Vanderbilt Cup Races

One of the real research treasures of the Long Island Motor Parkway and Vanderbilt Cup Races can be found at The Richard H. Handley Collection of Long Island Americana located in the Long Island Room at the Smithtown Library.The collection includes the historical documents of A.R. Pardington, the general manager of the Motor Parkway, and a Smithtown resident. Here are two orignal nuggets from the Pardington Papers:

One month after the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup Race, William K. Vanderbilt, Jr. and his business associates met to select a name for their company and for the first parkway to be built exclusively for automobiles. These are the original eight "suggested names for the company":

-Automobile Highway Company of L.I.

-Long Island Automobile Highway Company

-Motor Car Roadway of L.I.

-Long Island Motor Roadway Company

-Touring Toll Road Company of L.I.

-Long Island Touring Toll Road

-Long Island Automobile Toll Road

-Automobile Toll Road of L.I.

Another original Pardington Paper from November 1906 listed 12 proposed locations for "toll gates & inns". The towns and villages give an indication of the planned early route for the Motor Parkway:

-Floral Park

-Mineola

-Westbury

-Hicksville

-Amityville-Huntington

-Bayshore-Northport

-Islip-Smithtown

-Ronkonkoma

-Medford (Patchogue -Port Jefferson)

-Yaphank

-Manor (Wading River)

-Riverhead (Greenport-Southold)

For more information on the Pardington Papers, contact Cathy Ball, Long Island Room librarian of the Smithtown Library, at 1-631-265-2072 (ext 243).

Reminder Tonight's Event -"Loving Long Island Night, 6:00 PM- 9:00 PM including a presentation by Bruce Adams on the "Long Island Motor Parkway 1908 - 2010", Wenonah Elementary School, Lake Grove