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Oheka Castle was the country home of financier and philanthropist Otto Kahn. Built by Kahn between...

Oheka Castle was the country home of financier and philanthropist Otto Kahn. Built by Kahn between 1914 and 1919 and located on the Gold Coast of Long Island's north shore, it was and remains the second largest private home in the United States, comprising 127 rooms and over 100,000 square feet (9,300 m), as originally configured. In 1905, a previous country home of Kahn's, Cedar Court in Morristown, New Jersey, was virtually destroyed by fire. In constructing Oheka, Kahn swore this home would not burn, so he had his architects, Delano and Aldrich, design the building out of steel and concrete, making it one of the first totally fireproof buildings. In constructing the home, two entire years were spent building an artificial hill on which to place it, giving it commanding views of Cold Spring Hills and Cold Spring Harbor. Kahn commissioned the Olmsted Brothers to design the estate's grounds, centered on a formal axial sunken garden in the French manner, of clipped greens and gravel in parterres and water terraces, screened by high clipped hedging from the entrance drive that ran parallel to the main axis (illustration, left). Other features of the 443 acres (1.79 km) complex