Harbor Hill
Harbor Hill was a spectacular Long Island mansion built from 1899-1902 in Roslyn, New York, commissioned by Clarence Hungerford Mackay. It was designed by McKim, Mead, and White, with Stanford White supervising the project. It was the largest home he ever designed.
Clarence Mackay (1874–1938) was the son of Comstock Lode magnate John William Mackay, and inherited much of an estimated $500 million fortune upon his father's death in 1902 (approximately $13 billion in 2012 dollars). White collaborated closely with Clarence Mackay's wife, Katharine Duer Mackay (1880–1930), and with her approval, based the main façade of Harbor Hill upon that of François Mansart's Château de Maisons of 1642, using a mix of other influences to finish the overall design.
Built at great expense and furnished lavishly (at least three different decorating firms were employed), the home originally sat on 688 acres (2.78 km2) and enjoyed views across Roslyn Harbor to Long Island Sound. Formal terraces and gardens were finished by Guy Lowell.
Harbor Hill Moraine
The Harbor Hill Moraine, in the geography of Long Island, forms the northern of two ridges along the "backbone" of Long Island. The Harbor Hill Moraine, skirting the North Shore, represents the terminal moraine of the most recent advance of the Wisconsinian glaciation, which reached its most southward advance about 18,000 years ago; the earlier Ronkonkoma Moraine, much cut through by outwash streams from the Harbor Hill Moraine, lies to the southeast. The Harbor Hill moraine is represented by the North Fork of eastern Long Island and in three disjunct sections farther east, Plum Island, Great Gull Island, and Fisher's Island.
The Harbor Hill Moraine, named for its prominence at Harbor Hill, Roslyn, New York, the highest point in Nassau County, resulted from a lingering equilibrium stage in the glacier's episodic retreat, creating a stationary melting front; the Long Island area became permanently free of glacial ice in the range of 13,000 to 12,000 YBP (Years Before Present).
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