Kleiner’s Korner: An Enterprising Church on the 1908 Vanderbilt Cup Race Course
The Methodist Episcopal Church in Woodbury took advantage of its location on the 1908 Vanderbilt Cup Race course to raise money.
Located at the corner of Jericho Turnpike and Woodbury Road the church made several offerings to spectators to raise money.
Art Kleiner
Signage Erected Near the Church
Signs promoted the grounds of the chuch as a parking area for race spectators. The effort was managed by W.H. Giles, sexton of the church.
A Prime Viewing Spot
The Methodist Episcopal Church was a favorite location to watch the race.
Spaces for sitting, food to consume and local vegetables to purchase were available, all for a price. Even the grounds of the cemetery were available for use during the race!
Onlookers using the grounds of the church to view the race. Note the signs promoting sandwiches, hot coffee and cake.
At the same location today, The "Historic Chapel" is Long Island's only privately owned wedding chapel according to its Facebook page. And note the cemetery on the left!
Several gravestones from the late 1800s and early 1900s can be found at the cemetery today.
Nearly a year before the 1908 Vanderbilt Cup Race Nellie E. (Baylis) Velsor was put to rest in the cemetery. Guess she had a prime view of the race!
Another Velsor relative buried in 1880.
Information about the cemetery, including the Velsor name. Okay, maybe I'm a little off track but I always like to provide some background material on my posts. (Historic Cemeteries of Oyster Bay Feb., 2007)
The Race is On!
During the race, William Bourque, driving #20, a 40 hp Knox rounds the curve in front of the church.
Bourque finished 8th when the race was called in the 9th lap.
A Money Making Enterprise?
How the proceeds of the fund raising effort, if any, were to be divided. Giles, who as sexton managed the maintenance of the church and cemetery, was to receive half of the funds "in his official capacity" while the church itself was to retain the rest.
As seen in the advertisement Giles appears to have been involved in other money making offers, presumably outside of church business. (The Long-Islander Apr. 10, 1908)
The End of the Race
Word finally was received at the church by telephone that the race had been called off in the 9th lap.
The Woodbury corner was set up as a "telephone station" to relay race information.
It seems appropriate the corner currently houses a Verizon store! Too bad cell phones weren't available at the time of the race for Willie K. and the race officials to use.
Comments
Art. Thanks for the interesting story about the 1908 race and this location. Why was the race called off ? Regarding the picture titled “The race is on”, it appears that the race car is heading west coming out of a curve and a bit of a down slope grade. I suppose that over the past 115 years, Jericho Tpke. has gone through many re configurations because there is no curve there now. Or is that a left hand turn off Woodbury Road onto Jericho Tpke.?
That is quite a beautiful church inside and out. We rented it in 2002 for our wedding.
The priest was not included, he was a separate order.
As always, cool info Art. I either read this or told by others, it wasn’t uncommon for people to picnic within cemeteries ( when visiting a relatives grave ) in the past. Neat that the church building hasn’t changed much at all up till now.
That is an odd curve to the left there. The route is northbound Woodbury road to a left turn to go westbound onto Jericho turnpike. But ordinarily you’d be able to continue straight to keep going north on Woodbury road but we don’t see that viable here. It’s an embanked left with no way to go straight. I think that just for this race they created the embankment and turnoff we see here in the picture. Similar to the turnoff where racers came off the Motor Parkway to northbound route 107 in the 1909 and 19010 VCR’s.
Thanks for the comments and further input. Glad you found it interesting.