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.
Consuelo Vanderbilt-Balsan was a socialite and a member of the prominent American Vanderbilt family. Her first marriage to the 9th Duke of Marlborough has become a well-known example of one of the advantageous, but loveless, marriages common during the Gilded Age; as such, she was known as one of the earliest dollar princesses. The Duke obtained a large dowry by the marriage, and reportedly told her just after the marriage that he married her in order to "save Blenheim Palace", his ancestral home.
Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Richard John Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough,, styled Earl of Sunderland until 1883 and Marquess of Blandford between 1883 and 1892, was a British soldier and Conservative politician, and a close friend of his first cousin Winston Churchill. He was often known as "Sunny" Marlborough after his courtesy title of Earl of Sunderland.
The Vanderbilt family is an American family who gained prominence during the Gilded Age. Their success began with the shipping and railroad empires of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and the family expanded into various other areas of industry and philanthropy. Cornelius Vanderbilt's descendants went on to build grand mansions on Fifth Avenue in New York City; luxurious "summer cottages" in Newport, Rhode Island; the palatial Biltmore House in Asheville, North Carolina; and various other opulent homes. The family also built Berkshire cottages in the western region of Massachusetts; examples include Elm Court.
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).
John Albert Edward William Spencer-Churchill, 10th Duke of Marlborough,, styled Marquess of Blandford until 1934, was a British military officer and peer.
William Kissam Vanderbilt II was an American motor racing enthusiast and yachtsman, and a member of the prominent Vanderbilt family.
The Vanderbilt Cup was the first major trophy in American auto racing.
Harry Payne Whitney was an American businessman, thoroughbred horse breeder, and member of the prominent Whitney family.
Marble House, a Gilded Age mansion located at 596 Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island, was built from 1888 to 1892 as a summer cottage for Alva and William Kissam Vanderbilt and was designed by Richard Morris Hunt in the Beaux Arts style. It was unparalleled in opulence for an American house when it was completed in 1892. Its temple-front portico resembles that of the White House.
Robert Desha was an American politician who represented Tennessee's 5th Congressional district in the United States House of Representatives.
Muriel Vanderbilt was an American socialite and a thoroughbred racehorse owner/breeder who was a member of the wealthy Vanderbilt family.
Virginia Fair Vanderbilt was an American socialite, hotel builder/owner, philanthropist, owner of Fair Stable, a Thoroughbred racehorse operation, and a member of the prominent Vanderbilt family by marriage.
Maintenon was a French Thoroughbred racehorse. He was bred by Gaston Dreyfus at his Haras du Perray in Les Bréviaires, Yvelines. Maintenon was out of the mare, Marcia, and sired by Le Sagittaire, a multiple winner of what today are Group One races.
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.
Anne Harriman Sands Rutherfurd Vanderbilt was an American heiress known for her marriages to prominent men and her role in the development of the Sutton Place neighborhood as a fashionable place to live.
Lewis Morris Rutherfurd Jr. was an American socialite and sportsman from New York known for breeding fox terrier dogs.
Margaret Stuyvesant Rutherfurd Murat was an eccentric American heiress, dancer and sometime actress.
Fernando Alfonso Yznaga del Valle was a Cuban American banker who was one of the best-known men of New York and foreign society and club life. Described as "one of the most entertaining of men, very clever at epigram and repartee, and famous for quaint sayings. His life had been adventurous and, from a domestic point of view, somewhat of a stormy nature."
Murray Forbes Smith was an American commission merchant best known as the father of Alva Belmont.
