Oheka Castle is a French Renaissance–style chateau on Long Island’s Gold Coast, built between 1914 and 1919 as the country estate of financier and philanthropist Otto Hermann Kahn. It is the largest private house ever built in New York and the second‑largest private residence in the United States after Biltmore, Which I have also painted! Originally comprising an impressive 127 rooms and about 109,000–112,000 square feet.
Oheka Castle is a French Renaissance–style chateau on Long Island’s Gold Coast, built between 1914 and 1919 as the country estate of financier and philanthropist Otto Hermann Kahn. It is the largest private house ever built in New York and the second‑largest private residence in the United States after Biltmore, originally comprising 127 rooms and about 109,000–112,000 square feet.
Location: 135 West Gate Drive, Huntington, NY 11743, USA
In the 1920s Oheka functioned as Kahn’s summer “party palace,” hosting royalty, heads of state, and Hollywood figures. Its scale, opulence, and Long Island setting have long fed the idea that it helped inspire the mansion in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, and it has since been used as a stand‑in for elite estates in numerous productions.
interesting facts...
The estate ran like a small hotel, with 126–127 full‑time staff at its peak, 39 working fireplaces, and service circulation that included an underground tunnel system for servants connecting parts of the house and outbuildings.
It also served as a visual model for Xanadu in Citizen Kane!
Location: 135 West Gate Drive, Huntington, NY 11743, USA
