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Eagle’s Nest is the Long Island summer home of William K. Vanderbilt II, the great grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and his wife Rosamond. What began as a small, seven room “English Cottage” on 43 acres in the early 1900s grew into a 24 room Spanish Revival mansion with several additional museum galleries filled with the private collections of William’s world travels. An avid hunter, fisherman, and traveler, William eventually opened the museums to the public and even donated his estate, including Eagle’s Nests and its furnishings, to Suffolk County to be turned into a public museum after his death in 1944 for the public to enjoy.

One of the only remaining “Gilded Age Gold Coast” mansions on Long Island in New York, the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum is the former estate of William K. Vanderbilt and his third wife, Rosamond. The great-great grandson of shipping and railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt, William purchased the 43 acre property in Centerport on Long Island in 1908 and began with a  small “English Cottage”. Over the next two decades, he expanded the property and grew the “cottage” into a 24 room Spanish Revival mansion named “Eagle’s Nest” along with several museum buildings. Vanderbilt chose the Northport Bay location because it is the deepest port closest to Manhattan where Vanderbilt could moor his boats. William and Rosemond lived on the property from May through October, although they also commuted into their home in Manhattan.