Mill Neck

The Picture of Refinement

A Scene at Mill Neck (Photo from "Long Island To-day" by Frederick Ruther, 1909)

Beginnings: About 360 years ago, the Mohenes sold this prized real estate to English settlers for assorted coats, utensils and wampum. Then the Indians watched as the English drove out the Dutch in the battle for ownership in 1663. The name comes from the mill Henry Townsend built in 1661 with a grant from his fellow freeholders.

Quaker Sanctuary: Townsend and his brother John were signers of the Flushing Remonstrance of 1657, the nation's first declaration of religious freedom. The daughters of early settler Peter Wright also were zealous Quakers, as well as early feminists. Mary and Hannah Wright journeyed to Boston in 1660 to protest the execution of Quaker Mary Dyer. In 1661, Hannah, then 16, and her other sister, Lydia, protested the treatment of Quakers in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Gold Coast: The Vanderbilts, Whitneys, Rockefellers and Levitts have all called Mill Neck home. William Robertson Coe purchased 409 acres starting in 1913 for his Planting Fields estate with its 75-room mansion, which he gave to the state in 1949 as a horticultural showplace. The village incorporated in 1924 and became the site of many mansions, including Oakley Court, built in 1936 (formerly owned by Alfred Vanderbilt and Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney), and the 1923 English Tudor mansion of Lillian Dodge, which in 1951 became the Mill Neck Manor School for Deaf Children, now with an enrollment of 172. The 1906 estate, once owned by Abby Rockefeller, is now the home of Long Island Lighting Co. president William Catacosinos.

Ironic Development: La Colline, the 1964 estate of developer William J. Levitt, is being subdivided.

Brushes With Fame: Movie-makers have found perfect settings in Mill Neck mansions. ``Trading Places'' and Charles Bronson's ``The Death Wish'' were shot at Mill Neck Manor, while ``Hair'' was filmed in Oakley Court.

Where to Find More: ``The Mansions of Long Island's Gold Coast,'' by Monica Randall, in libraries.