Gold Coast Mansions: Sands Point

Hello everyone. I'm here today with my first installment of my Gold Coast Mansion series. This series will be a collection of posts showing off the rich history of the Gold Coast, also known as the North Shore of Long Island. Today I'll be discussing The Sands Point Preserve (home to Castlegould and The Hempstead House) as well as the town of Sands Point in general.

It was easy for me to choose this first mansion and town because it holds a lot of personal memories for me. It is a place that I've been exploring for years and one of my favorite places to just drive around and take in the beauty, architecture and spectacular views. It is also the inspiration for the town of "East Egg" in The Great Gatsby, the book that inspired me to start this series in the first place. It seems like a no brainer that this would be the first stop of my Gold Coast tour.

This post will be a little bit different since you'll see a few parts of the town as well as the preserve since I have such a love for the whole area. I've recruited my friend Alex to join me in this journey and I'm so glad that she wanted to come with me because we had a great time!

All of the historical information that I will share was obtained from the literature I received upon arrival to the preserve. Also, apparently the tours of the estate occur Thursday through Sunday and our availability limits us to Mondays so we were kind of left to fend for ourselves so I was unable to ask questions and apparently missed out on one of the mansions.

Enough of my babbling, let's get started!

The Sands Point Preserve is what remains of a former Gold Coast estate built by Howard Gould, the son of railroad tycoon Jay Gould. In 1904, Gould completed Castlegould. Its architecture was inspired by Kilkenny Castle in Ireland.

This is Castlegould. It is the first building that you see when you enter the main portion of the preserve. It is a massive and striking building, clearly resembling an old castle. It was intended to be the main estate but the Goulds did not like it and build a second estate on the property.

Here is a wider view of Castlegould. Believe it or not, this is the smaller building and would go on to house the stables and become the servants quarters.

This is the back of the Hempstead House, the main residence of Howard Gould. It was completed in 1912 and was considered one of the most lavish and extravagant estates on the Gold Coast. 

*Note - I apologize for not getting a full on front view of the Hempstead House but they seemed to be getting ready for an event that day and there were trucks blocking the front.

This sign appears behind the house and I just thought it was interesting. 

This is the back garden area of the house. It is surrounded by the gorgeous stone wall that you can see bordering the garden in the picture and has a beautiful view of the water. The detail is really stunning in person.

This is the water view from the Hempstead House. It overlooks the Long Island Sound and Hempstead Bay, hence the name. As you can see, we had an absolutely perfect day.

This is the side of the Hempstead House and unfortunately the closest I could get to the front. It is built in a Tudor Manor style has a granite and Indiana limestone exterior. It is 225 feet long, 135 feet wide, has three floors, 40 rooms and an 80 foot tower.

Another side view of the home. Following Howard Gould's divorce, the Estate was purchased by Daniel Guggenheim in 1917. He was the third Guggenheim to own property in Sands Point and he was the one to give the main residence the name The Hempstead House.

Guggenheim gifted 90 acres of the Estate to his son and new daughter in law in 1923, where they built a Normandy style house on the bluffs overlooking the Long Island Sound. They called it "Falaise," which is the French word for cliff. I did not get to see Falaise and I'm not sure if that is part of the tour but I will try my best to get back on a weekend to see if I can get a few pictures of it for you.

The Preserve also boasts many beautiful nature trails that take you through the woods and down to the water front. Due to my severe seasonal allergies I was unable to bear the thought of walking through the woods but I will make that part of my mission for when I return.

After passing hands several times, upon the death of Harry Guggenheim most of the 90 acre estate was deeded to Nassau County for use as a museum site and is now known as the Sands Point Preserve.

As I mentioned earlier in this post, I chose Sands Point because I do have a personal connection to it. I don't know if this is a "Long Island thing" but in high school and when I was on break from college my friends and I would get together for the evening to get dinner and coffee. The night would ALWAYS be capped off by a multiple hour drive around Long Island to our favorite locations and Sands Point was a weekly stop for us. We had discovered that following the curve at the end of the road would bring us one of the most beautiful views we could ever imagine. I always felt like I was in on a secret and we would drive there every single time we got together. You'll see why in just a minute.

One of my favorite things about the town of Sands Point is the eclectic architecture of all of the houses. You'll find every style of house you can imagine, one more grand and opulent than the next. The waterfront views are unbeatable and I could spend all of the time in the world driving around and looking at the area. The house pictured above is my absolute favorite in the town. I love its almost gothic and medieval vibe, the view is incredible and those spikes on the surrounding wall are so different and intimidating. It is definitely my dream home and I love passing by and taking a look at it. It also looks really spooky at night which is really fun.

This structure is located directly across the street from the house pictured above. This is located in someone's side yard I believe. It's hard to tell what belongs to whom but I'm pretty sure this the side yard. It is such an interesting structure because if it belongs to the house I'm thinking of it is a completely different style than the architecture of the main house. It looks really cool nonetheless.

I love the feel and vibe of this little area and I'm not going to lie, I've wanted to do a photo shoot over here for ages. It would be a great place for an engagement shoot with the right couple ;)

This is not a great picture but I love the detail of the fence surrounding this little side yard. It reminds me of giant chain mail and I thought it was so unique.

This is another gorgeous house located in Sands Point and sits directly across from the view I was mentioning above. The home is huge and my favorite feature is the double wraparound balcony/patio on the top and bottom levels of the house. If you are in the market for a new home and love the look of this house, you are in luck! It is currently on the market and you only have to fork over $13 MILLION. ;) It is so beautiful, and what makes it even more special and stunning is the view.

(Special note about this photo - Alex took this photo. Poor thing was practically hanging out of the window as I was rolling the car, ha! She got a great shot, thanks for being a trooper in my crazy adventure! In all fairness though I was practically hanging out of the window getting the picture of the house across the street)

This is what you see when you look directly across from that gorgeous mansion. It is hard to tell because it was a little hazy on the horizon that day, but this beautiful house overlooks the water (I believe the Long Island Sound but I'm not 100% sure) and has an amazing view of the city. Imagine coming around a curve in the road at night and being treated to this view of a beautifully lit New York City over the water. I feel so lucky to know about this spot and to be able to go there whenever I want. When it is warm out and I don't want to be at home I'll sometimes just drive down to this spot to get out of the house and enjoy a beautiful day. It is so special to me and I love it so much.

So this is it for my first post in my Gold Coast Series! I apologize for not getting the pictures of the nature trails and of Falaise, but I promise I will try to get back on a day where they are doing tours and when my allergies have calmed down a bit. So I guess there will eventually be a part two of my Sands Point post.

I hope you enjoyed my photo tour of the Sands Point Preserve and the town of Sands Point. I am so excited to have more adventures and show you more of the Gold Coast. Funny enough, I worked my first wedding in a long time yesterday and we happened to go to the Estate that I was planning on going to next! I got to scope it all out and get re-acquainted with it and it is a beautiful and completely different property from the preserve and I look forward to going back soon! I've also been debating filming a driving tour of the town so you can get a really good idea of what I see when I drive this road but I would have to work out the logistics of that. Is it something that you would want to see?

Have a great weekend!

This Week On Instagram... a Teaser!

Hey everyone! Soooooo I barely posted last week... sorry about that! And today's post will be quick too but trust me, it's worth it. My allergies have flared up big time so I'm feeling a bit yucky but I braved the environment and my severe allergies to go check out my first Gold Coast Mansion! I'm not going to give any details... just three teaser pictures to hold you over until my post on Saturday. Hopefully they will intrigue you enough to bring you back on Saturday!!

No explanations, just awesomeness ;)

I lens flared the heck out of that last pic. I'm just saying. 

The only information that I'll give you is that I have a personal history with this town and it's very close to my heart. I'll also tell you that only one photo is of the actual mansion property. The rest is just amazing architecture in the town. I can't wait to tell you more about it and share more photos this weekend!

I hope you all had a good week and a Happy Easter. See you Wednesday!

Nerd Alert! An Introduction to The Gold Coast Series

A few months ago I decided to change the name and overall theme of my blog. While I enjoyed running a vegan blog for about 3 years, I had come to realize that there is so much more to me than just my veganism. I felt confined in my writing and decided to create a new space for myself and start over. A space where I can explore the things that excite me, that interest me and that I'm passionate about. I call myself a nerd, but I'm not necessarily interested in traditionally stereotypical "nerdy" subjects. You won't find me watching Sci-Fi or Fantasy, participating in Live Action Role Play, reading comics or completing lab experiments in my basement (and for the record if you enjoy one or more of these things that's awesome! I'm just not into these particular things). Instead, the core of my "nerdiness" is my insatiable curiosity about the world around me.

Although I can say with confidence that learning is one of my greatest passions, I was by no means a model high school student. I dreaded assignments as much as everyone else and put them off until the very last possible minute. I would only read enough to be able to complete my assignments and do well on my exams. I always did well in school, but truthfully, I don't feel as though I left school with a broad knowledge of "the classics," mathematics or history. The most valuable skill that I took from my studies in high school is the skill to extract important information and craft it into a cohesive argument or explanation.

College was my turning point. I could choose the subjects that I would study. This made ALL of the difference. It ignited my passion for learning and allowed me to indulge in it. I took classes that excited me and was given the freedom to explore topics that I wanted to learn about. When given a list of paper topics I would request to be allowed to write about a topic that I came up with on my own. I would find myself in the library or online reading about topics that had nothing to do with my studies at all. For example, after the Southeast Asian Tsunami in 2004, I could not read enough about tsunamis. For someone that has never taken a Geology course (much to my regret nowadays) I could tell you a hell of a lot about tsunamis.

Those habits have become a big part of who I am today. It is not uncommon for me to spend an entire evening searching for as much information as I can about a random topic that I find interesting. Most people know that I am incredibly passionate about weather and geology. I have never taken a course in either of these topics outside of my 8th grade Earth Science class but I have spent countless hours reading about them. It goes far beyond these two topics as well, and last weekend was a perfect example of this.

For some random reason last weekend I was thinking about The Great Gatsby, which is in my opinion one of the greatest books ever written. *Side note - no, I still have not seen the most recent version of the movie.* Rather than just re-read it, I decided to start a search on the book, its historical implications, the inspiration behind the story, and F. Scott Fitzgerald's life. I was aware that the story is inspired by the lifestyle of the wealthy and elite that lived on the North Shore of Long Island and became fascinated by just how much of a connection I feel to these places. And this is where my idea for the "Gold Coast Series" was born.

While I spent HOURS that night reading and watching videos about how Long Island's Gold Coast (North Shore) would become the vacation spot for the wealthy Manhattanites, my curiosity was in no way satisfied. The further I ventured in the more clear it became to me that this was just the beginning. Honestly, it is pretty much impossible to live on Long Island AND work in the wedding industry and not know of the Gold Coast Mansions. Not only do I live minutes away from some of these mansions, I have actually been to most of them at some point. Nowadays, a lot of these mansions have been converted to catering halls for upscale affairs and nature preserves so I have been to A LOT of these mansions within the past few years with work. In addition, the village of Sands Point (which is probably one of my absolute favorite towns on Long Island) is said to be the inspiration for East Egg in The Great Gatsby. I was always awe inspired by the absolutely stunning homes and scenery in Sands Point. I'll talk more about this in a future post.

It is clear that I have only scratched the surface with all of the information out there about the Gold Coast, its history and how it exists today. I decided that for my first "Nerd Alert" series, I would not only research more about the Gold Coast and its mansions, but I would actually go and visit as many of them as I possibly can. This will be my spring time project (some of the mansions and the grounds are closed for the winter) and it will combine my love of learning with my hobby of photography. It will allow me to appreciate these mansions, the grounds and nature preserves in a way I never could when I would go with work. As of right now my goal is to visit at least four of the mansions: Sands Point Preserve (in the Village of Sands Point), Coe Hall (located in the Planting Fields Arboretum in Oyster Bay), Old Westbury Gardens (in Old Westbury), and the Vanderbilt Mansion (Museum and Planetarium - located in Centerport and my personal favorite mansion/estate). I'm still debating whether or not I'll go to Oheka Castle as just this week the owner was shot in the head as an apparent botched hit attempt on the grounds of the estate (read more about it here). I say botched because the owner is alive and in stable condition now. As of right now I'm thinking I'm going to skip it but we'll see what happens as spring approaches.

So there you have it, a little bit about how I define my nerdiness and an introduction to my new spring project and first "Nerd Alert" series. I can't even describe to you how excited I am about this as it combines a few of my favorite things: research, learning, photography, exploring, and being outside. Most importantly, it's igniting a fire in me that has been out for a while now. And I can't think of a better way to jump in to the nerdy content on my "Long Island Nerd" blog than to nerd out about Long Island. I am planning on writing a full blog post on each visit so there will be at least four posts. I hope you enjoy reading this series as much as I am enjoying writing it.

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*If you are interested in learning a little more about the Gold Coast Mansions, check out this video by PBS which aired just a little over a week ago.

Who Do You Think You Are?

Alright friends, this is where I start to get a little nerdy ;) Have you ever seen the show Who Do You Think You Are on TLC? It is a really interesting show where celebrities do genealogical searches of their family trees and find out information about their ancestors. For example, Chelsea Handler's grandfather was a reluctant soldier for the German army in WWII who was later captured in France and taken to the US. The significance to her family was that she was actually raised Jewish and was curious to know her grandfather's role in the German army. She found out he was not a Nazi enthusiast and was basically going through to motions so he and his family would not be harmed. Interesting stuff right?

Gratuitous picture of me as a cute little kid ;)

I think it is impossible to watch this show and not be interesting in finding out a little more about your family history. I have always been interested in my family history but have never gotten too much information out of my parents. All of my grandparents passed away when I was young: my maternal grandfather when I was only 2 months old, my paternal grandparents when I was 6 and 7 years old and my maternal grandmother when I was 11. I do have memories with all of my grandparents except my maternal grandfather. It is interesting because whenever I would see a picture of him when I was younger I would feel a connection to him even though I never knew him. After watching this show I was determined to find out any information I possibly could about him and his family.

I signed up for a free 14 day trial at Ancestry.com and found out as much as I could using the documents available to me. There wasn't much info about my father's family since their records are International (which they charge a hefty premium fee to access) so I trudged along to find out more about my maternal grandfather.

They didn't have a ton of information about him but it did remind me that he was in the Navy. They had no specific records so I don't know too much but my mom was able to tell me that he was a medic in the Navy. The only other info I could find out was that he served from 1944-1946.

While I didn't find out a ton of information about my Grandfather using ancestry, I did find some information about his parents, my great grandparents! I never knew them either obviously but it was so interesting to find out some info! I was named (middle name) after my great grandmother (Anna, my middle name is Ann) and I found out that my great grandfather was one of SEVEN children! Not only that, but I found out that he was a twin AND he had a set of twin sisters. That's two sets of twins. When I brought all of this information to my mom she was definitely surprised that I found all of that info and then laughed and confirmed that twins do run in the family. Which freaked me out, haha! I am not sure how I feel about having kids myself and the chance that I could have twins is definitely something to keep in mind ;)

Cool stuff huh?! Well I'm not done ;) After my search on Ancestry I decided to bust out the bins of family photos that I had because I was determined to figure out why I feel this connection to my grandfather that I only met a few times as a newborn. So I started sifting and found some amazing pics which I will share in a minute. The other document that I found was really short but helped me gather quite a bit of info. It was a really great find!

The document I found was an Employment letter from the last company he worked for before he passed. In this letter I found out he had a Master's degree in Engineering (I'm the only one in his blood line that I know of that has a Master's degree) and his job was basically TO BUILD BAKERIES. My grandfather built bakeries. Seriously. He built bakeries all over the world in fact. It may seem silly but this information blew my mind since it has been my dream since I was 13 years old (so that is about 17 years my friends) to own a bakery. And the one part about owning a bakery that has always baffled me is how the hell to set it up and build it. I'm not a logistics girl haha. To think that my grandfather could have built me my dream bakery is crazy to me. My mom confirmed all of this info for me and told me he was very smart and very well respected which made me very happy.

So it's not a ton of info but it's a lot more than I knew before. Genealogy is very interesting to me and hopefully one day I'll have the resources to find out more about both sides of the family. I am very lucky though because at a recent family reunion I was given discs of my mother's maternal grandmother telling stories of her life and that is an amazing piece of family history to have. My maternal grandmother's family has a very interesting story as well but that's for another day :)

I will leave you with my all time favorite photo of my grandfather that I found while sifting through boxes of family photos:

He looks like a total bad ass here! I love love love this photo :)

So there you go, a little bit of nerdiness for your weekend :) I definitely encourage you guys to check out the show because it is incredibly interesting. Maybe it'll help inspire you to find out a little more about where you came from!