Historic Boathouses of the North Shore

By Tara Cubie, Preservation Director

Between the 1890s and the late 1920s, more than 1,300 estates were built along the Gold Coast of Long Island. Stretching roughly from Great Neck to Eaton’s Neck, the Gold Coast is defined by its proximity to the Long Island Sound. In addition to the grand houses themselves, these estates included many outbuildings, including monumental stables, agricultural buildings associated with “gentleman farms,” gatehouses, and elaborate entrance gates. In many cases today, these secondary structures are the only physical remnants that survive after the demolition of the main house.

More than any other outbuilding, the boathouse linked daily life on the estate to the shoreline and the Sound beyond, serving both practical purposes and, in some cases, orienting the entire estate towards the water.

Development of the North Shore and Water Transportation

Water travel played a central role in the development of the Gold Coast well before private yachts became common. In 1827, Dr. Thomas Garvie negotiated with Cornelius Vanderbilt to begin regular ferry service between his proposed dock facilities at Garvies Point in Glen Cove and Manhattan. These early steamboats evolved from Robert Fulton’s 1807 design for the Clermont, the first practical steamboat. One of the earliest vessels to serve the North Shore was the Linnaeus, which began service in 1829. Captained by Elijah Peck, she departed Glen Cove every morning at 6:30 a.m., stopping at New Rochelle and Whitestone before arriving at the Fulton Market slip, and returned each afternoon at 3:00 p.m. For the first time, travel between Manhattan and Long Island was reliable and convenient.

Before steamboat service, travel by water had been by sloop—a one-masted sailboat that was slower and dependent on wind, tide, and weather. The impact of steam service to the North Shore was immediately noticeable. Agricultural trade and mail service increased, and social gatherings expanded. Civic, cultural, and social organizations, including debating societies, literary circles, musical and agricultural societies—began to establish themselves in North Shore communities. To accommodate summer visitors, Glen Cove, Sea Cliff, and other villages erected hotels, resorts, taverns, clam bars, and oyster houses. With increased steamboat service from Manhattan, wealthy businessmen began to purchase North Shore estates as summer homes. The Pratts, Morgans, Woolworths, and Guggenheims all purchased properties near steamboat landings. Over time, more than forty steamboats served the North Shore.

Steamboat wharves were instrumental in this growth. Glen Cove provides a clear example. Originally known as “Musketa Cove,” the name was changed to the “new and more attractive appellation Glen Cove,” as confirmed in History of Queens County, NY (1882), which noted that the earlier name “had a certain suspicious sound to would-be visitors.” Businessman William M. Weeks, spearheaded the construction of the steamboat wharf to be built at Cape Breton. The landing supported early trade, commerce, and summer visitation in Glen Cove.

Private Boat Ownership

As steamboat service declined and rail travel expanded in the late 19^th century, estate owners increasingly relied on private yachts and powerboats both for pleasure and transportation between Long Island and Manhattan. These vessels were docked at private yacht clubs, private docks, and, in some cases, estate boathouses, which were built both to house these ships and to serve as entertainment venues and gateways to the estate.¹

Some of these boats became well known, associated with their famous owners.

• • Corisande (Marshall Field III)

    

    Built in 1923 by the renowned boat design company Gar Wood, this 50-foot commuter yacht was used to travel between Field’s Long Island home and his Manhattan office. The approximately 35-mile trip reportedly took less than an hour. Twin engines producing 900 horsepower allowed the yacht to win several power-boat races. The Caumsett Foundation recently restored the original model of the ship.

  • Alva (William K. Vanderbilt II)

    

    Commissioned in 1931 and built in Germany, Alva was designed by Cox & Stevens and outfitted with a complete gymnasium, a seaplane, and stateroom overheads nine feet high, with a fifteen-foot-high main living room. During World War II she became the USS Plymouth and was torpedoed by a German U-boat in 1943.

  • Corsair(J. P. Morgan)
    J. P. Morgan owned a succession of four yachts named Corsair. The first two—Corsair (1891), built by John Roach & Sons, and Corsair II (1899), built by Herreshoff—were used for cruising and entertaining. Morgan used Corsair II extensively for transatlantic voyages and high-profile entertaining, and the yacht became well known in Gilded Age society. Two later yachts continued the Corsair name.

Estates owned by some of the nation’s leading figures in finance and industry lined the bluffs and bays from the city line to Eaton’s Neck. Their yachts were a familiar presence on the waters of the North Shore and played an important role in shaping patterns of leisure, travel, and social life along the Sound. These vessels also contributed directly to the establishment and growth of yacht clubs, including the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club, which developed to support yachting and associated social activities.

The Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club was founded in September 1871 aboard the sloop Glance, anchored off Centre Island. William L. Swan, captain of the Glance, was elected the club’s first Commodore, with Charles E. Willis as Vice Commodore, Frederic de P. Foster as Secretary, Gerard Beekman as Treasurer, and William Foulke as Measurer. Established as the Seawanhaka Yacht Club, the organization was formed as a private club dedicated to amateur sailing and racing and quickly became an important institution serving the Gold Coast yachting community.¹

The clubhouse, designed in 1891 by architect Robert W. Gibson, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NR Reference No. 74001265). The National Register nomination describes the building as the “headquarters of an internationally known boat sailing facility” and one of the oldest amateur yacht clubs in the United States. It further notes that the architectural character of the clubhouse “has remained unimpaired despite continuous use of the structure since its opening in 1892.” Designed in the Colonial Revival style, the building was intentionally restrained to suit a sporting facility while still reflecting the tastes of its membership.²

Long regarded as a leading small-boat sailing facility, the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club played a central role in organizing inter-club racing in western Long Island Sound and maintained a long history of sponsorship of, and participation in, international competition. Its location on Centre Island placed it in close proximity to many Gold Coast estates, reinforcing its role as a social and maritime hub for estate owners whose lives were closely tied to the Sound.²  Yacht clubs like the Seawanhaka were significant both practically, providing boat storage along the North Shore, and socially, serving as hubs for the boating community. A select few estate owners built private boathouses that served the same functional and social purposes on a smaller, more personal scale, housing boats and entertaining guests.

Boathouses

As part of the Gold Coast lifestyle, boathouses functioned as gateways, places where the rhythms of estate life met the shoreline. These structures provide vestigial insight into how estate life once operated and reflect the enduring connection between the North Shore and the Long Island Sound.

Coindre Hall Boathouse (West Neck Farm)

Date constructed: c. 1910–1912
Architect: Clarence Sumner Luce
Associated estate: West Neck Farm / Coindre Hall
Current status: Vacant; restoration planned

The Coindre Hall Boathouse was constructed as part of West Neck Farm, an approximately 135-acre estate developed beginning in 1912 for pharmaceutical magnate George McKesson Brown. Designed by Clarence Sumner Luce, the estate included numerous buildings, among them a boathouse positioned along Huntington Harbor. The main house, modeled after a château in the south of France, has been restored and is now used for weddings and events.

Architecturally, the boathouse was conceived as a deliberate companion to the main residence and reads as a miniature version of the house itself, repeating its massing, materials, and stylistic vocabulary. Positioned at the far southern edge of the estate overlooking Huntington Harbor, the one-and-one-half-story, stucco-clad, L-shaped boathouse features a red clay tile hipped and gabled roof. It is dominated by a four-story octagonal tower with a conical roof at its central axis. Two elongated decorative brick chimneys define the roofline. The varied fenestration originally included single-pane fixed windows, large multi-pane casement windows, and round-arched openings.

The boathouse contained an upper-level room used for entertaining, while the remainder of the structure supported boating-related activities. A long-rumored tunnel connecting the boathouse to the main house—purportedly used first by staff and later during Prohibition—has never been substantiated.

In the 1930s, the estate was subdivided and sold to the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, who renamed it Coindre Hall in honor of Father André Coindre. The property operated as a boarding school for approximately thirty years and later housed two additional schools, both of which eventually closed. Suffolk County acquired the estate in 1972, and the Alliance for the Preservation of Coindre Hall Park was founded in 1991. West Neck Farm was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

The boathouse was used for many years as a rowing club but has remained vacant for an extended period. Its seawall sustained significant damage during Superstorm Sandy. Repairs to the seawall have since been completed, and Suffolk County has announced plans to restore the structure, including construction of a new pier. The building is currently unused, and all windows are boarded.

Eagle’s Nest (Vanderbilt) Boathouse

Date constructed: 1914
Architect: Warren and Wetmore
Associated estate: Eagle’s Nest
Current status: Stabilization and restoration planned

The Eagle’s Nest Boathouse is part of Eagle’s Nest, the summer estate of William K. Vanderbilt II, great-grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the estate began in 1910 as a small English cottage and expanded over three decades into the 24-room Spanish Revival mansion seen today. Designed by Warren and Wetmore, the estate features ironwork by master craftsman Samuel Yellin.

Dating to 1914, the boathouse is among the oldest surviving buildings on the property. Vanderbilt relied on boats not only for recreation but also as a primary means of travel, making access to Northport Bay essential. Because a steep drop separates the estate from the shoreline, the boathouse was built directly into the slope. Although modest in appearance from above, it is a four-story structure, with two lower levels visible only from the water.

Architecturally, the boathouse reflects the estate’s earlier French Medieval phase, characterized by half-timbering and steep slate roofs. This distinguishes it from later buildings constructed after 1924, when Vanderbilt embraced Spanish architectural forms featuring stucco walls and terra cotta roofs.

The Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum has announced plans to stabilize and restore the shuttered and deteriorating boathouse and adapt it for educational and recreational use, preserving a significant estate structure and supporting maritime education and heritage tourism.

Whitney Boathouse (Greentree Estate)

Date constructed: 1910; expanded 1928
Architect: La Farge, Warren & Clark
Landscape architect: A. F. Brinckerhoff
Associated estate: Greentree
Current status: Private residence

The Whitney Boathouse was constructed in 1910 by William Payne Whitney as a gift for his son, John Hay “Jock” Whitney, as part of the Greentree estate in Manhasset. Greentree was a 400-acre Gold Coast estate assembled beginning in 1904 and long associated with the Whitney family. The boathouse initially served as a dock and hangar for Whitney’s seaplane and later housed his 74-foot commuter yacht, Aphrodite.

In 1928, Jock Whitney expanded the stone-and-timber structure, adding a 280-foot dock and additional interior spaces. By 1937, the boathouse accommodated watercraft, automobiles, guest and staff suites, and a two-story clubroom. The American Architect (April 20, 1929) described the building’s essential requirements as providing “docking facilities; a storage space for boats and aeroplane; pleasant temporary quarters for entertainment; and living quarters for his yacht captain and family,” noting that the building was designed to facilitate rapid travel to and from New York City by water or air.

Constructed on swampy ground at the high-water mark, the boathouse was supported by approximately 200 precast concrete piles. A 40-foot-wide by 13-foot-high opening allowed access for an amphibious aircraft. Interior spaces included a cruciform clubroom measuring approximately 50 by 30 feet, opening onto a broad portico overlooking the bay. A massive fieldstone fireplace featured an overmantel map of Long Island painted by Philip Bower, and maritime motifs—such as rope molding formed from actual hemp rope—were incorporated throughout.

The exterior combined hand-split British Columbia red cedar shingles left unfinished to weather naturally, with rubble stone quarried in Greenwich, Connecticut and barged across the Sound. Riprap walls and imported sand created a clean bathing beach over the former muddy shoreline.

The Greentree estate is now owned by the Greentree Foundation, while the former boathouse has been converted into a private waterfront residence.

Kenwood / Blackton Estate (Harbourwood) Boathouse

Date constructed: 1915
Architect: Hoppin & Koen
Associated estate: Kenwood / Harbourwood
Current status: Demolished (1983)

The Kenwood Estate Boathouse was constructed in 1915 for Commodore J. Stuart Blackton, an early motion picture mogul associated with the Vitagraph Company of America and an internationally known speedboat racer. Designed as part of the Kenwood (also known as Harbourwood) estate in Oyster Bay, the boathouse was described as a “palatial marine garage” and housed Blackton’s Harmsworth Trophy racing boats.

According to Long Island Country Houses and Their Architects, the Renaissance Revival boathouse was constructed in reinforced concrete with tile roofs and included a ballroom, three guest rooms, and quarters for the owner’s yacht crew above the boat storage levels. The building has been compared to McKim, Mead & White’s Casino at Narragansett Pier, with an open gallery above a massive arch, and described as “one of the most remarkable sports buildings of the Long Island Estate Era.”³

Although the main residence was never completed due to financial setbacks following World War I, the farm group survives. The boathouse fell into ruin over time and was demolished in 1983. Locally, it later became known as the Leeds Boathouse after its second owner.

Indian Neck Hall (Bourne Mansion) Boathouse

Date constructed: c. 1900
Architect: Isaac H. Green Jr.
Associated estate: Indian Neck Hall
Current status: Extant

The Indian Neck Hall Boathouse was constructed as part of the Oakdale estate developed for Frederick Gilbert Bourne, president of the Singer Sewing Machine Company. Bourne acquired the 438-acre Oakville Farm property in 1889 and later commissioned architect Ernest Flagg to design the main mansion. The estate featured a 1,700-foot tree-lined approach while “a deep waterway made the boathouse accessible to the sailing vessels of Bourne’s neighbors and of his fellow New York Yacht Club members.”

Isaac H. Green Jr., a prolific regional architect, designed the boathouse along with other estate dependencies, including an ice house and swan house. The current boathouse replaced Flagg’s original design and is a one-and-one-half-story, six-bay stucco structure with a sweeping bell-cast hip roof. It features flanking two-story gabled bays with pediments and Chippendale railing along the roofline.

Indian Neck Hall itself was a massive, 110-room, U-shaped mansion constructed on reclaimed low-lying land near the Great South Bay. The estate is now owned by Harrow International School New York, and the boathouse remains a key surviving element of the original waterfront complex.

Together, these boathouses reveal how central access to water was to everyday life on the Gold Coast. As both working waterfront structures and social spaces, they symbolize the relationship between these grand estates, their owners, and the maritime culture of Long Island.

Footnotes

1. Robert B. MacKay, Great Yachts of Long Island’s North Shore (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2010).
2. National Register of Historic Places, Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club, Centre Island, Nassau County, New York, NR Reference No. 74001265.
3. MacKay, Robert B., Anthony K. Baker, and Carol A. Traynor, eds. Long Island Country Houses and Their Architects, 1860-1940. New York: W. W. Norton & Company in association with the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, 1997, pg. 219.