Vanderbilt Cup Races

Regular readers here at VanderbiltCupRaces.com may remember Bill Cruickshank from a series of posts about the McCamish family and the Meadow Brook Lodge in April 2020.

Bill's grandfather was Otto McCamish, a toll keeper with his wife Parnelle at the Meadow Brook Lodge from the 1920s until the Parkway's closing in 1938. After the Motor Parkway closed, Bill's grandfather Otto purchased the lodge and the property, planted his flag  and raised his family there. He owned the building until it was sold and demolished in the late 1950s or early 1960s.  Otto moved to Florida to retire  around 1960 and lived there until he passed on September 24, 1978.

Kept in the McCamish/Cruickshank family since it was used on the Motor Parkway is this beautiful 1933 Motor Parkway plate #294. The Parkway's decline in usage was accelerated by the Depression in the 1930's, so plates tend to be scarce during the Depression years.

There are only 4 known 1933 plates in existence. The original owner of this plate is unknown and it is unclear if this was a plate for Otto's family in 1933, or simply a plate he removed from a Motor Parkway patron's vehicle that lodge keepers would often help to affix or remove from their vehicle. Doubtful lodge keepers needed a plate, knowing the other lodge keepers, so more likely the latter. Either way, it is safe to assume this is the only plate that comes almost directly from a Motor Parkway lodge keeper!

Otto McCamish (right) in front of the Meadow Brook Lodge.