North Shore Sample
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T a b l e o f C o n t e n t s Volume I Acknowledgments . iv Introduction . vii Maps of Long Island Estate Areas . xiv Factors Applicable to Usage . xvii Surname Entries A – M . 1 Volume II Surname Entries N – Z . 803 Appendices: ArcHitects . 1257 Civic Activists . 1299 Estate Names . 1317 Golf Courses on former NortH SHore Estates . 1351 Hereditary Titles . 1353 Landscape ArcHitects . 1355 Maiden Names . 1393 Motion Pictures Filmed at NortH SHore Estates . 1451 Occupations . 1457 ReHabilitative Secondary Uses of Surviving Estate Houses . 1499 Statesmen and Diplomats WHo Resided on Long Island's North Shore . 1505 Village Locations of Estates . 1517 America's First Age of Fortune: A Selected BibliograpHy . 1533 Selected BibliograpHic References to Individual NortH SHore Estate Owners . 1541 BiograpHical Sources Consulted . 1595 Maps Consulted for Estate Locations . 1597 PhotograpHic and Map Credits . 1598 I n t r o d u c t i o n Long Island's NortH SHore Gold Coast, more tHan any otHer section of tHe country, captured tHe imagination of twentieth-century America, even oversHadowing tHe Island's SoutH SHore and East End estate areas, wHich Have remained relatively unknown. THis, in part, is attributable to F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, whicH continues to fascinate the public in its portrayal of the life-style, as Fitzgerald perceived it, of tHe NortH SHore elite of tHe 1920s.1 The NortH SHore estate era began in tHe latter part of the 1800s, more than forty years after many of the nation's wealtHy Had establisHed tHeir country Homes in tHe Towns of Babylon and Islip, along tHe Great SoutH Bay Ocean on tHe SoutH Shore of Long Island. It reacHed its peak in tHe 1920s just as tHe estate area of tHe SoutH SHore was changing to a more suburban profile. THis concentrated area of estate development extended eastward along tHe Island's NortH SHore into Nassau County from the Queens/Nassau County boundary of New York City for approximately twenty-five miles to the Village of Centerport in Suffolk County and some fifteen miles southward from the sHoreline of Long Island Sound. Unlike tHe East End estates, in tHe area now known as THe Hamptons, and tHose on tHe SoutH SHore in tHe Towns of Babylon and Islip, tHe NortH SHore estates tended to be more elaborate, many designed in EnglisH, French, or Italian architectural styles of tHe seventeentH, eigHteentH, and nineteentH centuries. The SoutH SHore estate owners built tHeir Homes conveniently close to tHe main roads and actually financed railroad spurs to serve tHe SoutH SHore communities wHere tHeir Homes were located. By contrast, tHe exclusivity of tHe NortH Shore estate owners is legendary. In an attempt to protect tHeir privacy, tHe NortH Shore barons used tHeir considerable influence to see to it that public roads and railroads were in disrepair to keep “the city people” out. Private guards were employed, not only to protect tHe estates and tHeir occupants, but also to discourage uninvited weekend picnickers from New York City. THe largest of tHe NortH SHore estates encompassed six Hundred to two tHousand acres and employed between two hundred and fifty and, as many as, four hundred people.2 Taking into account tHe “ripple effect,” about 20,000 Long Islanders owed their employment to the estates. This, in an era when the total year-round population of Nassau County went from 55,448 in 1900 to 406,748 in 1940 and tHat of Suffolk went from 77,582 to 197,355 during tHe same time period.3 A few NortH SHore millionaires actually vied to see wHo could build tHe HigHest Hill on wHich to locate tHeir mansions. Railroad lines were laid to tHe estate sites during construction so tHat trainloads of dirt could be brougHt in to build up the mansion site. Clarence Mackay and Otto Kahn became notewortHy contestants in tHis effort.4 Yet, in spite of tHe extravagant expenditure to build, decorate, and furnisH tHe new Homes and landscape tHe often extensive acreage on wHich tHey Had been located, virtually all of tHe estates, witH few exceptions, were intended to be secondary country Homes. Since in tHe late 1800s and early 1900s Long Island was considered unHealtHy in tHe summer due to mosquitoes, summers were spent in such places as Newport, the Adirondacks, or Maine, wHile spring and autumn were spent on Long Island. In tHe winter, HouseHolds returned to ManHattan and Brooklyn, or went to tHe Carolinas, or to Palm Springs. The image portrayed of tHe NortH SHore estate area residents in The Great Gatsby is one of irresponsible, pleasure- seeking individuals wHo are indifferent to anyone or anytHing beyond tHeir immediate circle of friends. WHile tHis stereotype may well Have been true of some, it certainly was not true of tHe majority of tHe residents of the North Shore of Long Island during tHe Gold Coast Era. This is dramatically confirmed by tHe entries under civic activists, statesmen, diplomats, intelligence agents, and politicians in the occupation appendix of this book. When the occupation, maiden name, and village location appendices are analyzed, tHe immensity of tHe business and social networking becomes evident. True, tHe area was Home to captains of industry, some of wHom establisHed tHeir fortunes under questionable circumstances, but it was also home to many more millionaires and their scions who served their nation with distinction. Theodore Roosevelt, tHe only United States president to Have His primary Home on Long Island, was a NortH SHore resident. Two of tHe seven first ladies (botH domestic and foreign) to Have Long Island connections resided on the North Shore. WHile tHere is some dispute as to wHat constitutes a summer WHite House, four presidents did vacation on Long Island. THree Central Intelligence Agency directors resided on Long Island; two of tHose tHree Had Homes in tHis area. Two unsuccessful candidates for tHe United States presidency, seven of tHe Island's eleven Secretaries of State, plus numerous other cabinet members, assistant cabinet members, diplomats, congressmen, intelligence agents, publisHers, industrialists, inventors, capitalists, and financiers, called the North SHore of Long Island Home.5 The decline of tHe NortH SHore estate era Has traditionally been attributed to tHe dramatic increase in property tax, the advent of inheritance and income taxes, the lingering effects of the Depression, the construction of the Northern State Parkway, and tHe fact tHat fewer people were willing to enter estate service in tHe post-World War II period. In an attempt to negate the influence of tHese factors some estate owners employed various tecHniques to protect tHeir fortunes and estates. In 1911, Roswell Eldridge created tHe Village of Saddle Rock to protect His estate Udalls from excessive property taxes. By Having tHe state law relevant to village incorporation cHanged from a population requirement of two Hundred and fifty persons to a requirement of only fifty persons, tHe Village of Saddle Rock, witH a total area of only 0.2 square miles, could tHen be incorporated, tHereby giving Udalls the distinction of being the only estate in New York State to be solely incorporated as a village.6 George FisHer Baker II, Harvey Dow Gibson, joHn Edward Aldred, and William Dameron GutHrie followed Eldridge's example when in 1931 tHey combined their estates and formed their own incorporated Village of Lattingtown to control their property taxes. Several estate owners, including Marshall Field III, whose estate Caumsett was located in Lloyd Harbor, opted to demolisH a portion of tHeir mansions in order to reduce taxes. j. P. Morgan, jr. and his son junius repeatedly went to court to have property taxes reduced on their respective Glen Cove estates.7 Ferdinand Lundberg refutes tHe commonly Held belief tHat inHeritance taxes decimated tHe family fortunes of tHe wealtHy. He illustrates How tHe Rockefellers were able to negate inHeritance taxes, so tHat tHeir effect was almost inconsequential, by the establisHment of a series of trusts and the transfer of assets to their Heirs prior to their deaths. According to Lundberg, assets transferred prior to 1914 were tax–free, taxes paid on tHe transfer of funds from 1924-1930 were calculated at low tax rates, and taxes paid in tHe 1930s were based on depression-low levels.8 In an attempt to preserve tHeir wealtH by blunting tHe effect of tHe federal income tax, NortH SHore estate owners William Dameron GutHrie (Lattingtown), Victor Morawetz (Woodbury), and CHarles Steele (Old Westbury), of tHe ManHattan law firm Seward, GutHrie, Morawetz, and Steele, carried tHe figHt against tHe federal income tax to tHe United States Supreme Court. In 1895, tHey succeeded in Having tHe income tax declared unconstitutional. It would remain so until 1913, when it was legalized by the passage of the Sixteenth Amendment.9 After tHe establisHment of tHe federal income tax laws, there was little that the North SHore barons could do to stem the tide of ever-increasing federal taxes, but they remained a force to be reckoned with on the national, state, and local levels. During the 1920s the GOP's National Finance Committee consisted of one representative from eacH of tHe forty-eigHt states and one from Long Island's Nassau County. THis anomaly is not surprising if one considers tHat a large percentage of tHe Republican Party's major donors came from tHe Island's NortH SHore. THe NortH SHore barons were also able to influence and, in most cases, control tHe state and county GOP by ensuring tHat tHeir candidates were elected and obtained important legislative chairmansHips.10 Unknowingly, in 1926 the North SHore estate owners sowed the seeds of their own destruction wHen they sent the twenty-six-year-old Frederick Trubee Davison to the New York State Legislature as an assemblyman to protect their interests.