Summer's In Long Island: Feature of the Month – Coe Hall & Planting Fields Arboretum

We love supporting the very special landmarks and events found throughout the North Shore and beyond. One of our favorite Long Island landmarks is Planting Fields Arboretum and the Coe Hall Historic Museum.

A breathtaking estate.

More than 400 acres, Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park is a historic destination open to all. It includes greenhouses, woodland paths, a herbarium with more than 10,000 pressed specimens and the Coe Hall Historic Museum, which has 67 rooms. It once belonged to William Robertson Coe, an insurance and railroad executive, and his wife Mary (Mai) Huttleston Rogers Coe. A pretty big deal herself, she was the daughter of a millionaire industrialist and a principal of Standard Oil named Henry H. Rogers. The estate was given to New York State in 1949, while Coe was still living.

Fiery misfortune…

Coe Hall didn’t always look the way it does today. The original mansion sitting on the property burned down on March 19, 1918. The current one, a Tudor Revival inspired by a book of English country houses, went into construction that year. Designed by the now defunct Walker & Gillette, it was finished in 1921.

Behind the name…

Where does the name Planting Fields come from? The Matinecock Indians had all to do with that: They cultivated the soil in the area above the Long Island Sound.

A marvelous landscape.

After purchasing the estate, Coe focused on constructing its beauty. He and his wife had a love for rare species of trees and plants, a reason why it looks the way it does today. Think oaks, Scotch and red pines, lindens and rhododendrons from England and Japanese crabapples and cherries. The couple also received a helping hand from the Boston landscaping firm of Guy Lowell and A. Robeson Sargent. In 1915, the firm brought over two massive beeches from Mrs. Coe’s childhood home in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. The transport was so intense only one of the trees made it. The surviving breech recently saw a similar fate and was removed in 2006. Luckily, seedlings were collected from the tree several years prior. The “Fairhaven Beech” is expected to live on.

If you’re looking for a fabulous Gatsby-esq gathering, visit Coe Hall at Planting Fields Arboretum for a Champagne – Masquerades & Motown Party tomorrow evening, August 3rd at 7:00pm. Planting Fields features fabulous events throughout the year that are definitely worth exploring, https://zurl.co/ErPE

Champagne – Mascarade & Motown Party 

August 3 @ 7:00 pm – 10:30 pm

Planting Fields Foundation’s Champagne Party – Masquerades & Motown

Join us for our 10^th annual champagne party.  This popular and fun garden soiree celebrates summer in the grandeur of the gardens at Coe Hall.  Enjoy plentiful hors d’oeuvres, desserts, champagne, craft beer and live Motown music! Choose a mask and wear it well, so your true identity, no one can tell!  Join us to celebrate and bring an air of mystery to this fun masquerade garden soiree!  Dance the night away under the stars to the live music with the energetic and full of life Motown sound of the “City Sounds Music Experience.”  The ‘City Sounds Spectacular’ features a high octane 8-piece ensemble including a horn section that note for note emulates the Berry Gordy “Sounds Of Young America” that swept the nation then and still today keeps people “Dancing In The Streets”. Come to the Coe Hall’s “Brick House” and “Ease On Down The Road” and get on “Higher Ground” with ‘City and The Motown Sound’

7:00pm                              Drinks

7:30pm                              Cocktail Buffet

8:30pm – 10:30pm         Dancing

Cheers!

#Gatsby #PlantingFields #CoeHall #LongIslandMansions #LoveWhereYouLive

Coe Hall is located at 1395 Planting Fields Road in Oyster Bay.

Credit: Anna Halkidis, Pulse