Artist and socialite Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, who founded the Whitney Museum of American Art, had homes in New York, Paris, the Adirondacks, and Long Island. In 1912, she commissioned the Gilded Age architect William Adams Delano, of Delano & Aldrich, to build her a neoclassical studio on the grounds of the Whitney estate in Old Westbury.

After her death in 1942, the villa lay empty for 40 years until her granddaughter Pamela LeBoutillier decided to renovate it as a home for her family. Today, her son John LeBoutillier lives there, while keeping the family legacy alive.