The Wee Wah Beach Club in Tuxedo Park: An American Story of Social Change

Americans have always had a fascination with the lifestyles of the rich and famous. Perhaps you have watched "The Gilded Age" series on HBO by Julien Fellows reliving the life of the socially rich and privileged in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island.

There is another, but hidden, exclusive private Gilded Age recreational community historically occupied by those who built their mansions on 5th Avenue in New York City and Newport. It still exists today and is called Tuxedo Park. To this day, you cannot drive through the fortress-like entrance gates to Tuxedo Park unless invited.

On August 11, 1991, a New York Times article on Tuxedo Park in the real estate section stated, "King Arthur's Camelot, Du Maurier's Manderley, Coleridge's Xanadu - Tuxedo Park in Orange County, N.Y., has one leg up on these lands of myth and romance: it exists. ..."

Another New York Times article in June of 2000 quoted a resident who said living in Tuxedo Park recalled life in the Lakes District in England; yet another likened it to "Lake Garda in northern Italy."

It was a place that gave name to the formal "Tuxedo" jacket.

Learn of the "Millionaire", the express train that would take resident members of the Tuxedo Club into New York City to their offices and back after the close of the banks and stock market.

It is a story of the creation of the Wee Wah Beach Club by those who built and served these grand estates. The outgrowth of this story of a small community mirrors the social changes that have taken place in America, but the book questions if we are heading back to a time when the disparity between social classes is rapidly returning and the gap between the ultra-rich and other Americans has returned today.