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Photograph of Idle Hour from *Architectural Record*, c. 1903

Idle Hour is a former Vanderbilt estate that is located in Oakdale on Long Island in Suffolk County, New York. It was completed in 1901 for William Kissam Vanderbilt. Once part of Dowling College, the mansion is one of the largest houses in the United States.

History

In 1878, Alva and William Kissam Vanderbilt began building a lavish, wooden 110-room home known as Idle Hour, on a 900-acre (3.6 km²) estate on the Connetquot River. The building, initially completed in 1882, was designed by Richard Morris Hunt of Hunt & Hunt (an American who studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris),^[a] continuously added to until the home was destroyed by fire on April 15, 1899, while his son, Willie K. Vanderbilt, was honeymooning there.^[4] Willie and his new wife, Virginia Fair Vanderbilt, escaped the fire. His daughter Consuelo had also honeymooned there when she married the Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough in 1895.^[5]

It was promptly rebuilt of red brick and gray stone in the English Country Style, with exquisite furnishings, for $3 million. The building was designed by Hunt's son, Richard Howland Hunt, and at the time was considered among the finest homes in America. The rebuilt estate "included nearly all of Oakdale, 290 or 300 buildings, a herd of steer and a paddlewheel steamer to ferry guests up and down the Connetquot River alongside the mansion."^[6] Around 1902, an addition was made to Idle Hour by the prominent architectural firm Warren & Wetmore.^[7]

Later ownership

After Vanderbilt's death in 1920, the mansion went through several phases and visitors, including a brief stay during Prohibition by gangster Dutch Schultz.^[6] Around that time, cow stalls, pig pens and corn cribs on the farm portion of Idle Hour were converted into a short-lived bohemian artists' colony, known as the Royal Fraternity of Master Metaphysicians, that included figures such as George Elmer Browne and Roman (Bon) Bonet-Sintas as well as sculptor Catherine Lawson, costume designer Olga Meervold, pianist Claude Govier, Francis Gow-Smith, and his wife Carol.^[8]^[9]^[10]

In 1963, Adelphi College purchased the estate and, in 1968, spun the campus off as Dowling College (named after city planner and philanthropist Robert W. Dowling).^[11] In March 1974,^[12] the home sustained its second fire and required a $3 million renovation.^[6] The estate was home to Dowling College, a private co-educational college, until the college closed in August 2016.^[13]

In 2017, Idle Hour and the Dowling Campus were set to be auctioned off.^[14] In 2018, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Central Islip approved the $14 million purchase of the 105-acre (0.42 km²) site.^[15] by Mercury International LLC of Delaware, an affiliate of NCF Capital Ltd. which owes over $3 million dollars in back taxes to Suffolk County.^[16]

Largest homes in America

The 70,000 sq. ft. mansion is tied for the 15th largest house in the United States of America^{[citation needed]} with Woodlea in Briarcliff Manor, New York (built for his sister Margaret and brother-in-law Elliott Fitch Shepard in 1895) and Lynnewood Hall in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania (built for Peter A. B. Widener in 1900).

Gallery

Photograph of Idle Hour, 1880
Kitchen and servants room' addition, 1886.
Architectural drawing of the stables, 1888.
Architectural drawing, 1889
Architectural drawing, 1889
Architectural drawing of Idle Hour's interior, c. 1900-1901
The north facade at Idle Hour, c. 1903
The inner courtyard at Idle Hour, c. 1903
The stables at Idle Hour, c. 1903

References

Notes

^ Richard Morris Hunt also designed Vanderbilt's Manhattan mansion, known as Petit Chateau (built between 1878 and 1882), and his wife's Newport, Rhode Island residence, known as Marble House (built between 1888 and 1892).^[1] Hunt's most famous design is arguably Biltmore Estate, which was built for Vanderbilt's younger brother, George Washington Vanderbilt II.^[2]^[3]