Vanderbilt Museum

The Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum is located in Centerport on the North Shore of Long Island in Suffolk County, New York, USA.  The Spanish Revival Mansion with its 24 rooms was built in three stages from 1910 until 1936. Rooms in the historic house are on exhibit and exemplify the eclectic taste and collecting interests of William K. Vanderbilt. The mansion was designed by the New York architectural firm Warren&Wetmore, whose Grand Central Station in New York City [1903-13] was designed and built for the New York Central Railroad, one of several Vanderbilt family enterprises. Later additions to the mansion and other estate buildings were executed by architect Ronald H. Pearce, who trained in the office of Warren & Wetmore and continued to make improvements at "Eagle's Nest" after Warren's retirement in 1931. The 43-acre museum complex counts among its collections not only the Gold Coast-era mansion [1910-1936], a marine museum, natural history habitats, curator's cottage, seaplane hangar, boathouse and numerous other estate features [gardens, fountains, balustrades and pools], but also marine and natural history specimens, house furnishings and fine arts, photographs and archives, and an extensive collection of ethnographic objects that make up the former William K. Vanderbilt II estate. A portion of today's museum - the Hall of Fish - was actually opened to the public during Vanderbilt's lifetime. Then, as now, the museum seeks to preserve and interpret artifacts that represent his life, collecting interests and intellectual legacy.