At the turn of the last century, Long Island's north shore was home to such extravagant wealth and style it became known as the "Gold Coast." America's first captains of industry amassed great fortunes in a time before any sort of federal regulation or taxes on acquired wealth, and built the American equivalent of castles and chateaus. More than 500 mansions graced Long Island in the early decades of the 20th century, and WLIW21's original production GOLD COAST MANSIONS showcases their legacy.

If these walls could talk, they would tell tales of European royalty, fabulous new American wealth, and celebrity of international renown. The names of the proud owners read like a who's who of the country's richest and most powerful men - Morgan, Frick, Dupont, Whitney, Gould, Guggenheim, Grace, Woolworth and Vanderbilt among them. Many are now open to the public as museums and even catering venues. GOLD COAST MANSIONS goes behind the scenes of the mansions and the men and women who lived in them for a fascinating perspective on Long Island history. Some highlights:

Eagle's Nest (Vanderbilt Estate)
The estate is exotically designed in the Spanish Moroccan style, a decorative motif that is carried through all the buildings. The simple columns at the base of the entranceway arch are thousands of years old and were preserved from the ruins of ancient carthage and shipped to Long Island. Upon his death in 1950 William Vanderbilt deeded the estate to Suffolk County, and so Eagle's Nest is now "the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum and Planetarium."

Caumsett (Marshall Field Estate)
"Caumsett" is a Matinicock Indian word that means 'place by a sharp rock,' a reference now difficult to determine origins for The acreage for... the estate was purchased by Marshall Field III in 1921, fairly late for building on the Gold Coast. Field was the grandson and heir to a multi-million dollar department store fortune. Now, as a state park, it is the bicycle paths, the pasture land full of Canadian geese, the bridle paths ... and especially the long, cliff-shaded beaches that make this site unique on Long Island. The main house contained 50 rooms but an entire wing of the mansion, which contained the ballroom, was mysteriously removed by Mrs. Field in 1950. Field's dream was to make Caumsett completely self-sufficient-a utopian community, almost, but with him as its benevolent ruler. The large estate community had its own water and electricity sources; hundreds of workers and their families lived on the estate as well as resident veterinarians.

Oheka (Otto Herman Kahn Estate)
Modeled after Fontainebleau, the royal chateau in France, Oheka Castle was Otto Kahn's American fantasy. Since there was no high ground on these 443 acres in Cold Spring that would give his castle the vista Kahn desired, he had a high, man-made hill created. The process took the better part of three years. The name derives from the first letters of "Otto Herman Kahn." It is one of the two largest residences ever built in the United States. Kahn, who helped create the Metropolitan Opera Company, did not shy away from publicity, and the press dubbed him the King of New York ­ he loved New York so much, the cobble stones he used to pave the castle's courtyard came from old New York City streets.

Sands Point Preserve (Castle Gould)
Jay Gould, was widely acknowledged to be the most hated man in America because of his business methods; the quintessential robber-baron. His son, Howard, scion of the family fortune, built a true castle on Sands Point modeled on the design of Kilkenny Castle in Ireland. The square, crenelated tower‹unusual for a Long Island mansion-reminds one of an embattled fortress, reflecting the Gould reputation. In 1917 Castle Gould was bought by Daniel Guggenheim, whose fortune was made through mining, primarily the import and export of copper. Trying to shun the Gould name and the fortress image, he immediately renamed the mansion "Hempstead House," although "Castle Gould" remains the name by which the stables are sometimes known. The Guggenheims also built a pocket-sized 26-room gothic-style chateau they named "Falaise," French for "Cliffside," where Captain Harry Guggenheim and his third wife, Alicia Patterson, who owned Long Island's Newsday, lived.

Chelsea (Benjamin Moore Estate)
Benjamin Moore was the great-great grandson of Clement Moore, author of "'Twas The Night Before Christmas." Moore, a loyal New Yorker, named his 32-room country manor-house, built in the French Norman style, "Chelsea" because many of the paving stones used in its construction came from West 23rd Street, the Chelsea district of Manhattan.

Coe Hall (Coe Estate)
Widely known to Long Islanders simply as "The Planting Fields," the Coe Estate in Oyster Bay was built around 1911 by William Robertson Coe, a shipping insurance tycoon, and Mai Huttleston Rogers, the daughter of one of the men who founded Standard Oil. The gate was constructed in 1712 in Sussex, England, and purchased by Coe in 1919 and shipped to Long Island. There were protests in England over the selling off of the country's heritage - especially to "Americans." If the gates look familiar it's because scores of scenes from familiar Hollywood movies have been shot in front of them. William Coe's interest in rare species of trees and his plant collections made the estate a botanical marvel in Coe's lifetime, and now the 353 acres is a public arboretum since 1949 when he deeded the estate.

Clayton (Henry Clay Frick Estate)
Most of the Long Island mansions were built on the north shore, an easy cruise across the sound or a chauffeured drive from Manhattan business offices or posh town houses. Such a glorious refuge on the Gold Coast from Manhattan life was "Clayton," the splendid estate of Henry Clay Frick, son of one of the founders of U.S. Steel. Now, as the Nassau County Museum of Art, it is the site of one of the finest sculpture gardens in the United States, with pieces by some of the most famous artists in the world.

Templeton (Dupont Estate)
The magnificent estate known as "Templeton" is, like Castle Gould, really the story of two great American tycoons-the Duponts and the Guests. The estate was built in 1917 for Alfred Dupont, of chemical industry fame and bought soon after by Frederick Guest, the steel magnate. Guest, unlike most of the other American captains of industry, was not self made, but was a third cousin to Winston Churchill. Today the mansion is the New York Institute of Technology's "deSeversky Conference Center."

Old Westbury Gardens (J.S. Phipps Estate)
Undoubtedly, the best preserved and perhaps the most representative of all the Gold Coast mansions. Its nearly 160 acres are still beautifully maintained by the Old Westbury Gardens Foundation, pretty much as they were when the estate and grounds were built and landscaped back in 1906. The interior of the manor is furnished as though the Phipps family were still living here.

Executive Producer: Theresa Statz-Smith; Producer: Charlotte Coté; Writer/Consulting Producer: Sam Toperoff

To order the home video or dvd of this program, go to SHOP 21.