Editing Oakdale, New York (section)

==Gilded Age estates==
[[Gilded Age]] estates were a feature of Oakdale's past toward the end of the 19th century and into the early 20th century.

===Idle Hour===
In 1882, [[William Kissam Vanderbilt]] built the most noted one, [[Idle Hour]], {{convert|900|acre|km2|adj=on}} on the Connetquot River. The lavish, wooden 110-room home was destroyed by fire on April 15, 1899, while his son, [[William Kissam Vanderbilt II|Willie K. II]], was honeymooning there. Willie and his new wife escaped. It was promptly rebuilt of red brick and gray stone, with exquisite furnishings, for $3 million. The building at the time was considered among the finest homes in America. His daughter [[Consuelo Vanderbilt|Consuelo]] had also honeymooned there when she married the [[Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough|Duke of Marlborough]] in 1895.

After Vanderbilt's death in 1920, the mansion went through several phases and visitors, including a brief stay during [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]] by gangster [[Dutch Schultz]]. 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 that included figures such as [[George Elmer Browne]] and Roman (Bon) Bonet-Sintas as well as sculptor Catherine Lawson, costume designer Olga Meervold, and pianist Claude Govier, and [[Francis Gow-Smith]] and his wife Carol.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uF7I1-7LlTwC&q=sculptress+Catherine+Lawson%2C+costume+designer+Olga+Meervold%2C+and+pianist+Claude+Govier.+Francis+GowSmith+and+his+wife%2C+Carol%2C&pg=PT129|title=Oakdale|first1=Diane|last1=Holliday|first2=Chris|last2=Kretz|date=24 May 2010|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=9781439638491|via=Google Books}}</ref> The estate was most recently the home of [[Dowling College]], a struggling school which closed in August 2016.

===Pepperidge Hall===
By 1888, Christopher R. Robert II (son of [[Christopher Robert]]) built a spectacular castle just east of Idle Hour called Pepperidge Hall, furnished in the French style for his wife. But the pair didn't get along. On January 2, 1898, she told police she found Robert shot to death in his Manhattan apartment. It was ruled a suicide and she moved to Paris. The mansion featured in silent movies 1916–1920,<ref>Diane Holliday, Chris Kretz  Oakdale - Page 36 073857239X - 2010 -"filmed a number of silent movies on the estate with Pepperidge Hall serving as the atmospheric backdrop for such films as ''My Ladies Slipper'' (1916), ''To Hell With the Kaiser'' (1918), and ''Dead Men Tell No Tales'' (1920)."</ref> fell into disrepair and was razed in 1941.

===Indian Neck Hall===
[[File:Frederick Gilbert Bourne.jpg|thumb|Frederick Gilbert Bourne]]
In 1897, [[Frederick Gilbert Bourne]], who began with {{convert|438|acre|km2}} but later owned land reaching to [[West Sayville, New York|West Sayville]], completed his mansion, [[Indian Neck Hall]], on the east side of Oakdale. Bourne was active locally, as commodore of the [[Sayville Yacht Club]], and was generous to the local fire department. The eastern part of his estate now comprises the West Sayville County Golf Course and the Long Island Maritime Museum, while much of the middle portion is developed with homes. Bourne died in 1920. Six years later the mansion, on the western end, became the site of [[La Salle Military Academy]], operated by the Christian Brothers, a Catholic order. In 1993, the brothers converted the academy into a kindergarten-through-high-school "global learning community". In 2001, La Salle was closed and it was bought by St. John's University of New York.