Long Island's Prominent South Shore Families: Estates and Their Country Homes in Babylon and Islip

Author: Raymond and Judith Spinzia

ISBN 978-1-63868-032-1 (softcover)

520 pages

The revised edition of Long Island's Prominent South Families: Their Estates and Their Country Homes in the Towns of Babylon and Islip joins the critically acclaimed five-volume series about Long Island's estate era and follows the same modified "Who's Who" format found in the other volumes.  This updated and expanded volume documents 588 estates and their owners.  Included are 473 photographs of the estates, biographical data on the estate owners and their families, cross-references to family members mentioned in other volumes in the series, locations of estates using current street references and village designations, estate names, architects, architectural styles, dates of construction, landscape architects, subsequent owners, location of archival photographs of the estates, and information as to whether mansions are still extant and, if not, the dates of demolition.

Cross-referenced in the second-section appendices are estate names, village locations of estates, as well as, architectural and landscape commissions. The civic activity and occupation appendices document the contribution of Long Islanders, including statesmen, intelligence agents, financiers, writers, and inventors. Maiden names, rehabilitative secondary uses of estates including golf courses which were formerly private estates, a general bibliography of the "Gilded Age," and a bibliography specific to individual estate owners, with the location of personal papers, have also been included.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Judith and Raymond Spinzia are former Long Island residents, now residing in central Pennsylvania. Their first book, "Long Island: A Guide to New York's Suffolk and Nassau Counties" (New York: Hippocrene Books, 1988; 1991 revised), is a standard reference book which has been used as a textbook for teaching Long Island history and can still be found in almost all public libraries and schools on Long Island A third (revised) edition of the guidebook is scheduled to be published in 2007.
The Spinzias write and speak, jointly and separately, on a variety of Long Island-related subjects including the North and South Shore estates, Tiffany stained-glass windows, and the Vanderbilts of Long Island. On several occasions their lectures have been chosen by the radio station of The New York Times, WQXR, as the cultural event of the day in the New York Metropolitan area. Additionally, they have been featured on local television and radio programs and in articles published by The New York Times, Newsday, and other regional newspapers.
The Spinzias served as Long Island history consultants for a local cable television channel that, in an effort to encourage local interest, aired material from their guidebook twice daily. They also were consultants for a Japanese television network for a documentary on Louis Comfort Tiffany and contributed material to the Arts and Entertainment Network's "Biography" series for its presentations on the Vanderbilt and Tiffany families.
Their critically acclaimed two-volume companion work to this South Shore book, "Long Island's Prominent North Shore Families: Their Estates and Their Country Homes," was also published in 2006. Ordering information and sample pages for both this volume and the North Shore work can be found by visiting the Spinzias' website: spinzialongislandestates.com