Idle Hour is a former Vanderbilt estate that is located in Oakdale on Long Island in Suffolk County, New York. It was completed in 1901 for William Kissam Vanderbilt. Once part of Dowling College, the mansion is one of the largest houses in the United States.
In 1878, Alva and William Kissam Vanderbilt began building a lavish, wooden 110-room home known as Idle Hour, on a 900-acre (3.6 km2) estate on the Connetquot River. The building, initially completed in 1882, was designed by Richard Morris Hunt of Hunt & Hunt (an American who studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris), [lower-alpha 1] continuously added to until the home was destroyed by fire on April 15, 1899, while his son, Willie K. Vanderbilt, was honeymooning there. [4] Willie and his new wife, Virginia Fair Vanderbilt, escaped the fire. His daughter Consuelo had also honeymooned there when she married the Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough in 1895. [5]
It was promptly rebuilt of red brick and gray stone in the English Country Style, with exquisite furnishings, for $3 million. The building was designed by Hunt's son, Richard Howland Hunt, and at the time was considered among the finest homes in America. The rebuilt estate "included nearly all of Oakdale, 290 or 300 buildings, a herd of steer and a paddlewheel steamer to ferry guests up and down the Connetquot River alongside the mansion." [6] Around 1902, an addition was made to Idle Hour by the prominent architectural firm Warren & Wetmore. [7]
After Vanderbilt's death in 1920, the mansion went through several phases and visitors, including a brief stay during Prohibition by gangster Dutch Schultz. [6] Around that time, cow stalls, pig pens and corn cribs on the farm portion of Idle Hour were converted into a short-lived bohemian artists' colony, known as the Royal Fraternity of Master Metaphysicians, that included figures such as George Elmer Browne and Roman (Bon) Bonet-Sintas as well as sculptor Catherine Lawson, costume designer Olga Meervold, pianist Claude Govier, Francis Gow-Smith, and his wife Carol. [8] [9] [10]
In 1963, Adelphi College purchased the estate and, in 1968, spun the campus off as Dowling College (named after city planner and philanthropist Robert W. Dowling). [11] In March 1974, [12] the home sustained its second fire and required a $3 million renovation. [6] The estate was home to Dowling College, a private co-educational college, until the college closed in August 2016. [13]
In 2017, Idle Hour and the Dowling Campus were set to be auctioned off. [14] In 2018, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Central Islip approved the $14 million purchase of the 105-acre (0.42 km2) site. [15] by Mercury International LLC of Delaware, an affiliate of NCF Capital Ltd. which owes over $3 million dollars in back taxes to Suffolk County. [16]
The 70,000 sq. ft. mansion is tied for the 15th largest house in the United States of America [ citation needed ] with Woodlea in Briarcliff Manor, New York (built for his sister Margaret and brother-in-law Elliott Fitch Shepard in 1895) and Lynnewood Hall in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania (built for Peter A. B. Widener in 1900).
Bohemia is a hamlet in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population was 9,852 at the 2020 census. It is situated along the South Shore of Long Island in the Town of Islip, approximately 50 miles from New York City.
Great River is a suburban hamlet and CDP in the Town of Islip in Suffolk County, New York, United States. It is situated approximately 50 miles (80 km) east of New York City on the South Shore of Long Island, adjoining the Great South Bay, protected from the Atlantic Ocean by Fire Island.
Oakdale is a hamlet in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population was 7,974 at the 2010 census. Oakdale is in the Town of Islip. It has been home to Gilded Age mansions, the South Side Sportsmen's Club, and the main campus of Dowling College. It is now home to Connetquot River State Park Preserve.
Ronkonkoma is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) mostly in the Town of Islip, with a small eastern portion in the Town of Brookhaven in Suffolk County, on Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 19,082 at the 2010 census. The Ronkonkoma post office has the ZIP Code 11779, and serves parts of several hamlets and CDPs adjacent to Ronkonkoma.
West Sayville is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in Suffolk County, New York, United States. It had a population of 5,011 at the 2010 census.
Islip is a town in Suffolk County, New York, United States, on the South Shore of Long Island. The population was 335,543 at the 2010 census, making it the fourth most populous city or town in the New York metropolitan area.
William Kissam Vanderbilt I was an American heir, businessman, philanthropist and horsebreeder. Born into the Vanderbilt family, he managed his family's railroad investments.
From the late 1870s to the 1920s, the Vanderbilt family employed some of the best Beaux-Arts architects and decorators in the United States to build an unequaled string of townhouses in New York City and palaces on the East Coast of the United States. Many of the Vanderbilt houses are now National Historic Landmarks. Some photographs of Vanderbilt residences in New York are included in the Photographic series of American Architecture by Albert Levy (1870s).
Richard Morris Hunt was an American architect of the nineteenth century and an eminent figure in the history of architecture of the United States. He helped shape New York City with his designs for the 1902 entrance façade and Great Hall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, and many Fifth Avenue mansions since destroyed.
An estate is a large parcel of land under single ownership, which would historically generate income for its owner.
Harold Stirling Vanderbilt CBE was an American railroad executive, a champion yachtsman, an innovator and champion player of contract bridge, and a member of the Vanderbilt family.
William Kissam Vanderbilt II was an American motor racing enthusiast and yachtsman, and a member of the prominent Vanderbilt family.
The Connetquot Central School District of Islip is a school district located in the Town of Islip of Suffolk County, New York on Long Island. There is one preschool, seven elementary schools, two middle schools, and one senior high school.
Oakdale is a railroad station on the Montauk Branch of the Long Island Rail Road, on the corner of Oakdale-Bohemia Road and Montauk Boulevard in view of Montauk Highway across Norman DeMott Park, in Oakdale, New York.
Connetquot High School (CHS) is a public high school serving students from the 9th–12th grades, located in Bohemia, New York. It is part of the Connetquot Central School District.
The Oakdale Merge is a convergence of Sunrise Highway and Montauk Highway between the hamlets of Great River and Oakdale, in Suffolk County, New York, in front of Connetquot River State Park.
Dowling College was a private college on Long Island, New York. It was established in 1968 and had its main campus located in Oakdale, New York on the site of William K. Vanderbilt's mansion Idle Hour. Dowling also included a campus in Shirley, which contained the college's aviation program and athletic complexes, and small campuses in Melville and Manhattan.
Alva Erskine Belmont, known as Alva Vanderbilt from 1875 to 1896, was an American multi-millionaire socialite and women's suffrage activist. She was noted for her energy, intelligence, strong opinions, and willingness to challenge convention.
Winnequaheagh was a Sachem (Chief) of the subsect of the Algonquian peoples known as the Secatogue Tribe. Historians reference Long Island Algonquian Indians as Mohegans as noted on Dutch maps. The farm of the Willets at Islip is called Secatogue Neck, and here is supposed to have been the principal settlement and probably the residence of Winnequaheagh, Sachem of Connetquot in 1683.
Alexis Weik is an American politician, civil servant, and businesswoman who has represented the 3rd district in the New York State Senate since 2021. A Republican, Weik had previously served as receiver of taxes for the Town of Islip from 2012 until 2020.
