Oheka Castle Throws a Bash, Gatsby-style

An engine revved and the crowd parted as a vintage silver Rolls Royce rolled onto the lush green lawn of Oheka Castle while mobsters with guns and flappers in feathers surrounded the car.

It was a royal Gatsby-style affair.

More than 600 people attended the Friends of Oheka Garden Party June 15 to celebrate the Otto Kahn Awards Program. The program, established in 2003, honors five talented high school seniors annually with $2500 scholarships. To date, the program has awarded more than $60,000 in scholarships, according to program coordinators.

This year’s scholarship winners were Julia Lerner, Danny Meglio, Mary-Elizabeth O’Neill, Natasha Stollmack and Amrom Svay.

Oheka owner Gary Melius, the man responsible for restoring Otto Kahn’s former summer home, was onhand.

Built in 1918  the castle had deteriorated when Melius purchased the property in 1984. Under his direction, 80 percent of the castle's interiors, exteriors and gardens have been restored making it one of the largest restored homes in America.

At the event, guests came dressed in costumes including Victorian-style and 1920s flappers. Some wore cocktail dresses. 

Throughout the evening music wafted through the air as some revelers danced around the Rolls Royce parked on the grounds.

The Walt Whitman High School Jazz Band, under the direction of Alan Deitz and the Walt Whitman High School Chamber Orchestra provided music. A special performance by the Encore Performing Arts Dancers added grace to the elegant soiree.

Jen Baugh and her two sisters, the great-grandaughters of Otto Kahn, were present at the event — apparently at the castle as a group for the first time. 

When the sun turned a bright orange and descended slowly into the Long Island Sound the flappers and mobsters headed home. The Victorian ladies gathered their fans, gloves and parasols and strolled across the great lawn going back into time while a rising full moon cast a silvery light on the fountains of Oheka Castle.