Vanderbilt Cup Races

One of my favorites, I believe this photo is a cropped version—the uncropped photo is really great. It’s the intersection of the north-south LIMP and the east-west Black Stump Road (aka 73rd Avenue) in Fresh Meadows. Overpass at 73rd Avenue is the only “Motor Parkway structure” in the photo. Looking north, just ahead is the Fresh Meadow Country Club, the North Hempstead Turnpike overpass and the Parkway terminus at Nassau (Horace Harding) Boulevard. The “entrance ramp” is kind of a mystery to me, but Sam Berliner once suspected it was left over from construction crews working on this last extension in 1926. The original photo had the year at 1938, but I suspect it might be earlier.

Looking east where the LIMP crosses over Route 107 in the center of the picture.  The “exit” ramp on the left side of the LIMP was put there for the 1909 and 1910 Vanderbilt Cup Races to shorten the course from the longer 1908 course.  Racers traveling east would now turn northbound onto Route 107 instead of continuing on towards “dead man’s curve” in Bethpage.  My only hesitation to be sure here is the absence of the Massapequa Lodge which should be on the north side of the LIMP just below the ersatz exit.  I don’t know why we can’t see that.  So I could be wrong altogether about the whole thing.

We are looking north along the LIMP in Fresh Meadows between Union Turnpike and Nassau Boulevard, just slightly west of today’s Francis Lewis Blvd. In the center is the LIMP bridge over 73rd Avenue. What appears to be an entrance ramp was, in fact, a temporary entrance to the LIMP built around 1927 -1928 during constuction and widening of Nassau Blvd. (a few hunndred yards north) where the real entrance to the LIMP was located.  This temporary entrance looks fairly new so I’ll guess the date as 1928.

Motor Parkway in Queens, looking north towards North Hempstead Turnpike (Horace Harding Blvd.)
73rd Street Bridge
1938
Temporary entrance to the Parkway built while Nassau Blvd. was being built and paved (thanks Al V.)

Motor Parkway looking north toward Horace Harding Blvd. Parkway Bridge is over 73rd Rd. Temporary entrance to Parkway from 73rd Rd. as Horace Harding Blvd, not yet ready for traffic. Most likely 1927.

I missed the mystery photo. However, the uncropped photo establishes that it must have been taken between 1936 and 1940. The home where I grew up was at 51-03 199th St., which was and remains one block west of Francis Lewis Blvd. PS 162, which is where I attended elementary school an is shown at 53rd Ave and 201st St, which is and remains one block east of Francis Lewis Blvd. Also shown is that Francis Lewis Blvd, which was a WPA project during the ‘30s, ends at Horace Harding Blvd; the extension through Cunningham Park (formerly Hilltop Park) was built somewhat later but wasn’t opened until after the War. I remember well playing in empty lots in the early ‘50s, which soon filled up with houses and stores. Most notable was Penn Fruit in ‘58, a giant supermarket built on what was commercially zoned property at Francis Lewis and Horace Harding; construction of the LIE through Fresh Meadows started in ‘57. Once the shopping center opened, the Blue Bay Diner was built. And the former Bishop Reilly HS (Parochial) on the other side of the Expressway at Francis Lewis Blvd opened in ‘62. By then, almost every empty lot had been developed, including the lot at Utopia Pkwy between 58th Ave and the expressway where Francis Lewis HS opened in ‘60, which is where I went to HS instead of having to travel to Bayside HS, which my older sister attended.