Oheka Castle — The Taylor Swift Castle
Huntington, NY
Long Island’s Gold Coast was the original millionare’s playground with turn of the century mansions and estates lining its pristine shores, but only one mansion in Huntington, New York, tops them all. At an astonishing 109,000 square feet, the second largest private residence in America; the Biltmore in Asheville being the first, Oheka Castle took inspiration from the palaces of the kings and emperors of France, and it was built on the highest hill on Long Island at the cost of $11 million dollars, equivalent to a whopping $110 million in today’s dollars. No expense was spared on the property with the grounds and formal gardens designed by the Olmsted Brothers, sons of the imitable Frederick Law Olmstead, the legendary landscape designer of Central Park.
Inside Oheka
Inside, Oheka has an astounding one hundred and twenty seven rooms in total with a library holding a 2,000 volume collection of books, a pool room with Greek statuary, bar room, thirty nine fireplaces, and even an underground tunnel system for the servants. Undoubtedly, Oheka was built to entertain. The Grand Ballroom held lavish Gilded Age parties, but the main centerpiece of the castle remains the Grand Staircase inspired by the Chateau de Fontainebleau, reportedly the Emperor Napoleon’s favorite palace, with the hand-crafted wrought iron stair railing designed by Samuel Yellin, a celebrated turn of the century ironsmith.
Otto Herman Kahn
Oheka was built by Wall Street tycoon Otto Herman Kahn (with the name Oheka stemming from Mr. Kahn’s initials) and took five years to complete from 1914 to 1919. He built the castle for the purposes of entertaining his many well-heeled friends and also as a product of a painful upbringing. With a Jewish background, a young Otto Kahn couldn’t join prestigious country clubs and was often ostracized from many social circles. No wonder then that Otto Kahn built Oheka to impress and impress he did as Oheka was the site of many a Gilded Age social gathering. He had many illustrious guests including most famously, Charlie Chaplin, who visited so often he has a room named after him in Oheka today. Even with the parties, Oheka remained a home to Otto Kahn. He and his family lived at the palatial estate, and during their stay, Oheka had originally four hundred and forty three acres, a working farm, and a private airstrip. His son Roger Wolfe Kahn went on to become a popular musician performing the chart-topping hits of his day during the twenties and thirties. Roger Wolfe Kahn and His Orchestra had many a party goer doing the “Fox Trot” and the “Charleston” with jazz hits like 1926’s “Clap Yo Hands,” written by a young George and Ira Gershwin, and 1928’s “Crazy Rhythm.” Definitely eyebrow raising during those days.
Otto Kahn died in 1934 and with him, so it seemed Oheka as well. The castle became a retirement home and later, the Eastern Military Academy. But in 1979, Oheka was finally abandoned and left to the elements. Vandals ransacked the property and also caused some fires further destroying the castle.
Gary Melius
In 1984, real estate developer Gary Melius, whose previous claim to fame was a producer for a certain, shall we say, risqué movie, bought Oheka for a mere $1.5 million dollars. “It looked like something from a horror movie,” Melius told the Mega Mansions tv show in a thick New York accent. He picked up a steal, however, and transformed the property, with $37 million dollars so far of his own money, into a hotel and catering and conference center. You heard that right, you can actually stay in this actual castle mansion. Thirty two of the rooms have been converted into guestrooms ranging in rates from the close to the mid hundreds per night Chateau rooms to the over $1000 per night Olmsted Suites with views overlooking the Great Lawn, formal gardens, and reflecting pools. As could be expected, Oheka Castle is a favorite for weddings, but a dream wedding there won’t come cheap. A cake alone from the Oheka Castle pastry chef costs an eye bulging $50K. That’s one expensive cake.
With its Old Money charm, Oheka Castle is also a favorite of celebrities and Hollywood. Jonas Brother Kevin Jonas was married at Oheka, and so was now disgraced former NY Representative Anthony Weiner and his estranged wife, former Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin. Speaking of Old Money, The Great Gatsby author himself, F. Scott Fitzgerald took inspiration for his famous novel of Gilded Age decadence from Oheka itself. Actor and director Orson Welles used shots of Oheka to depict the cavernous Xanadu after Oheka in the classic movie, Citizen Kane. In 2015, “Wildest Dreams” singer Taylor Swift used Oheka as the backdrop for her song “Blank Space.” In the music video, Taylor Swift and her beau fall madly in love and then argue passionately inside Oheka’s walls until she has another name to write in a “blank space” for a new man in her life.
Who Shot Gary Melius?
For Gary Melius, however, living in a castle has its dark side. While at the extensive driveway of Oheka, an intruder shot him in the head through the glass car window of his Mercedes. He miraculously survived and eventually recovered, more or less. Amateur or actual sleuths can hope for a huge payday. Melius has offered a still uncollected $100,000 reward as the case remains open to this day. Local tongues still wag, “Who Shot Gary Melius?”
Today, Melius is in another drama. The mega property is stuck in a foreclosure battle between Melius and US Bank. With the property in receivership, though Melius still insists he has “total control,” a judge recently threw out one of his claims and inch by inch, this may be one battle the hard scrabble Long Islander might lose. Still, in a game of thrones, never count out the survivors, least of all Gary Melius.
