The spectacular Spanish-Revival mansion and museum of William K. Vanderbilt II in Centerport, New York, is one of the few remaining estates on the legendary North Shore of Long Island. The mansion, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is a time machine to a rare and privilged way of life along Long Island’s Gold Coast, which once held the largest concentration of wealth and power in the United States.

Now the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum and Planetarium, the 43-acre estate is a popular historic, cultural and scientific destination for regional visitors. The newly renovated, state-of-the-art Planetarium–with an advanced Konica Minolta projection system, full-dome video ad surround-sound offers visitors a thrilled immersive experience that takes them to the outer reaches of the Solar System.

The Vanderbilt includes a Marine Museum, wild-animal habitats and dioramas, and galleries with collections galleries of natural-history specimens and ethnographic artifacts from Africa, Asia and the South Pacific.