Vanderbilt Cup Races

The Mansion

The first Idle Hour mansion as seen in 1894. The wooden, Richard Morris Hunt designed home was intended to be not much more than a hunting retreat on the 900-acre Oakdale, Long Island parcel Vanderbilt purchased in 1878. Despite the humbler beginning, it grew to be a 110-room mansion that became the completed family home in 1882 and even a later honeymoon destination for two of Willie K and Alva's children. Both daughter Consuelo, in 1895, becoming the Dutchess of Marlborough, and later son Willie K. Jr. honeymooned at Idle Hour.

However, disaster struck on April 15th, 1899 while Willie K. Jr. and bride Virginia 'Birdie' Graham Fair were honeymooning there, when a fire broke out and leveled the entire structure.

The second, still-standing Idle Hour mansion as seen in 1903, 2 years after completion.

Built to impress, the brick and grey stone main house, designed by Richard Morris Hunt's son, Richard Howland Hunt, was also intended to be fire-proof. Then, as now, many are divided on the beauty and proportions of the home, some calling it more suitable as a railroad station than a home. It's speculated by some that since Willie K and Alva had divorced by then and the design didn't receive Alva's touch of beauty found in other homes that she was involved with before and after Willie K.

The 70,000 sq ft mansion is tied at 16th place in the list of largest homes ever built in the U.S.

Fireproofing seemed to have worked as the building still stands today, 122 years later. Currently abandoned, the estate and buildings have changed hands several times since the death of Willie K. Vanderbilt Sr in 1920. Son Harold Stirling Vanderbilt inherited the estate from his father upon his death but found it difficult to sell with a few sales falling through. It is possible that a flying field was proposed during one of the failed sales.  Details from the 20's are somewhat hazy, but it is known that at one point during prohibition, gangster Dutch Schultz owned the estate as his hideout for a brief time. Shortly after, an artist colony grew out of the former stables and even some portions of the estate becoming a dairy laboratory for experimental dairy farming.

The most intriguing post-Vanderbilt resident was James Bernard Schafer (1896 – April 26, 1955) who, in 1938, renamed Idle Hour as 'Peace Haven' and started the Royal Fraternity of Master Metaphysicians, a cult centered around a supposed 'immortal baby' that would eventually lead the cult. Eventual legal suits and financial issues in 1942 brought on by the baby's mother and others brought Schafer down when he was convicted for 5 years in SingSing prison causing his loss of the 'Peace Haven'/Idle Hour property.

In 1963, Adelphi College purchased the estate and, in 1968, spun the campus off as Dowling College. Many of the estate's outbuildings were used by Dowling and were always well-maintained. The mansion did finally experience another fire in 1974, destroying much of the interior but it was restored by Dowling at a cost of 3 million dollars. Unfortunately, the private Dowling College closed in 2016. In 2017 the property was auctioned off to Mercury International LLC of Delaware, an affiliate of NCF Capital Ltd. and the big house and many outbuildings remain abandoned to this day, 6 years later, seen here photographed last week.

Outbuilding Locations

Map of the former estate with legend describing the structures and outbuildings spread across the property.

Source; Friends of Connetquot

The East Gate Lodge

Idle Hour had an East and West entrance with a gate lodge at each entrance with the East entrance being the main entry point. Seen here is the East gate lodge in its original configuration from the estate property looking out towards today's Montauk Hwy.

Same view on Feb 13th, 2023.

The house exists today as a private residence.

Original view from Montauk Hwy. 

Of note are the original Idle Hour entrance gates.

What is little known is that in 1920, when Willie K. Sr. passed away, Willie K. Jr had the Idle Hour gates installed at His Centerport Eagle's Nest estate.

For those who have visited Eagle's Nest, the large Grand Central Station Eagles behind the gates served as the original entrance to the estate from 1910-1920. The Grand Central Eagles were appropriate since Vanderbilt named the estate after he observed an eagle fly away from the property during an early visit.

Behind the East gate lodge also stood a fresh water well known as the wishing well.

Later moved down on Idle Hour Blvd in front of the main house, it remains to this day as a focal point of the surrounding community and is often decorated during most holidays.

The West Gate Lodge

A very rare, original view of the lesser used entrance where the West gate lodge, often called 'Pouting House', stood.

It was so named because after Willie K. Sr. learned of his wife's infidelities with O.H.P. Belmont, he would sequester himself there in the misery of his failed marriage.

Pouting House also served as the quarters for Willie K. Jr and bride 'Birdie' after the main house burned during their honeymoon.

As reported in Newsday, the West lodge still stands and was sold for $575,000 in 2010.

The West lodge today, 2/13/23

The Palm House Conservatory

The mansion originally had a conservatory connected to the house by two cloisters, but just after completion in 1901, Willie K. hired Warren & Wetmore to convert the conservatory and design additional structure to create bachelor's quarters to the main house. Customary at that time, it was not proper to have bachelors sleep within close proximity to married couples. As Willie K was a bachelor himself at the time, he needed a retreat for himself if there were any married couples who may have been guests at the house.

A new separate conservatory named Palm House was constructed away from the main house.

After 1920, the Palm House was converted to a private home with it most recently being Sold in 2021.

Stables, farm, utility and staff outbuildings.

Photos of the staff quarters and outbuildings are extremely scarce to find today as most of the buildings were replaced or reconstructed to stone and brick after the main house burned in 1899.

The stables and farm group structures seen here were some of the most beautiful stables constructed at the time.

Damaged by fires and reconstructions, the stables and Farm group have been the apartments for an artist community since the 30's.

The farm group immediately to the east of the stables today.

Diagonally across from the main house was the power plant and Engineer's cottage. The electrified home required a power plant to power the entire estate with the plant engineer's quarters across the street from the plant.

An underground tunnel connected the power plant to the main house where the electric, steam and the engineer himself discreetly travelled back and forth between the plant and mansion.

The power plant today. Its last use was as the Performing Arts Center for Dowling College. Currently vacant.

Engineer's cottage then.

Engineer's cottage as a private home today.

Near the power plant was the carriage house. I was unable to find any photos of it during Vanderbilt's time, but its last use was a student center for Dowling College.

Many other outbuildings still exist on the property such as the superintendent's cottage, livery staff quarters, possible icehouse and even a separate structure for the bowling alley that I was unfortunately unable to photograph, and no known original photos exist.

The latter bowling alley house was a structure brought over piece by piece from England. Vanderbilt loved the mossy growth on the roof but when the structure was reconstituted on the Idle Hour grounds, workmen cleaned the slate tiles before installation. An unhappy Vanderbilt had to send for more mature mossy growth tiles from England to reproduce what he saw on the structure in England.

Miscellaneous structures/drives

Roads and drives on the estate were simply dirt paths around the property.

Vanderbilt Blvd before it was a recognized street.

Canals through the marshland and property served two purposes. First, as a relaxing way to float along the beautiful property. And second, as a way to provide goods and services to various places on the property, mainly, coal for the powerhouse at the center of the property.

Here, a quaint footbridge stretches across the canal.

Rebuilt some time ago, a footbridge still exists at the spot.

An eventual second trip to the property will show the structures not photographed here and further details on plans for the original house, stables and gate lodges in a part 2 post.