Although Long Island was a popular seasonal retreat as early as the 1700's, it was not until the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that it became the mecca for the wealthy known as the Gold Coast. The Hinterlands of Wall Street James Beekman initiated the phenomenon in the 1860's when he built the first architect-designed country house in the quiet village of Oyster Bay. At this time, Long Island was still a haven for farmers and local industry, and the resort villages for the growing upper middle class were located in Newport, Rhode Island and along the New Jersey shoreline. As American business and industry boomed in the late 19th and early 20th century, Wall Street became the locus of the world economy. Other wealthy businessmen joined Beekman and brought Long Island into a new era; the Gold Coast. The Coe Children