What are the fanciest suburbs on the East Coast??

Potomac, MD

McLean and Great Falls, VA

Greenwich, CT Bedford, NY

The Main Line

Weston, MA. Democratic Presidents go there often as a major donor/supporter lives there.

Cohasset

Short Hills

Great Neck-Kings Point-Sands Point

Larchmont

We don't need to. Ang Lee already captured them in "The Ice Storm"

Great Falls, VA is gorgeous. Tony bedroom community right outside of D.C.

Greenwich!

"It's my house and I live here"

Lattingtown.

In terms of old money, refined elegance, Chestnut Hill , PA.

Old Brookville.

Morning sun kisses the windows, kisses the walls, open the eyelids, opens the eyes of the husband and wife! Kindles their faces, kindles their love, kindles their faces with greetings of love in the little white house in Wellesley Hills!

Suburbia! Suburbia...

Our little spot out of the hubbub: less than an hour by train! Suburbia! Suburbia... Sweet in the spring! Healthful in winter! Saves us the bother of summers in Maine! Morning sun kisses the driveway, kisses the lawn, kisses the flagstones on the front lawn of the little white house, kisses the paper at the front door kisses the roses around the front door of the little white house in Ozone Park!

Suburbia! Suburbia...

Pause for the kids, neighborly butchers, less than an hour by train! That morning sun says "A good morning, have a good day, have a good morning, have a good day in the city today! Joy to your labors, till you return-- joy to your labors until you return to the little white house in Highland Park, in Shaker Heights, in Michigan Farms, in Beverly Hills..."

Lovely life, happily married, sweet little son, family picture second to none: it’s a wonderful life, up-to-date kitchen, washing machine: colorful bathrooms, and Life Magazine, and a little white house in Brookline!

Lovely life, Sheraton sofa, Chippendale chair, Heppelwhite table, bone chinaware! It’s a wonderful life! Real solid silver, wine in the soup, two-door sedan and convertible coupe and a little white house in Elkins Park.

Suburbia! Suburbia...

Six days of work, fun every Sunday! Golf with the neighbors next door. Suburbia! Suburbia... Vitamin B, Chlorophyll toothpaste: who could ask heaven for anything more? Lovely life, oodles of culture over T.V., Book-of the month club: musical tea: It’s a wonderful life! Happily married, sweet little son, family picture second to none, in the little white house in Bloomfield Hills, in Berkeley Heights, in Delaware Pines, in Beverly Hills...

A lot of the wealth on New Jersey has moved "West." Short Hills is still rich, but starting in the 80s, a lot of the wealthy set started moving West for more land, "horse country" type feel, out to Far Hills, Bernardsville, Bedminster, etc. Houses in Short Hills don't have much land at all, and they can only be so big before they start to look ridiculous. The REALLY large manses tend to be further out.

Pingry very astutely anticipated this migration when they moved their upper school (called "Big Pingry") out to Bernardsville around '84.

A lot of the wealth in NJ was living "West," as you call it, in the 1950s.

It's much more concentrated there now, r16, is my point.

You mean in McMansions, R17?

x

Newton, Ma

Weston, Ma

Wenham, Ma

Greenwich , CT

Newcastle, NH

Rye, NH

Wellesley Hills and Chestnut Hill are the premiere old money enclaves in Boston.

Tuxedo Park, New York.

My friend lives in Sands Point, it's seems pretty down to earth considering.

I love the feel of places like Glen Cove and Villanova, Yardley, on the Main Line. Old money is the best kind.

I assume OP is talking about the east coast of Guatemala?

Alpine, NJ

Mountebank! It's the most restricted and exclusive community in our part of Connecticut. Why, it's right next to Darien...

Chestnut Hill is indeed gorgeous. But it's within the city limits of Philadelphia. It's not a suburb.

Same with Feildston -- within the NY City limits but quite a world away.

A closer look at Alpine

Lincoln, MA. Very big, old, money. Less flash. More class. More tastefully rural than nouveau riche Weston or Wellesley.

Suburbs that are common places for people to have second (or third) homes (like Bedford) tend to have a higher concentration of major wealth then say, Larchmont. Not that Larchmont doesn't have plenty of wealth but it's small time compared to Bedford/South Salem/ Katonah. Not the same league of hedge fund/celebrity contingent.

Has Chevy Chase not been mentioned yet? Though, like the very old school suburbs, not much land there (compared to say, Potomac).

Also Summit, NJ. And for some reason it stayed WASPier then Short Hills (even though it's in Union, Co).

And Princeton and Lawrenceville (although it's debatable whether they are NY suburbs).

On that same note (where second homes are popular), Litchfield County, CT, specifically Washington, CT.

The fact that it was my home town automatically makes Nutley, NJ, the fanciest.

r15 when referring to physical distance the correct word is "farther." They have moved farther out.

Tell the truth, Martha. Your hometown is Jersey City. You lived on Stagg Street in the Heights. around the corner from the bar your father and uncle owned.

R34 cherishes her little nuggets of knowledge.

[all posts by tedious, racist idiot removed.]

Chevy Chase is nice but it really isn't all that. It's too close to DC to have much land, there are some grand houses but the streets around Chevy Chase, like Connecticut Ave are super busy and detracts from the whole. There isn't much charm or village there either. Bethesda is well monied but more of a city with a range of incomes and homes.

R33, no where that Ed Kostyra lived could ever be considered fancy.

As for my vote, I've always thought of the Upper East Side as suburbia. Anything north of 66th Street.

Bronxville, NY. The most wealthy suburb in the country. End of thread.

R31, when was Short Hills WASPy during the lifetime of anyone posting here today?

Going farther south, how about Jupiter, FL?

r42 that is the home of Mr. Burt Reynolds and his dinner theatre!!!!

We're off to see Mr. Rob Schneider and Miss Melissa Gilbert in Private Lives!!!!

What are you smoking r40? Bronxville is ok, certainly not poor but the wealthiest? No.

A college roomate lives there and I visited a few years ago. Wasn't horribly impressed. Pleasant but not outstanding for Westchester.

Should add Dover-Sherborn MA and Weston MA to this list. Very affluent, Dover actually tops some national per capita income lists.

R41 well there are some old farts on DL so yes during some of their lifetimes. It was traditionally a WASPy bedroom community. Started to change sometime in the 70s. And many of the rich WASPs as a result moved FARTHER West. Or into the city.

Totally with r44 about Bronxville. Perfectly lovely but the wealthiest? No. Though it's still pretty WASPy for Westchester - that's actually a good example of a burb that has remained essentially a "bedroom community."

What about New City up in Rockland? I've never been but I have a couple of old tennis camp friends who were from there - they were all SO ridiculously Jappy that it was just funny. All really, really rich. But actually nice.

Chestnut Hill, MA

New City is gross. Suburbia maybe, but certainly not fancy.

Bridgeport, CT is an green, leafy oasis in a pond full of money.

Millburn Township (which includes Short Hills) wants to join Morris County. They're tired of paying high taxes to Essex County for welfare mamas in Newark.

Norfolk, Sharon CT

Bethesda, Maryland

LENOX, MASS

r28, Kelly Ripa's eldest son goes to school in Fieldston.

r40, areas of Yonkers, including Sarah Lawrence College, have the Bronxville ZIP Code.

R46, I'm still shocked when someone says "Bronxville" without first saying "Anti-Semitic."

Old Westbury, Long Island - for example, the area around the intersection of Wheatley Road and Applegreen Drive

The former Phipps mansion, now called Old Westbury Gardens, is worth a look. I like the gardens and the exterior of the house, though the interior is a bit empty. The house was used in the Hitchcock movie "North by Northwest".

Upper Saddle River, NJ Franklin Lakes, NJ Alpine, NJ

Where the rich bitches are....

Thanks, Tre.

Loanview outside of Philadelphia.

The problem with the suburbs, no matter how leafy and green and fancy, is that the driving factor is and always will be "good schools."

Nothing was ever spent on infrastructure and most crucially, these days, eldercare and public services.

Everyone who first moved in and grew up is now stuck with bills the following -whether or not they are Senior VPs at CBS or Chase or retired:

government taxes, sanitation, cable, electric, water, heat, car insurance, fire insurance, food, gas, lawn care, tree care, snow removal, etc.....

This is why Brooklyn, for example, thrives, while suburbs for the most part continue to wither. Sure some of those expenses exist in Brooklyn, but you also get an amazing infrastructure as you age, plus a close proximity to stores, medical establishments, etc.

While they won't die out altogether; they are at best a 20th Century invention with limited potential.

Almost all of Montgomery County, Maryland. One of the best public school systems in the country and essentially recession-proof because of government jobs. Both Bethesda and Rockville were recently listed on 'top snobbiest cities' lists.

Rockville, snobby?

Scarsdale, NY

Cold Spring Harbor & Lloyd Harbor in Long Island

Oyster Bay, Douglaston & Great Neck in Long Island

Lattingtown, Muttontown & Dix Hills in Long Island

The Hamptons, obviously.

Alpine, Short Hills & Franklin Lakes in NJ

Palm Beach, Manalapan & Ocean Ridge in Palm Beach County, FL. Jupiter, Highland Beach Tequesta & Abacoa.

Most of Boca Raton, FL (esp the part nearest the ocean).

Sanibel & Captiva Islands, FL. Most of Naples, FL.

Most of Coral Gables, FL. Also Pinecrest, FL

Most of Alpharetta, GA. Buckhead in Atlanta

R61 if you're wealthy enough to live in the best suburbs then you have the money to send your children to either private school or boarding school.

The truth is a lot of families - obviously that have to have a decent amount of money to begin with - move to the burbs to SAVE money: you get more space for your money, obviously, and if you move to certain towns like Greenwich, Scarsdale or Short Hills, you can send the kids to good public schools.

The only problem with that is that the real estate doesnt appreciate the way it does in New York. And of course you need at least one car - if one spouse drives to work, then probably two.

Bronxville is like Larchmont, or Harrison, but not so Jewy, is what they're trying to say.

They are all quite nice.

[all posts by tedious, racist idiot removed.]

The Hamptons are more than a 2 hour drive or train ride from NYC. They're hardly suburbs R64.

Rockville and bethesda are shit holes

you queens are hilarious

The whole point of postwar Great Neck/Kings Point was to create the best public schools your tax dollars could buy.

Does Little Neck have a Scientology group called Little Neck Clams?

Yes, R72, they do.

Funny about Bronxville - my former roommate who lives there married Jewish and converted, my former boss also lives there and he and his family are Pakistani Muslim.

A childhood friend also lives there, her husband is Iranian (he's a surgeon at Montefiore).

Everyone I know who currently lives there is anything but WASP.

Definitely Cohasset, (seemy quaint residence on Elm)

Milton....stunning in some areas -Bushes, Kennedys and Kerrys home base

Harvard, Marblehead, Concord, Williamstown, original Kennebunkport

Don't want to quibble but I wouldn't call Cohasset or Milton the "fanciest". Very upper middle class, some sections even higher but not the top of the heap for suburban Boston (that's Wellesley/Weston/Lincoln/Concord-Carlisle/Dover/Sherborn see upthread).

Marblehead I will agree is very nice, probably the most upscale town on the North Shore.

Silver Lake, Rhode Island

Dont like Wellesley Concord area too jammed in a lousy interstates running through prisons etc. Do prefer the leafy and private Milton and Cohasset. It's why quiet wealth moves there...and presidents. Founder of the huge Wall St Journal and Dow Jones? Cohasset.

Sewickley Heights, Pa. where the police will stop your car just for looking at the mansions.

Greenville, Delaware. Home of duPonts and me!! Barley Mill Road and Snuff Mill Road if at all possible.

Wintering on Jupiter Island is nice as well, but it isn't a suburb.

r74 You'll never hear of a Jewess converting to Christianity. They love being controlled by hubby and his family.

Adding to r81, the Gentiles who convert love being controlled.

Kings Point and Sands Point

Deal, NJ, just across the inlet from Asbury Park.

Incredible wealth a stone's throw from incredible poverty.

Two Nassau County Long Island towns have local nicknames based on their population. Massapequa is Matzoh-Pizza. Plainview is Plain-Jew.

Philly area:

Cherry Hill, NJ Gladwyne, PA (the most mainline of the mainline)

Short Hills was very WASPy until the 70's. Now ... not so much. Chris Christie's town of Mendham includes the village of Brookside, which regularly makes those top income by zip code lists. One NJ town that gets overlooked would be Westfield. Summit is very nice, but has a not-pro-life section as well.

Spring Lake, New Jersey - not a suburb, but a wealthy seaside community

Historic Martin Maloney cottage at 101 Morris Ave. is attractive.

r81 my former roomie is male.

r81, so he was Christian and converted. His mother-in-law must be very assertive.

What's the best fancy suburb for The Gays on the East Coast?

One of my dorm mates married a Jewish guy. She is a big ol' WASP-o Methodist (her dad is a minister) and it is sad to see the Jewish guy thinking he's lucky, but sitting most times with his tail between his legs.

They live in Essex, MA on the water with boats (he's from UWS).

Bedminster, Lawrenceville, and Peapack, NJ

R68: Yeah, you're probably right about the Hamptons being too far from NYC to be a suburb. How far out is too far to be a suburb, re NYC?

Also, Pound Ridge, Bedford & Tarrytown, NY

I'm not aware of any wealthy suburbs that are popular with gay people, R91. The closest thing I can think of is the Pines on Fire Island. The more expensive houses seem to be in the $2 - $3 million range. Calvin Klein and David Geffen used to own houses in the Pines. It's a beach community, popular in the summer. Very few people live there year round.

R86 Cherry Hill is a shithole.

R81 you do, but they are of the social climbing types who never wanted to be Jewish to begin with. That's generally why it's viewed as "less acceptable."

R91 While not a exactly a suburb, the village of Oaks Bluff, Martha's Vineyard or the island of Martha's Vineyard in general is very liberal, gay friendly and exclusive. James Taylor & Carly Simon have places there and both the Clintons and the Obamas have summered on the island. Other than the presidents, the island serves as the summer home to many ex-heads of gov agencies who reside in and around Edgartown. Oaks Bluff is the artsy village and that artist vibe is reflected in the highly decorated Victorians that line the streets. Nantucket is an alternative and is even more expensive than the Vineyard, but it more isolated and also more Republican.

Bedminster for people who go to monster truck rallies, don't pull that shit here.

[quote]Do prefer the leafy and private Milton and Cohasset. It's why quiet wealth moves there...and presidents.

huh? No presidents live in Milton. The Kennedys certainly never lived there, Brookline was their stomping grounds. RFK and some of the Bushes attended MA (Milton Academy) but that doesn't mean they resided there.

Milton's heyday as old money posh spot was 80 years ago. It's long passed into middle class comfy burb status.

Concord-Carlisle, MA.

"Cherry Hill is a shithole.

by: Voorhees, NJ"

Right back at ya, Voorhees.

Didn't Kelly Ripa grow-up in Voorhees?

R91 people generally move to surburbs to raise a family.

Given that, there hasn't been much of a demand for gayborhood surburbs. Gay enclaves are always found in urban areas or vacation spots.

I mean living in surburbia is usually the antithesis of what most successful gay men wanted.

Garrison NY - Hudson River views Harrison NY - Near White Plains Garden City Long Island Pelham Manor NY - Almost borders NYC

R103 yeah I think so. That whole area is generally trash. Amy Locane is from there, too. A lot of kid actor types who support their families tend to hail from that area.

In Pittsburgh, Fox Chapel, PA, home of Teresa Heinz Kerry.

Underrated Pittsburgh suburb: Rosslyn Farms

r13: I have loved Trouble in Tahiti since I was a kid. Thanks for reminding me of it. I didn't know (since I was a kid when my father first played the recording) that Bernstein wrote all the lyrics too. Fantastic piece--in Ozone Park, in Beverly Hills...skiddle a day...

Cohasset is dreadfully suburban.

Love the antisemite 81/82/85/90 talking to himself as if it was different people. As if trolldar didn't exist...asshole.

May I submit Tahiti Beach in Miami, Florida for your consideration?

Montgomery County--most of it is tract house suburbia. A lot of the schools aren't very good and beyond chips on the shoulder, the grads of even the better ones are nothing special. A lot of places with Potomac postal addresses are just tract developments with big houses. You can find some nice big homes in Bethesda, "real" Potomac and parts of McLean but none are super rich. Chevy Chase was developed with a mix of incomes, but social restrictions. It has money but isn't super rich. Kalorama, Foxhall, and parts of Georgetown (all in DC) are have more real money. So do the horse country counties beyond Dulles in Virginia.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned places like Oyster Bay. Also no mention of Marblehead or Swampscott. There is an old Irish/Italian part of Marblehead (which the Irish and Italians can't afford unless they inherit the house), but most of it is very wealthy.

Dear R98: Nantucket voted for Coakley while she was losing statewide to Scotty "Staples" Brown. Not too Republican to me ...

R112 agree with most all of that, except BCC and Winston Churchill are pretty top public schools. Though again, as in most affluent suburbs, most of the truly rich/social people in those areas go to the private schools.

A friend of mine from childhood moved from NYC (740 Park) to DC in the 80s when her father was made president of Kennedy Center. I can't remember where in DC their house was, but it was basically the size of an embassy and had an elevator. It was pretty sick. She went to the Maret school. Not sure where it ranks (obvs NCS is the best) but girl was a total moron, so I'm guessing it's second tier.

Have another very rich (though not THAT rich) friend who sold her house in Georgetown and bought a bigger place in Berkley? I know DC pretty well, but I don't know what that area is.

I like the houses on a street called Goodwood Gardens in Baltimore, especially the part between Oakdale Road and Kenwood Road.

You can just look up Forbes list of America's most expensive zip codes online.

Just google "trulia heat map" and the name of a state. Then zoom in on the dark red areas of the map.

Ridgewood Road in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania

One place that is often overlooked is Biltmore Forest outside Asheville, NC. Asheville itself is a beautiful mountain city, and the Forest adds to that natural beauty with a sense of privacy and large homes on large woodsy lots.

118 posts and nobody has mentioned Upper Montclair, NJ? You guys are slipping. Upper Montclair has been an exclusive suburb since the 1900s when it had its own designated train line. It is still primarily large turn of the century mansions that have not been broken up.

R120 is it much much nicer than "regular" Montclair? Because in order to qualify, it would have to be.

Green Valley Road, Bryn Mawr, PA - No. 1131 had asking price of $8 million

121, There is no comparison. The homes in Upper Montclair are 4-5 million.

R121, let's just say I wouldn't mind living here . . .

On the other hand, there's this $18 million place in Bernardsville, NJ . . .

Manhattan

WOw I can't believe this thread got revived after all this time.

R102/r103 the NJ suburbs of Philly fucking suck. In general South Jersey is trash and I stand by that. That area in particular.

And not all Main Line suburbs are created equal. Though they certainly beat any of the Jersey ones.

On another note, I've weirdly met several people from Roslyn as of late and I think it may be even more obnoxiously Jappy then Great Neck.

From what I've heard Millburn High School is still one of the top public schools.

Agree with r127 - NJ is trashy postwar except Haddonfield NJ.

Also agree on Main Line - only a few great streets remain in Bryn Mawr, Haverford, Gladwyne and Villanova. But those streets are the most idyllic suburban streets in America- stone, all prewar, well maintained, classic.

Parts of Westchester Co NY and Fairfield co CT probably as nice (and wayyyy richer). As well as certain Boston suburbs.

And hate all NJ - but do have to give props to Upper Montclair - a hidden and unknown gem in the desert of NJ postwar McMansions

R128 I was talking only about that area of "South Jersey." NJ in general gets a lot of shit but arguably has most of the nicest NY suburbs. But South Jersey is a whole other animal.

Alpine is really tacky. Some of the great estates in Englewood are far nicer but few and far between. Greenwich and the estate sections of Bedford blow pretty much everything else away. Litchfield County has Washington, and parts of Kent, Roxbury and Cornwall which are beautiful but are country towns, not suburbs. Millbrook is beautiful in Dutchess County with some amazing estates but again it's country and most of the biggest estates belong to multiple home owners from New York and Europe who ride and hunt. On Long Island, Mill Neck, Centre Island and a few surrounding villages like Matinecock are beautiful. Lloyd Harbor and Lloyd Neck on the water are also beautiful. The Hamptons are not suburbs but second or third, or fourth homes. Potomac Maryland is nothing compared to these. The Main Line in PA has very few big estates anymore.

Middleburg, Va and Easton, MD. Serious money and lovely large estates

Vadge