Idle Hour

In 1878, Alva and William Kissam Vanderbilt began building a lavish, wooden 110-room home known as Idle Hour, on a 900-acre (3.6 km2) estate on the Connetquot River.

[5] It was promptly rebuilt of red brick and gray stone in the English Country Style, with exquisite furnishings, for $3 million.

The rebuilt estate "included nearly all of Oakdale, 290 or 300 buildings, a herd of steer and a paddlewheel steamer to ferry guests up and down the Connetquot River alongside the mansion.

[6] 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, known as the Royal Fraternity of Master Metaphysicians, that included figures such as George Elmer Browne and Roman (Bon) Bonet-Sintas as well as sculptor Catherine Lawson, costume designer Olga Meervold, pianist Claude Govier, Francis Gow-Smith, and his wife Carol.

[15] by Mercury International LLC of Delaware, an affiliate of NCF Capital Ltd. which owes over $3 million dollars in back taxes to Suffolk County.