The Gold Coast community of Old Westbury has maintained a rustic grandeur through its long history, sporting luxury homes as well as secluded mansions on sprawling estates. Many houses, including Colonials, ranches and contemporaries, were erected during the building boom of the 1980s.

Newer developments, about 6 years old, occupy the former Miller estate, and a former portion of the New York Institute of Technology property, called Wheatley Farm, features mostly brick manors and Hamptons-style manor houses. Bridle paths for horseback riders run throughout the village.

While there is four-acre zoning, more than half the village remains unsubdivided, according to Sandy Binder, vice president of the Old Westbury office of Daniel Gale Associates, Sandy Binder Division.

In earlier times, millionaire landowners included Thomas Hitchcock Sr., Harry Payne Whitney and John Phipps. The grounds of the Phipps estate serve as Old Westbury Gardens, a museum and arboretum that has been open to the public since 1958. The New York Institute of Technology was created in 1963 from the former estate of Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney.

SUNY Old Westbury is also located in the village, which is governed by a mayor and four trustees. The village has its own police force and provides services such as sanitation. There is little commercial activity in the immediate area.

-Lisa Doll Bruno (12/6/2002)