Harbor Hill

Portrait of a House

By: Richard Guy Wilson

Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner

Harbor Hill in Roslyn, Long Island, was designed to be a "palace" for a "queen." Commissioned by the beautiful and imperious Katherine Duer Mackay, wife of one of the country's wealthiest men, it was an estate almost without equal in the entire country. This is the saga of that magnificent mansion, an extravagant product of the owners' hubris and desire for social acceptance, and of the ultimate failure of that driving ambition.

Incorporating elements of both tragedy and farce, Wilson's very American portrait covers old versus new wealth, religious differences over the building of a church, and art collecting, as well as the variety of people involved with Harbor Hill, from the architects, builders, and workers to the servants and staff who ran the house and gardens.

©2008 the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Wilson has compiled a riveting life story of...a prominent turn-of-the-century family...[and] their impressive mansion...." (Jickie Torres, Romantic Homes)
"Wilson turns this chronicle of what reporters at the time called 'Heartbreak House' into a page-turner....[an] entertaining, enlightening cautionary tale." (Eve Kahn, Period Homes)