North Shore Long Island

Unsurpassed in the natural beauty of its rolling landscape and splendid harbours, the scope and

At the turn of the 20th century, Long Island's North Shore, the so-called Gold Coast, was becoming the most desirable residential area in the United States. Estates belonging to American captains of finance and industry lined the bluffs and bays from the city line to Eaton's Neck. Some of the nation's most renowned families--including the Astors, Bakers, Huttons, Morgans, Pratts, Sloans, Roosevelts, Whitneys, and Vanderbilts--used their yachts for racing, cruising, commuting, or epic voyages. These vessels regularly plied the waters of the North Shore and bolstered the development of yacht clubs like the New York and Seawanhaka Corinthian--city institutions that established stations at Glen Cove and Centre Island, respectively. These clubs served to provide many outlets for the social gatherings that accompanied this pastime. Although the Great Depression and then World War II would bring the era of the great yachts to an end, a wealth of images remain that can be marveled at a century later.

Spanning the shores of Connecticut and Long Island, New York, the Long Island Sound is one of the most picturesque places in North America. From the discovery of the Sound in 1614, to the adventures of Captain Kidd, to the sinking of the Lexington in the sound in 1840, the Long Island Sound also holds a unique place in American history. The Long Island Sound traces the growth of fishing and shipbuilding villages along the sound to the development of major industrial ports, resort towns, and suburban communities along the sound. Marilyn Weigold discusses the subsequent overcrowding and pollution that resulted from this prosperity and expansion. Originally published in 1974 as The American Mediterranean and long out of print, The Long Island Sound has been updated by the author with a new preface and final chapter describing the Sound in the twenty-first century. In this new edition, Weigold particularly focuses on environmental concerns, and describes more current milestones, like the Long Island Pine Barrens Society, who fought and won in 1995 to set aside 100,000 acres as NY State's first forest preserve; the continuous construction of the Long Island Expressway, with its forty-one miles of HOV lanes; the attempt made by several of Connecticut's coastal cities to reinvigorate urban redevelopment; and the Long Island Sound Study's investigation of toxic substances—both natural and man-made—which continue to contaminate the waterway. Through over 40 stunning photographs and many fascinating stories, The Long Island Sound tells the history of a vastly populated, but underdiscussed, part of America.

Long Island Moderns provides a new cultural narrative of Long Island in the 20th century. Throughout the period important artist such as Lee Krasner, Fernand Leger, Irving Penn and Cindy Sherman lived and worked on the island. Beginning in the late-1920s, architects like Albert Frey, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Wallace Harrison built homes for themselves or their clients. From the mid-1940s, Long Island became home to works by Masters of Modernism like Philip Johnson and Marcel Breuer and new communities like Levittown changed the landscape.

This is an update of the comprehensive analysis of the prominent residents of Long Island's famed North Shore Gold Coast, first published by the Spinzias in 2006. Over 1,700 estate owners are documented by surname in a modified "Who's Who" forma, including 1,394 estate photographs.