The Golden Years

Even in an age in which Bill Gates carves a 45,000-square-foot techno-mansion into a Washington hillside, in which Aaron Spelling boasts a French cafe, doll museum and bomb shelter in his California manor and Steven Spielberg builds a Georgica Pond estate with the look of a barn and the budget of a small motion picture, it is still difficult to imagine the splendor of Long Island's great country houses.

By Michele Ingrassia