Long Island: Oheka Castle Tour (May 2018)


Oheka Castle (May 2018) - Go for a Drink or Meal; No Need for an Organized Tour

My spouse and I visited Oheka Castle on a Sunday morning in early May 2018. We booked our tour a few weeks ahead using the hotel/restaurant/castle website. One-hour tours are given at 11:00 am daily and cost $25 (which is discounted to $15 for hotel guests). You can choose to include champagne and strawberries or a multi-course prix-fixe lunch at the end of your tour, or you can book a dining reservation separately using the online Open Table reservation system (so that your menu is not limited). All guests receive cookies and coffee/tea/water at the end of their tour. 

We had tried to visit Oheka previously, but were never able to get a reservation; our advice is go anyway for a drink or meal – you do not need to book a tour. Everything that our excellent guide told us during the 20-minute briefing (during which we were seated) is posted online on their website; she did show us some old photographs at the end of the tour that we hadn’t seen online, but they were available in the library for anyone to look through. Plus, if you visit for a drink or meal, you can still wander the grounds unimpeded, except for those areas that are off-limits because of the many wedding and private event functions. We were allowed to visit the grand ballroom, even though caterers were setting up for a large wedding; however, we were unable to dine in the actual dining room because that had been reserved for a special event. As a result, luncheon guests were seated in the bar room or the Charlie Chaplin room, which are both cozy but not as preferred as the dining room. Despite receiving at least two emails from Open Table and two telephone calls to confirm our meal, no one thought to mention to us ahead of time that we would be dining in an auxiliary room. For that reason, we canceled our meal reservation on the spot; the hostess and manager seemed happy that we chose not to dine and didn’t care in the least that we left. Note that if an event is going on, you might be prevented from just showing up for a drink without a reservation; on the day that we visited, guests were turned away because the dining room was off-limits and the other two ancillary rooms were full. Email reservation confirmation states that some areas of the estate and gardens may be inaccessible on the day of your visit, but we didn’t expect that to include the restaurant when we were holding a confirmed reservation. It was also dreadfully dreary, so guests could not sit outside to drink and dine on the semi-rooftop terrace. We were also unable to see any of the accommodations that are often included on a tour because they were occupied. If you feel compelled to take a guided tour, we recommend doing so on a weekday when private events are less likely. We were disappointed by the lack of direction when we arrived at the estate – there was no signage on where to park, no signage that directed us to check in for tours at front desk, no instructions to obtain admission cards (which were on the honor system to give to the guide – hotel guests and others nosy-bodies could have easily joined the tour without paying). We had about 22 people on our tour.

Oheka Castle, constructed between 1914 and 1919, encompasses about 110,000 square feet and 120 rooms, allowing it to boast that it is the second largest private residence ever built in America. (The largest is the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina.) Even with its large size, the estate was only the summer home for Otto Kahn, his wife Addie, and their four children. Financier and philanthropist Otto Hermann Kahn built Oheka (a portmanteau of his name Otto HErman KAhn, which he also applied to his villa in Palm Beach and his private yacht) on a 443-acre plot in Cold Spring Harbor on the highest point on Long Island, for an estimated cost of $11 million (which would equal $158 million today). The Khans hosted lavish parties and entertained royalty, heads of state, and Hollywood movie stars. The estate once included an 18-hole golf course (still operating, although not owned by Oheka), a private greenhouse, tennis courts, an indoor swimming pool (no longer operational but visible through the windows in an annex building near the parking lot), a landing strip, orchards, and stables.

Oheka was designed in a French chateau style of steel and concrete in order to make it fireproof after Kahn’s previous summer home burned down. (Oheka has survived over 100 arson attempts during a 4-year period in the early 1980s when it was vacant.) Note that because Oheka has had a long history and was vandalized and stood vacant for many years, there is almost nothing original (with respect to moldings, fireplaces, wall coverings, paint, fixtures) remaining, but architects and historians did extensive research during the renovation and painstakingly copied original features including the original slate roof tiles, 222 windows and doors, faux bois [wood] in the library, plaster moldings, and the wrought-iron railing on the grand staircase, and the result is beautiful. Drawings from the Olmsted Brothers (who designed Manhattan’s Central Park) were used to recreate the formal French sunken gardens, which feature three fountains and eight reflecting pools. Oheka is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a member of Historic Hotels of America, part of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Many movies (Cruel Intentions, Citizen Kane) and TV shows (“The Americans”, “Gossip Girl”, “Madam Secretary”, and “Royal Pains”) have filmed at Oheka, as well as various commercials, music videos (like Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space”), and magazine shoots. Celebrity sightings also occur, including famous TV, movie, music, and political figures. 

We enjoyed our tour of Oheka, but would advise others to just read the background on line and the visit on their own for a drink (on a weekday).