Situated on the Gold Coast of Long Island’s North Shore, Beacon Towers was one of the most fantastical of all Gilded Age mansions. Many think it was the suitably lavish inspiration for the home of F Scott Fitzgerald’s titular character in The Great Gatsby.

Originally built in 1918 for Alva Erskine Smith, a society hostess and pioneering women’s rights activist, it was later bought by the legendary media magnate William Randolph Hearst in 1927. Hearst had the building dramatically remodelled, but was forced to hand it over to the bank for tax purposes in 1942 and it was demolished three years later.

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