Artist Colony Oakdale
🎨 Artist Colony – Oakdale, Long Island
The Oakdale Artist Colony is a small historic community in Oakdale, New York on Long Island’s South Shore. It developed in the 1920s on part of the former Idle Hour Estate, the large estate of railroad and shipping heir William Kissam Vanderbilt.
🏰 Origins: From Vanderbilt Farm to Artist Village
The Artist Colony began with the farm complex that supplied food to Vanderbilt’s estate.
The estate included barns, stables, a creamery, duck houses, and a water tower.
After Vanderbilt died in 1920, the property began to be sold off.
In 1926, wealthy art patron Lucy Pritchard Sawyer Thompson bought about 16 acres of the farm buildings.
Her idea was to create a bohemian-style art community where artists could live, work, and collaborate.
🖌️ Life in the Colony (1920s–1930s)
Thompson converted the farm buildings into:
Artist studios
Small homes
A theater and gallery
A café called the Gypsy Tea Room
Exhibition spaces for art shows and performances
The colony held fairs, art exhibitions, costume parties, and performances, attracting artists, musicians, actors, and writers.
Artists and performers connected to the colony included:
George Elmer Browne – American painter
Carl Nordell – artist
Lynn Thomas Morgan – landscape painter
Lenore Ulric – silent-film actress who performed there
Opera singer Nanette Guilford
There were even street fairs and performances, sometimes drawing hundreds or thousands of visitors.
📉 Decline
The colony’s artistic experiment did not last long.
The Great Depression made it difficult for artists to pay rent.
Buildings began to be sold to private owners.
By the 1930s, the organized colony had mostly disappeared.
Over time, normal suburban neighborhoods grew around it.
🏘️ What Exists Today
The Artist Colony area still exists today in Oakdale.
Notable features include:
A distinctive clock tower / water tower from the Vanderbilt farm
Narrow winding lanes
Converted barns and farm buildings turned into homes
Storybook-style brick structures that resemble a small European village
The area was designated a historic district by the Town of Islip in 1976.
✅ Interesting local lore:
Because of its unusual architecture and secluded layout, the colony became surrounded by urban legends among Long Island students, including rumors of hidden villages and haunted buildings.
