Vanderbilt Cup Races

    • The location is the historic Roosevelt Field airfield, in or near East Garden City and/or Westbury, Nassau County, NY.  The photographer is facing roughly Southeast.
    • The road along the telephone lines is Merrick Avenue
    • The area in the background is likely a portion of the Salisbury Country Club, later to become Eisenhower Park.
    •  The aircraft is Ryan NYP long distance monoplane, registration: N-X-211, aka Spirit of St. Louis piloted by Charles A. Lindbergh.
    •  The photo was taken on the morning of Friday, May 20, 1927, shortly after the 7:52 AM takeoff.

Link this Mystery Foto to the Long Island Motor Parkway and the Vanderbilt Cup Races:
    •  The Motor Parkway was located to the west and south of the historic Roosevelt Field airfield. 
    •  For the Vanderbilt Cup Races of 1908, 1909 and 1910, a temporary connecting road was built through the Roosevelt Field airfield property.
    •  Charles Lindbergh was a frequent user of the Motor Parkway entering and exiting at the Garden City Lodge.
    •  The location of the takeoff would later become the site for Roosevelt Raceway and the 1936 and 1937 Vanderbilt Cup Races.
    •  The Motor Parkway’s Meadowbrook Lodge and Merrick Avenue Parkway bridge are in the vicinity of the airfield and the photo.

Lindy.  East end of Roosevelt Field.  Merrick Rd.

Happy 4th - Lucky Lindy taking off from Roosevelt Field eastbound and soo full of fuel he almost clipped the wires on Merrick Ave over Eisenhower Park (or the Ladenburg Farm back then).

That sure looks like the Ryan NYP “Spirit Of St. Louis” with Charles Lindbergh at the controls taking off on May 20, 1927 and heading east over Merrick Avenue on his way to Paris. The exact place that the wheels lifted off the ground is very close to where the temporary extension of Ellison Avenue was built to connect Old Country Road to the LIMP for the 1908, 1909, and 1910 V. C. Races. It was part of the airfield complex commonly referred to as Roosevelt Field. Additionally, the course for the 1936 and 1937 V. C. Races was built there also. I suppose one could also argue that the photographer was standing in the vicinity of the 1960 course too. I believe the area in the background was owned by Joseph J. Lannin who was in the process of extending his Salisbury Golf Links northward from south of the LIMP. This later became part of Salisbury (Eisenhower) Park.

Total guesses.

The location: Roosevelt Field. The photographer is looking east.
The road along the telephone lines: Merrick Ave.
The area in the background: just looks like clouds over the Hempstead Plains. (Today’s East Meadow)
The airplane and its pilot: The Spirit of St. Louis, Charles Lindbergh.
Date: May 20, 1927. Lindy was starting his historic flight.
Connection to Motor Parkway: It ran adjacent to the airport.

This looks like the take-off of Charles Lindbergh from Roosevelt Field on the morning of May 20, 1927.  By the orientation of the photo, the photographer was standing north of the runway closer to Old Country road looking west.  The road along the telephone lines is Merrick/Whaleneck Avenue.  I believe the background area was either the Ladenburg Estate or the Hempstead Plains. 

Lindbergh would frequently take the motor parkway to the airport and would get off at the Garden City toll booth.

Happy 4th everyone.

Dave

On May 20th, 1927, Charles Lindbergh took off heading East, passing over Merrick Ave, in the RyanAircraft “Spirit of Saint Louis.” What is now Eisenhower Park is just past the road. In 1927 Eisenhower Park was known as Salisbury Park. The photographer was facing south easterly probably about where “Fortunoff’s garage” now stands.  I believe that was part of the Roosevelt Field airport.

Mystery Foto #27… the photo shows the Ryan built Spirit of St Louis, flown by Charles Lindbergh taking off at Roosevelt Field on The morning of May 27 1927 on his record breaking trip across the the Atlantic.
I was at Roosevelt Field mall in 1957 when the movie replica of the Spirit of St Louis took off on the perimeter roads of the mall. Sadly no photos.

If I may amend my previous response, the photo was probably taken across from land that was to come Roosevelt Raceway, Home of the reconstituted Vanderbilt Cup races

The location is Roosevelt Field Long Island and the photographer is facing east.
The road could be Merrick Ave.
The background could be Hempstead Plains.
The airplane is the Ryan NYP (Spirit of St. Louis) piloted by Charles Lindbergh.
The photo was taken May 20, 1927.
Part of Roosevelt Field was sold and became Roosevelt Raceway where the 1936 and 1937 Vanderbilt Cup races were held.

Lindbergh taking off in the Spirit of St. Louis at Roosevelt Field on May 20, 1927.

Photo is facing slightly Southeast towards East Meadow.

Merrick Ave. is where the phone lines are.  In the distance are the Salisbury links. 

The LIMP ran immediately adjacent to the airfield, running West - East.  Very nearby would have been the East Meadow Lodge and the bridge over Merrick Ave.

The Vanderbilt car racing track was constructed in the same area as the plane is taking off.

Guessing the mystery plane in the photo was the Spirit of St. Louis, sole piloted by young Charles Augustus Lindbergh (age 25), May 20, 1927. The historic take off just departed from Roosevelt Airfield [Mall] (Westbury, NY). The plane barely missed the overhead electrical wires on today’s Merrick Ave. The flight remarkably reached its destination to Paris, marking the first nonstop cross Atlantic flight from New York to Paris. Lindbergh won the Orteig Prize for his accomplishment. Upon arriving in Paris, jubilant Parisians began to tear the plane apart (by hand) causing damage. Airport personnel secured the plane and stopped further damage.. Not sure if the same plane was used by Lindbergh’s return to the states. The McCamish family, toll collectors of the Motor Parkway Meadow Brook lodge, were lucky to witness Lindbergh’s historic takeoff from the Lodge’s vantage point, through Westbury’s open fields at the time, just 0.3 miles away to the south. Lindbergh suffered family loss because of his fame, something I won’t disclose and forget

Chas. Lindbergh taking off in The Spirit Of St. Louis from Roosevelt Field May 20th, 1927. Looking East as he cleared the telephone poles on Merrick/Whaleneck Ave with what is now Eisenhower Park in the background.

The biggest day for the LIMP in regards to Lindbergh was the homecoming celebration for his flight on June 16th 1927 where the LIMP and Roosevelt Field bridges were used to access the celebration.

Merrick Ave was used for Cup Races.

Lindbergh was a member of the Long Island Aviation club located on the LIMP.

Lindbergh was friendly with the Guggenheims (and wrote his book at Falaise) who were one of the wealthy families involved with the LIMP construction.

Whoa! Just 20 feet clearing the power lines. That is insane by any standards today. Thanks Howard for keeping us informed of historic events

Kudos to Robert Greenhaus for providing the most links for the Mystery Foto to the Vanderbilt Cup Races and the Motor Parkway. Can anyone provide more?

A couple of very minor corrections to the very informative Robert Greenhaus post. Beyond Merrick Ave. its not the Salisbury Country Club but course # 4 (of 5),  of the Salisbury Links complex owned by J. J. Lannin. The Salisbury Country Club clubhouse was located on the west side of Merrick Ave. south of Stewart Ave. Courses # 3 and 4 of the Salisbury Links were reserved for members of the Salisbury Country Club.  Roosevelt Field did not yet own the property the temporary road was built on for the 1908-1910 Vanderbilt Cup Races. At the time of the races the property was owned by J. J. Lannin. By the way, the temporary road was still visible in the early 1930’s aerial of the area.

Alan Sadwin (and to others). It was never called Salisbury Park. It was always and only,  Salisbury Links until 1944. At that time it became Nassau County Park until the name was changed to Eisenhower Park. Yes, over the years it was commonly referred to as Salisbury Park, thats because the area is known as Salisbury.

Nassau County Park at Salisbury. As a child it was always just “Salisbury Park.”

I grew up in East Meadow. It was always called Salisbury Park even when the name changed to Eisenhower Park!

Congrats to Robert Greenhaus for winning the Mystery Foto Kudos award! Additional Lindbergh Reception at Roosevelt Field images added tonight.

Just found these photos of tickets for the CAL Reception - note the mention of the LIMP; also fabric from the Spirit sent to Daniel Guggenheim

Great find, Gary, for Lindbergh fans everywhere.The fabric seems to be canvas but with a sheen, possibly hand stitched?

These were items I had selected for an exhibit I curated for the 75th Anniversary of Charles A. Lindbergh’s Transatlantic Flight of May 20, 1927, back in 2002 at the L.I. Studies Institute and later at Sands Point Preserve.  The fabric shows the pinked edge of the original doped linen fabric from the plane, which had to be replaced after the flight.  To my knowledge these items had never been exhibited before I dug them out of the Nassau County Museum’s collections.  The Guggenheim - Lindbergh connection continued throughout their lifetimes.
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Howard Kroplick
Gary, wonderful! Thanks for sharing!