Long Island's Prominent North Shore Families: Their Estates and Their Country Homes Volume I | 
| Authors: Raymond, E. Spinzia, Judith, A. Spinzia
Publisher: Virtualbookworm.com Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $24.99
Buy New: $22.49
You Save: $2.50 (10%)
New (14) Used (7) from $18.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 253426
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 580
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.8
Dimensions (in): 11 x 7.9 x 1.2
ISBN: 1589397851
Dewey Decimal Number: 720
EAN: 9781589397859
ASIN: 1589397851
Publication Date: May 8, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
Long Island's Gold Coast, more than any other section of the country, has captured the imagination of America. This, in part, is attributable to F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby." The Spinzias' two-volume comprehensive analysis of the North Shore families documents over 1,500 estate owners in a modified "Who's Who" format. Included are 578 photographs of the estates, biographical data on the estate owners and their families, locations of estates using current street references and village designations, estate names, acreage, architects, architectural styles, dates of construction, landscape architects, subsequent owners, location of archival photographs of the estates, and information as to whether mansions are still extant and, if not, the dates of demolition. Cross-referenced in the second-section appendices are estate names, village locations of estates, as well as architectural and landscape commissions. The civic activity and occupation appendices document the contribution of Long Islanders, including statesmen, intelligence agents, financiers, writers and inventors. Maiden names, rehabilitive secondary uses of estates including golf courses which were formerly private estates, motion pictures filmed at estate sites, a general bibliography of the "Gilded Age," and a bibliography specific to individual estate owners, with the location of personal papers, have also been included.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Not the best June 24, 2008
Having great interest in the mansions on the Gold Coast and Long Island I purchased this book only to find it was mostly written descriptions w/some history. Pictures were few and far between. A bit on the boring side.
 A great academic resource ... August 15, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Volume I and II are perhaps the most in-depth resources covering the North Shore gilded age architectural treasures lost and the shells of what remain. The very sharp authors know their subjects exceedingly well and have done exhaustive research.
That said I strongly caution those folks who are looking for a glossy coffee table, photographic rich, book to drink in the opulence and history to keep looking. This is not the book for them.
The utilitarian printing of each volume (over 1,100 pages between the two books) is more akin to a soft cover academic text book. Photographs are limited, black and white, and have a look as if they were reproduced on a Xerox machine. Granted many homes are lost and whatever images that may exist are rare. Still however, for example, F. Ambrose Clark's 'Broad Hollow' has appeared in several other books in all its glory. Yet in these books that same estate complex doesn't fair so well.
If you own or look at the book, "Long Island Country Houses and Their Architects, 1860 - 1940", you'll find better photos and a more polished final presentation. However for more accuracy, a greater depth in the text, and uniformity in the presentation then these two Volumes are superior.
 THE GOLD COAST April 23, 2007
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
The North Shore of Long Island was the ultimate playground for the jet set ultra rich..from Pratt to Phipps to Woolworth to Vanderbilt and on and on, they just kept building spectacular mansion after spectacular mansion for decades, this book does a fantastic job of covering these families and their amazing estates, the text is insightful and the images are abundent and vivid. It's so sad that so many of these mansions were torn assunder for hideous tract homes, but the ones that survive are resplendant reminders, that once for a golden moment, man created heaven on earth.
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