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 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 North Shore is somewhat hilly, and its beaches are more rocky than those on the flat, sandy outwash plain of the South Shore along the Atlantic Ocean. Large boulders known as glacial erratics are scattered across the area.
History Colonial Era The North Shore was inhabited by Algonquin-speaking tribes, most notably the Matinecock, along with the Nesaquake (Nissequogue), Setauket, and Corchaug indigenous populations. The subsequent period of settlement was by Europeans in the mid-1600s. Much of the area was initially controlled by the Dutch colony of New Netherland. Towns in the eastern part of the North Shore were settled by the English under the jurisdiction of the New Haven Colony and Connecticut Colony. 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.
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. Cold Spring Harbor was one of three whaling ports on Long Island, and whaling became one of the island's important commercial industries during the nineteenth century.
Gilded Era
During the Second Industrial Revolution, 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 .
Prominent families and individuals with estates on the North Shore included the Vanderbilts, Astors, Whitneys, J. P. Morgan, F. W. Woolworth, and the Charles Pratt family. Otto Kahn's Oheka Castle, completed in 1919, is the second-largest private home in the United States, with 127 rooms and more than as originally configured. By contrast, Theodore Roosevelt's Sagamore Hill was designed as a Queen Anne or Shingle Style house; the National Park Service notes that Roosevelt emphasized comfort and function rather than grandeur when planning it.
Prominent architects and landscape designers associated with North Shore estates included Stanford White, John Russell Pope, Guy Lowell, Carrère and Hastings, and the Olmsted Brothers. Architectural styles included English Tudor, French Chateau, Georgian, Gothic, Mediterranean, Norman, Roman, Spanish, and combinations of these. Estate grounds commonly included formal gardens, greenhouses, stables, swimming pools and tennis facilities, while polo, fox hunting, yachting, golf and tennis formed part of the Gold Coast's recreational culture.
Sporting and social clubs also developed around the North Shore, including the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club, founded in 1871; the Meadow Brook Club, incorporated in 1881; and the Manhasset Bay Yacht Club, established in 1891 and incorporated the following year, Piping Rock Club (1911), and The Creek (1923).
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' 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, Walter Chrysler's Kings Point estate, "Forker House", turned into the United States Merchant Marine Academy, and U.S. Steel heir Childs Frick's "Clayton" the Nassau County Museum of Art.
Geography Much of the North Shore's topography reflects the Harbor Hill Moraine, which extends along northern Long Island. The coast is characterized by deeply eroded headlands and numerous harbors shaped by glacial deposits, stream erosion, and wave action. North Hempstead, Oyster Bay and Huntington comprise much of the western portion of the region, which is noted for its concentration of surviving 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 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, 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. Nelson DeMille's 1990 novel The Gold Coast is set on the North Shore's Gold Coast. Its 2008 sequel, The Gate House, returns to the same setting. Old Westbury Gardens, one of the surviving Gold Coast estates, has been used as a filming location for productions including North by Northwest, Love Story, The Age of Innocence, and Wolf. The distinctive upper class speech pattern known as "Locust Valley lockjaw" takes its name from the North Shore's Locust Valley area.
Extant Gold Coast estates Caumsett Coindre Hall Greentree Bogheid Cedarmere Salutation Winfield Hall Mill Neck Manor Hempstead House Castle Gould Delamater-Bevin Mansion Nassau Hall Elmcroft Greentree Rynwood Oheka Castle Chelsea, presently in the Muttontown preserve Land of Clover, presently The Knox School Poplar Hill, presently Glengarrif Nursing Home. Adam-Derby House, presently Landmark Colony at Oyster Bay Harry E. Donnell House, presently the Carr Bed & Breakfast The Manor, presently the Glen Cove Mansion. Killenworth, presently the Russian Delegation Retreat Hoise Ormston House, presently St. Josephats Monastery Meadow Brook Golf Club, formerly Jericho House East Woods School, formerly Mallow. Eisenhower Park, formerly Lannin House. Great Neck Public Schools Administrative building, formerly Bonnie Blink Banfi Vinters, formerly Rynwood Glen Cove Gurdawa, formerly Glenlo. Buckley Country Day School, formerly Northcourt. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Banbury Center, formerly the Charles S. Robertson residence. Glen Cove City School District Administrative building, formerly the Robert D. Pruyn residence. Harmony Heights School, formerly Brexleigh Holy Child Academy, formerly the Cornelius Bluss Residence Nassau County Museum of Art, formerly Clayton. Clark Botanic Gardens, formerly the Grenville Clark Sr. Residence Portledge Academy, formerly Portledge. Bailey Arboretum, formerly Munnysunk LIU Post, formerly Hillwood Old Westbury Gardens, formerly Westbury House Long Island Lutheran Middle and High School, formerly Highpool. Planting Fields, formerly Coe Hall United States Merchant Marine Academy, formerly Forker House Vanderbilt Museum, formerly Eagle's Nest Webb Institute, 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, 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.
Mansion Construction Rooms Acres Architects Status Location Beacon Towers 1917–1918 60 18 Hunt & Hunt demolished 1945 Burrwood 1898–1899 40+ 1,000 Carrère and Hastings demolished 1995 Farnsworth c. 1914 50 Guy Lowell demolished 1966 (stable and garage) Ferguson Castle 1908 40 Allen W. Jackson demolished 1970 (gate house) Garvan 1891 60 101 demolished mid-1970s Harbor Hill 1900–1902 688 Stanford White demolished Spring 1947 Inisfada 1920 87 225 John Torrey Windrim demolished December 2013 Laurelton Hall 1902–1906 65 600 Louis Comfort Tiffany burned down 1957 Matinecock Point 1913 41 257 Christopher Grant La Farge demolished 1980/1981 Meudon c. 1900 80 300 Charles P. H. Gilbert demolished 1955 Pembroke 1914–1916? 82 62 Charles P. H. Gilbert demolished 1968 Rosemary Farm 1907 159 William Eyre burned down 1991 or 1992 Roslyn House 1891 James Brown Lord demolished 1974 Westbrook Farms/Knollwood 1906–1920 60 262 Hiss & Weekes demolished 1959
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 Kensington Kings Park Kings Point Lake Success Lattingtown Laurel Hollow Locust Valley Lloyd Harbor Manhasset Manhasset Hills Manorhaven Matinecock Mattituck Mill Neck Miller Place Mineola Mount Sinai Muttontown New Cassel New Hyde Park Nissequogue North Hills North New Hyde Park Northport Oyster Bay Oyster Bay Cove Old Brookville Old Field Old Westbury Orient Plandome Plandome Manor Poquott Port Jefferson Port Jefferson Station Port Washington North Port Washington Ridge Rocky Point Roslyn Roslyn Estates Roslyn Harbor Roslyn Heights Saddle Rock Saddle Rock Estates