Colorized aerial view of the Hudson Estate, Muttontown, LI, NY.

The Charles I. Hudson Estate was built circa 1906 and originally named Westbrook Farm. The architects were Hiss & Weekes and the landscape was designed by a young Ferruccio Vitale. The North Shore of Long Island once discovered by the New York City millionaires became very popular because it had rolling hillside and old forests. Previously it was mostly used for farming. When the millionaires came calling to the farmers to buy up their swaths of land, the farmers couldn’t be happier and gladly took the inflated amounts for land that was often rock and hilly, not the best for good farming. As we see here in the aerial photo the top part of the photo shows dense woodlands, but the bottom once cleared farmland. The estate builders wanting to have their homes surrounded by trees had perfect rows planted to achieve that effect quicker than Mother Nature could do. The once magnificent mansion by the 1950’s became a vandalized ruin and eventually demolished. The now returned to nature landscape is a nature preserve where all can visit and search for the few remains of the great mansion, Knollwood. More information & photos HERE. NOTE: The mansion in the  colorized photo has some quirks in it, but will be fixed which requires much more time,but the main photo does show the lushness of the landscape.