Celebrating Long Island's Golden Past

The sights and sounds of the roaring 20’s once again flowed through the halls of Oheka Castle in Huntington this week as Gold Coast Mansion Historic Long Island held its second annual gala to celebrate Long Island History Month in Nassau and Suffolk Counties.

Several hundred people attended the gala to celebrate and learn more about Long Island’s historic locations. The group’s founder, Nancy Melius, says the group has grown a lot over the past year in its goals to collectively promote and increase tourism to Long Island’s "Great Gatsby" era mansions and historic sites. The group also aims to encourage more Long Islanders to visit historic locations closer to home during the spring and summer months, especially considering rising gas and travel costs, the group hopes more Long Islanders will take advantage of historic sites closer to home.

"It’s really to create awareness, let them know that they’re open to the public and that they do cool things besides historic tours and things like that… it’s nice to see that not only are the mansions excited about it, but the public is excited about it as well. We really want to be the pride of Long Island and I think we are," said Melius.

Suffolk County Legislator Vivian Viloria Fischer was also in attendance, decked out in 1920’s style dress, said it's a great way to promote Long Island as a travel destination. "First and foremost, this is a tremendous tourist attraction. It would be great to see people traverse the mansions from the gold coast all the way out to Vanderbilt… it’s a way of celebrating our cultural heritage and having fun."

Stephanie Gress, director of curatorial affairs at the Vanderbilt Museum and Planetarium, said that collectively promoting the mansion and working as a team to attract more tourism to Long Island is a great idea. "The mansion alliance for the North Shore Gold Coast has been wonderful…we’ve had a wonderful experience with networking with the other mansions and giving each other all kinds of help and all kinds of networking opportunities."

Nancy Leghart, director of advancement from Mill Neck Manor School for the Deaf in Mill Neck, says joining the Gold Coast Mansion group was a great decision as the school just re-furnished its 1920’s era mansion, the former Lillian Sefton Dodge estate, to be used as an event center. "Last year we really weren’t sure how we were going to proceed with our mansion and what we were going to do with it, and being part of the alliance has given us so many ideas… now we’re ready to welcome Long Island and people from around the world," said Leghart.

Long Island author Nelson DeMille, who wrote two books set in Gold Coast mansions, is a big supporter of the group. "I see people have more awareness, when I was growing up there were a lot of mansions being torn down and nobody thought about it… I think we’re at a point where we’re actually preserving the history now… I think that it’s because people are looking back to a simpler time…it’s kind of fun."

For more information on the group or to find out how to set up a tour, check out www.historiclongisland.com

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