stage where we're starting to preserve what's left."
The clerks of both Suffolk and Nassau counties, Judith Pascale and Maureen O'Connell, respectively, officially declared May as Long Island History Month at the unveiling as well.
"Many famous families resided in those homes such as the Carnegies," O'Connell said. "And by touring these homes we learn about the history of New York."
While Hagedorn said these efforts are a good start to remember history, she said it's important that we preserve these estates as teaching tools for the future. "It should not be limited to one month the year," Hagedorn said. "History is important to all of us and becomes a source of pride and sense of our heritage."
