From The Days Of Gatsby: The Fallen Homes Of Long Island's Gold Coast

Beacon Towers

Beacon Towers was another Sands Point Mansion on the North Shore of Long Island. It was built as a replica to an old Irish Castle, complete with towers and rampart rising out of the sand. The mansion was completed in 1918 as a gift to Alva Belmont, the ex-wife of William Kissam Vanderbilt and widow of Oliver Belmont. In 1924, Belmont purchased the adjoing property to add 100,000 acres of property for "privacy." In 1927, William Randolph Heart purchased Beacon Towers and demolished it in 1945 to make room for a development. The mansion left behind what now appears to be medieval ruins with old iron fences and stone turrets strewn through the woods. The original gate house still exists as a private residence nearby. Beacon Tower is thought by literary scholars to have been the inspiration behind F. Scott Fitzgerald's telling of Gatsby's home, describing it as "a factual imitation of some Hotel deVille in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin bead of raw ivy, a marble swimming pool and more than forty acres of land." We cannot be certain what inspired the deceased author, but Baz Luhrman cites this home as the inspiration behind the 2013 adaptation. [Photo via]