Click here to view a short video about Otto Kahn

Oheka Castle was named after Otto Herman Kahn. (Otto Herman Kahn). Otto Kahn was a millionaire financier, and philanthropist, who ordered the castle built. He wanted his castle to be on a hill to have a commanding view of the location. In 1914, Kahn bought 443 acres of land to build the castle. By 1919, the Kahn family moved in until Otto Kahn's death in 1934.        

The Castle was designed in the French Renaissance style by Delano and Aldrich. (It was built out of steel and concrete to prevent fires.) When built, the main home contained over 100 rooms and 109,000 square feet. Estate grounds, landscaped by Olmsted Brothers, originally consisted of a greenhouse complex, stables, riding trails, tennis courts, landing strip, and formal garden. After the castle was built it was the second largest home in the United States. Otto Kahn wanted the hill the castle was built on to be the largest hill on Long Island, and it is currently being debated whether or not it is higher than Jayne's Hill in Huntington, NY.                  

        It cost approximately $11 million dollars ($110 million dollars in today's currency) to build the castle. During the Gilded Age Kahn used his estate as a summer home to host lavish parties and regularly entertained royalty, heads of state, and Hollywood stars.                    

After Otto Kahn died of a heart attack, the estate changed hands several times. First, Addie Kahn, Otto Kahn's wife, resided in the mansion. She later moved to a house her husband previously owned on Fifth Avenue in New York City.  She lived there with all of the belongings from Oheka until she passed away in 1944. Then, Oheka served as a retreat for the New York Sanitation workers, under a company called Sanita. It also served as a training school for Merchant Marine Radio operators. Later, in 1948, the Eastern Military Academy (EMA) bought Oheka. The Academy reconstructed Oheka by bulldozing the gardens and painting over walls. In 1955, EMA was designated an honor Junior ROTC unit by the United States Army.  The school had an enrollment of more than 350 students at one time. Approximately thirty years later, the school went bankrupt and Oheka was abandoned and vandalized. There were over 100 fires in five years. Fortunately, in 1984, Gary Meilus, a real estate developer, bought the estate and the remaining 23 acres which surrounded it and began to restore the castle to its original grandeur. Today Oheka castle is a venue for weddings and celebrations.

Addie Kahn	Building The Front Facade of Oheka	Arial View

  Work Cited:

Melius, Kelly. "Oheka Castle." Dupont Castle. Web. 16 Apr. 2010.       http://www.dupontcastle.com/castles/oheka.htm . Oheka Castle Hotel & Estate. "OHEKA CASTLE - OHEKA History." OHEKA CASTLE   - Luxury Long Island Hotels in Long Island New York | Oheka Castle. Web. 15 Apr. 2010. http://www.oheka.com/index.php?page=history.

Oheka Castle Hotel and Estate. "OHEKA CASTLE - Historic Photo Gallery." OHEKA CASTLE - Luxury Long Island Hotels in Long Island New York | Oheka Castle . Web. 22 Apr. 2010. http://www.oheka.com/index.php?page=history_gallery.

Wagner, Amy. "1948: Oheka Castle Bought By Eastern Military Acadmey." Newsday: A34. Print.

Zach. "Oheka." Old Long Island. Web. 16 Apr. 2010.     http://www.oldlongisland.com/search/label/Oheka .  

Otto Hermann Kahn was born on February 21, 1867 and was raised in      Mannheim, Germany Kahn started working for Berliner Deutsche bank. Then in 1888, he was sent to their London office. During the time he spent there, he became a naturalized British citizen.

In 1893, he moved to the United States because he accepted an offer from Speyer and Company of New York, where he spent the rest of his life. In 1897, he joined the banking firm of Kuhn, Loeb and company in New York City. In 1917, he gave up his British citizenship. As an extremely wealthy financier, he supported artists such as Hart Crane, George Gershwin and Arturo Toscanini. From 1903 he was active on the board of the Metropolitan Opera Company. In 1908 he brought from Milan, Giulio Gatti-Casazza as director and Arturo Toscanini as principal conductor, launching the company on one of its most successful periods. Kahn acquired 443 acres of land on Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, where he built OHEKA castle. His house is now the second largest private residence in the United States and was designed by Delano and Aldrich of New York City. Frederick Law Olmsted of Brookline, Massachusetts, did the landscaping he also designed Central Park. Closely associated with E. H. Harriman in the reorganization of the Union Pacific and other railroads and had a part in numerous international finance organizations. In 1936, the image of Otto Kahn was used as an inspiration for the character "Mr. Monopoly"

Landscape

Oheka Castle Landscaping

  The gardens and grounds of the Oheka Castle were designed and built by Olmsted Brothers of Brookline, Massachusetts. Olmsted was considered one of the premier landscape design firms of the early twentieth century and was a very well known landscaping firm. Before designing the gardens of the Oheka Castle, it had already designed many famous gardens such as New York City's Central Park and the Capital Grounds in Washington DC. Olmsted designed many gold coast gardens and mansions on Long Island as well. In 1919, the firm of Olmsted Brothers brought in Beatrix Farrand (1872-1959) to design the flower gardens, rose gardens and amphitheatre. Farrand was a landscape architect and was the only woman who was one of the founders of the American Society of Landscape Architects. In constructing the home, two entire years were spent building an artificial hill on which to place it, giving it views of Cold Spring Hills and Cold Spring Harbor . The Oheka Castle estate was set on 443 acres. The gardens of the Oheka Castle that were designed from 1919-1928 were eventually, but the gardens were extensively documented and photographed.

Joseph M. & Jorge B.