Walking tours and events at Long Island Gold Coast mansions

A portrait that might have inspired Mr. Monopoly. A dining room that was moved from Fifth Avenue. Original pages from Charles Lindbergh’s autobiography. These are some of the secrets of Long Island’s Gold Coast mansions that are revealed during guided tours led by dedicated docents who know these buildings like the back of their hands.

VANDERBILT MANSION, MUSEUM AND PLANETARIUM

180 Little Neck Rd., Centerport

“It never gets stale,” says Ellen Mason, who has spent the past two decades leading tours of Eagle’s Nest, the Spanish revival mansion built by William K. Vanderbilt II in 1910. One of her favorite things to show visitors is the white upholstered furniture in the Portuguese sitting room, moved there when it was taken from Vanderbilt’s yacht Alva before it was commissioned by the Na