Vanderbilt Museum

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The Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum is located in Centerport on the North Shore of Long Island in Suffolk County, New York, USA. It is named for William K. Vanderbilt II and is located on the site of his 43 acre estate. His will dictated that the grounds be used as a museum, which it became in 1950. A planetarium was also constructed (by the county) on the grounds in 1970.

The museum complex includes the Gold Coast-era mansion [1910-1936] with furnishings and fine art, a marine museum with marine and natural history specimens (butterflies, birds, shells, mammals and fish), a curator's cottage, a seaplane hangar, a boathouse, gardens, and a collection of ethnographic objects (firearms and swords, ship models, and European, Asian and African objects).

[edit] Trivia

in 1988, the museum temporarily took on a different identity. The estate, called Eagle's Nest, served as a fictitious drug lord's mansion for the filming of Crocodile Dundee II. According to museum employee Rita Beckman, the cast, including co-stars Paul Hogan and Linda Kozlowski, spent about two weeks filming. To keep from blocking traffic, the crew built a 100-yard (91 m) replica of the estate's entrance wall and set it up on the golf course. They also built a three-tiered fountain in the courtyard and filmed a key scene in the library. CW Post students were bused in and cast as extras in this sequel to the popular Crocodile Dundee.