Many places claim a Gold Coast these days—Connecticut, Florida, even New Jersey—but they can seem like pyrite in contrast to Long Island’s version, which garlands the North Shore with spare-no-expense opulence. Modeled after castles in Europe, with turrets and tapestries and multilevel lawns, more than a thousand of these châteaus were built from 1900 to the years of the Great Depression primarily in the area that runs between Great and Eaton’s Necks and as far south as Old Westbury.
Decades later, suburbia breached the gates, dooming hundreds of these homes to developers’ wrecking balls, while some were grabbed by colleges, convention centers, and parks. But those that hung on may be rewarded this spring, courtesy of the movie The Great Gatsby. Expect renewed interest in the kinds of Jazz Age estates studding F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book and for local real estate to get a lift, say historians, preservationists, and brokers.
“It will stir people’s feelings about a bygone era and bring it to the front of their minds again,” says Andrea Jablow, a licensed sales associate with Shawn Elliott Luxury Homes & Estates (175 Froehlich Farm Blvd., Woodbury, 516-524-7743), who has two Gatsby-caliber spreads for sale: a stone-faced 12-bedroom in Brookville, at $10.5 million, and the chandelier-draped Bagatelle in Old Westbury, for $7.888 million.
“These homes are very romantic, and they’re beautiful,” Jablow adds, “and they don’t build them like this anymore.”
The limelight may be timely. Like in other affluent communities since the recession, many of these homes have struggled to sell, as the high-end market cooled, brokers say; buyers also did not seem to have the heart for what can be tricky and pricey renovations.
The discounting could be steep. Whitewood Point, a 55-acre spread with a private beach overlooking Cold Spring Harbor, came on the market for $21 million in 2011 before selling at $10 million last fall, according to a source at Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty. As sumptuous as their soaring ceilings and garden pools can be, many details can jar with modern tastes, brokers say, like tiny windows, which can be difficult to enlarge in brick homes. High property taxes can be a deal-breaker, too—homes with many acres put owners on the hook for $100,000 a year. But prices in the lower $2 million to $5 million range have been holding. To wit: A seven-bedroom on Skunks Misery Road in Lattingtown, used as a weekend getaway, sold in 2011 for $3.2 million, which was very close to its asking price. The house, built for John Anderson, a Pfizer chairman, with an elegant U-shaped driveway, dates to 1913. “There is a lid for every pot,” says Stephen Checca, the agent with Charles Rutenberg Realty (255 Executive Dr., Plainview, 516-652-8090) involved in the deal.
For those who fawn over prewar craftsmanship, fairy-tale charm and perhaps an address with a name, the Gold Coast can hardly be beat. In its heyday, the area boasted residents like J. P. Morgan, F. W. Woolworth, and William Randolph Hearst; they brought their New York City flair with them, using architects that designed Manhattan, like Warren and Wetmore, Delano & Aldrich, and Carrère and Hastings.
But the postwar years were tough. In 1959, the Long Island Expressway was extended from exit 39 across the island, fueling a construction boom in the postwar Levittown period. Many owners, though, couldn’t afford to keep up the houses with servants any more, as the cost of living rose. And, it continued: In 1980, J.P. Morgan’s estate on East Island in Glen Cove was divvied up into half-acre lots.
Gatsby’s house, “a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy,” as Fitzgerald wrote, has never been accurately pinned down, although Fitzgerald did live in Great Neck from 1922 to 1924. The one that served as the model for Daisy Buchanan’s, however, is believed to be Lands End, built for newspaper baron Herbert Bayard Swope in 1902. Unfortunately, the house, at the end of Hoffstot Lane in Sands Point, was razed for a subdivision in 2011.
The tide may be turning in favor of these grand places, says Robert MacKay, director of the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, who counts the popularity of the History Channel and movies like Lincoln as a sign that Americans are becoming more interested in their heritage. “[These homes] have a patina of the past that I think people are looking for,” MacKay says. “And there are some real buying opportunities out here right now.”
Although the Gatsby movie was shot in Australia, where director Baz Luhrmann is from, its location scouts did poke around Old Westbury Gardens, the public 200-acre former John S. Phipps estate that’s been in many movie shoots, says Vince Kish, its director of communications.
They could have researched the South Shore, too; about 150 Gold Coast–style mansions once stood between Massapequa and Mastic, says Christopher Collora, author of Long Island Historic Houses of the South Shore. “Celebrities came down here,” he says. “It just wasn’t very well documented.”
For Paul J. Mateyunas, a broker at Daniel Gale Sotheby’s (1 Buckram Road, Locust Valley, 516-759-4800), finding buyers for these often forgotten relics is almost a labor of love. Mateyunas, who grew up on Long Island, has explored the Gold Coast since he was a teenager; he’s also the author of North Shore Long Island: Country Houses 1890-1950. For him, these homes present a chance to celebrate the past, and now is a great time to do it. “You can end up with a home by some of the greatest architects of the 19th and 20th centuries,” he says. “And what’s really wonderful is that they have incredible value, price-wise.”