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During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Oakdale and the surrounding areas were mostly large sprawling summer estates. Most had farms to provide sustenance and to supply food for large ballroom parties. The Vanderbilt summer estate was built in Oakdale and still has its original farm in tact. Many different kinds of animals were kept at this farm, some were just for show and others for sustenance. The farm included pigs, chickens, eagles, pigeons, dairy cows and probably much more. After the Vanderbilts left in 1926 the farm was converted to an artist colony and would house many artists of all different genres. All was converted to housing for the newly arriving artists, including: the piggery, the chicken pens, the barns. The Vanderbilts took so much pride in this farm that even the piggery was appealing to the eye, so converting it to housing wasn't that hard to imagine. An area of the colony was converted to the Tally-Ho Inn where residents and non residents could mingle over a drink or meal. After the farm colony days, the former farm was converted to apartments and condominiums, all still inside the original farm buildings and structures. You can still tell that the housing was once animal pens because of everything is short height wise and long length wise, like pens.
Here we see some of the housing that was once pens.
Notice the barn style doors still in tact.
A view of the arch section used as the Tally-Ho Inn during the 1920s. Photo from www.eastislip.org a great resource
Same view in 2005. Not much has changed, just some dormer windows added for the apartments. Oh, and the cars.
Left: Notice how low to the ground the housing units are. Right: Notice how the housing units are long chains. Both these things are because they were animal pens at one time.
Farm superintendent house.
How fitting, a chicken in the window of one of the former pens.
The Mystery of the Tower
The farm was originally built with a tower used for water storage and for a giant clock. There is still a tower today that is remarkably similar to the original one but in a different location. This may in fact be the original tower moved or an awesome reproduction. The only difference is the roof which is was originally pitched but is now like a castle fortress.
From this photo we see that the original tower was attached to the building with the archers. This is the same building the Tally-Ho (See above) was located in.
Notice in this photo the tower isn't a part of that same structure, but instead is a little east of it. At first this appears like an entirely different tower, but compare it to a zoom of the original one and you will see the clock, windows and arch are all in the same exact place. It appears the only differences are its location and the roof, both things that could have been changed without rebuilding.
See the windows bellow and above are the same in number and size.
You can see here that the Tower on the left doesn't have the building attached to it as seen in the to the left and two up. That's because the building around it burned down but the tower was saved.
Further more, when the area became the artist colony the roads were renamed. The road with the tower on it now is named Tower Mews.