Things to do / Travel Guide
Address:180 Little Neck Rd.
Centerport, New York
Tel:
(631) 854-5555
The Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum, which served as a fictitious drug lord's mansion for the filming of Crocodile Dundee II 1988, features William K. Vanderbilt II's spectacular 43-acre fully furnished Gold Coast estate, along with his collection of artifacts and natural history dioramas. The site includes a marine museum, a curator's cottage, a seaplane hangar, a boathouse and numerous other estate features such as gardens, fountains, balustrades and pools. Described as a "time capsule" and a "museum of museums," the Vanderbilt Museum boasts one of the largest privately held collections of marine specimens in the world, as well as a 3000-year old mummy and polychromed case, purchased in Cairo, in 1931. There is also a planetarium on the Vanderbilt Museum's picturesque grounds, built in 1970. The projector can show 11,369 stars at any given moment!
The museum's regular tours teach visitors about life on Long Island's Gold Coast at a time when the Vanderbilts summered at the estate, about the eclectic collections they surrounded themselves with and what the world was like for the family and staff at Vanderbilt's Eagle's Nest Estate. The Living History Tour also delves into life in Vanderbilt's time, but is led by members of Vanderbilt's "household" and includes run-ins with some of the celebrities who frequented the house in the 1930s.
The museum does not have dining facilities for visitors, but kids are major fans of the space ice cream for sale in the gift shop.
The Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum is located in Centerport on the North Shore of Long Island.
The Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum — a unique combination of mansion, marine and natural history museum, planetarium and park — is dedicated to the education and enjoyment of the people of Long Island and beyond. This mission shall be achieved through the thoughtful preservation, interpretation and enhancement of the Eagle's Nest estate as an informal educational facility. Exhibition and program themes focus upon Long Island's Gold Coast Era and upon William K. Vanderbilt II's desire that his marine, natural history, and ethnographic collections promote appreciation and understanding of the marvelous diversity of life, other cultures, and scientific knowledge.