In 1917, construction began on the elaborate castle known as Beacon Towers. It was the home of Alva Vanderbilt Belmont, the widow of famed socialite Oliver Belmont, and, some say, the inspiration for Gatsby�s mansion in F. Scott Fitzgerald�s famous novel, The Great Gatsby. Belmont sold the house to William Hearst in 1927; by 1947 it had been razed to make way for new development.
