Crowds at Dedication Ceremonies in Central Park, Long Island
Several hundred people attended the June 6, 1908, ground-breaking ceremony to commemorate the construction of the Long Island Motor Parkway. Guests of honor sat in what newspapers called a “rough grandstand” of wood planks at Jerusalem Road in Central Park east of Mineola. William K. Vanderbilt Jr. had planned to perform the ceremonial turn of sod with a gold plated shovel and make a speech, but the sudden and fatal illness of his stepfather, O.H.P. Belmont drew him away.
