‘Great Gatsby’ at 100: Behind the gates of the colossal Long Island mansions that inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald

Long Island’s Gold Coast still shines — albeit successful a much subdued mode than erstwhile “The Great Gatsby” was published 100 years ago.

The novel, which is celebrating its centennial this week, is group successful nan mammoth mansions of nan tony North Shore. While immoderate of nan colossal homes from nan era remain, nan ambiance is little debaucherous than it was successful F. Scott Fitzgerald’s day.

In 1924, erstwhile Fitzgerald was completing his first draft, nan velocity limit connected authorities highways was 30 mph, and nan Hamptons were a wearisome schlep, still nan domain of gnarled fishermen and murphy farmers pinch aged Dutch names.

The “it” spots for hotsy-totsy hoopla hugged commuter-friendly villages connected nan Long Island Sound — wherever nan children and grandchildren of Gilded Age business barons played and nan Jazz Age’s recently minted tycoons went to acquisition respectability.

At its peak, nan Gold Coast, which extends from Great Neck to Northport, had astir 1,200 mansions, almost half of which were group connected 50 acres aliases more. Great families, specified arsenic nan Vanderbilts, Astors, Guggenheims, Roosevelts, Hearts, and Whitneys, called these immense houses home.

They were egos externalized. Forty to 60 rooms were nan norm, and galore had upwards of 90. There were over-the-top amenities galore, from lake-sized swimming pools group successful general gardens to equestrian parks and sunken tennis courts.

Today, little than a 3rd of nan aged mansions remain. Most person been razed to make measurement for caller construction. Of those that still stand, only a fewer twelve are backstage residences. 

Artist Irene Vultaggio and her husband, Arizona Ice Tea billionaire Don Vultaggio, reside successful a sprawling French Chateau-style chromatic manor instantly adjacent to nan Sands Point Lighthouse, which they besides own, successful North Hempstead.

“I unrecorded successful Daisy’s house,” Irene told The Post. “My location is nan location pinch nan lighthouse . . . So [Gatsby] would look towards my house, and location would beryllium nan greenish light.”

The Vultaggios built nan location successful nan 1990s. The spot was antecedently nan tract of nan legendary Beacon Towers.

By nan clip “The Great Gatsby” was published successful 1925, nan location was owned by publishing leviathan William Randolph Hearst. It was demolished successful 1945 aft Hearst returned nan location to nan slope for taxation purposes.

Despite its lighthouse proximity, Fitzgerald scholars judge it was much apt that nan location was nan inspiration for Gatsby’s gaudy mega-mansion alternatively than Daisy’s.

Created for nan widowed socialite Alva Smith Belmont Vanderbilt by Hunt & Hunt betwixt 1917 and 1918, nan astir 140-room property was a “Gothic fantasy,” writes architectural historiographer Richard Chafee, pinch “astonishing towers and pinnacles” that borrowed from nan medieval palace successful Seville.

It “was a colossal matter by immoderate standard,” Fitzgerald writes successful nan awesome novel. “It was a actual imitation of immoderate Hôtel de Ville successful Normandy, pinch a building on one side, spanking caller nether a bladed beard of earthy ivy, and a marble swimming-pool, and much than forty acres of section and garden. It was Gatsby’s mansion.”

When Baz Luhrmann needed architectural inspo for his 2013 adjustment starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan, he looked to some Beacon Towers and Old Westbury Gardens, nan erstwhile property of alloy heir John Shaffer Phipps. But nan movie was really changeable successful Sydney, Australia.  

Others contend that Fitzgerald sewage his large ideas from Oheka Castle, nan largest backstage location successful New York and nan 2nd largest successful nan US — down Vanderbilt’s Biltmore Estate.

Located successful nan West Hills conception of Huntington, nan 127-room, 109,000-square-foot behemoth was vanished successful 1919 by financier Otto Hermann Kahn. In nan 1920s, it swung pinch lavish parties for celebrities and heads of state. In 1939, respective years aft Kahn’s death, and plagued by debts, it was sold to nan New York Department of Sanitation arsenic a “super-de luxe state club” for nan department’s 20,000 employees. It was rechristened “Sanita.”

For nan past 25 years aliases so, it’s operated arsenic a edifice and wedding venue. Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin sewage hitched location successful 2010.

Regardless of wherever Gatsby lived, according to Vultaggio, nan Gold Coast isn’t thing for illustration nan champagne-soaked nine bacchanalia it was successful Fitzgerald’s day.

Rather, it’s wherever business titans for illustration Ken Langone, Aby Rosen, and Louis Bacon travel to genuinely flight it all.

“It’s quiet,” she said. “I don’t person to impressment anybody. I tin conscionable unrecorded my life nether nan radar. I’m successful my pajamas each time successful my garden. If group travel here, I show them I’m nan gardener. It’s nice.”

Prices for mansions successful nan area are arsenic low-key. At a clip erstwhile $100 cardinal income are becoming regular connected nan East End, a $10 cardinal woody connected nan Gold Coast is rare.

The median waste value successful nan area for nan past 4th of 2024 was conscionable $1.3 million, according to Douglas Elliman.

Still, erstwhile nan correct location hits nan market, it makes an impact, and inventory is limited.

In December, Erchless, a 92-acre, 26-room property astatine 75 Post Road successful Old Westbury, sold for $21 cardinal — mounting an all-time sale grounds for a residence successful some Nassau County and Old Westbury.

The Georgian-style ceramic mansion was built for Howard Phipps, nan boy of Henry Phipps, Jr., a partner astatine Andrew Carnegie’s Carnegie Steel Company, successful 1936. It sold pinch a swimming pool, cabanas, a tennis court, greenhouses and potting sheds, a equine stable, barns, a superintendent’s house, and a chauffeur’s location pinch a garage.

Most importantly, its award-winning rhododendron plot “is nan finest of its kind,” supplying nan New York Botanical Garden, said Maria Babaev of Douglas Elliman, who represented nan purchaser successful nan Erchless deal.

She noted that while nan area is nary longer a swinging scene, those buying these properties admit nan Fitzgerald connection.

“The Gatsby manner was fiction, but connected nan North Shore, it’s benignant of real,” she told The Post. “And nan group who acquisition these homes are very enthusiastic astir old-world charm. They aren’t that different from who was buying present 100 years ago. They want to create a multi-generational legacy.”

Top schools, a low-key atmosphere, and commutability are nan awesome draws to nan area. Many of her clients bounce betwixt an flat successful nan city, an property connected nan Gold Coast, and a summertime playground successful nan Hamptons.

They don’t sacrifice modern animal comforts for bequest living. Buyers of expansive aged estates typically instal cutting-edge exertion and immense wellness spaces.

Exclusivity is besides a factor, said Maggie Keats, a Gold Coast agent pinch Elliman. In caller years, she’s sold various section estates — including nan $11 cardinal Normandy-style mansion built successful nan precocious 1920s by railroad heiress Mary Harriman Rumsey in Sands Point and nan $6.5 cardinal Sands Point location of “Stars and Stripes Forever” composer John Philip Sousa. 

“There are not a ton of these homes left,” she lamented. “They were surgery up complete nan years, subdivided, demolished for taxation reasons aliases transformed.”

Villa Carola, nan erstwhile property of Isaac Guggenheim, is now nan Village Club of Sands Point, and Eagle’s Nest, nan erstwhile location of William K. Vanderbilt, is now nan Vanderbilt Museum & Planetarium.

“New homes are beautiful, but these homes were built differently,” Keats said. “There was nary disbursal spared and they person a beingness of spot because they’ve sat truthful agelong connected their property. The trees person had a chance to mature. The landscaping is beautiful. The integrity of nan build is very special.”

One relic of Fitzgerald’s clip is presently for waste astatine 1985-4 Cedar Swamp Road in Brookville. Known arsenic Haut Bois, it was built successful 1916 for designer and Edith Wharton collaborator Ogden Codman Jr. and was inspired by nan Palace of Versailles. The seven-bedroom location is asking $14.9 cardinal pinch Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty.

Also connected nan marketplace is Mini Oheka — a wedding gift fixed by Otto Kahn to his boy successful 1936 and located astatine 491 Muttontown Road successful Muttontown. The nine-bedroom French-style chateau sits connected 10.4 acres and is listed for conscionable $3.9 million pinch Gale.

But if you’re looking for 1 of Jay Gatsby’s orgies, caput further East, Vultaggio asserted. 

“I’m Cinderella, and I unrecorded successful a castle,” she said. “[But] group present aren’t surviving that crazy life for illustration successful nan Hamptons. I dislike nan Hamptons.”