Vanderbilt Cup Races

Starting tomorrow, a series of historical exhibits will be shown at the Garden City Toll Lodge.

From the Garden City News June 4, 2026

Historical exhibit featured at Toll House

Come join Patty Siler, Village Co-Historian and the Village Board of Trustees  at the Grand Opening of the renovated historic 1911 toll lodge designed by architect John Russell Pope, on Friday, June 12, from 3pm to 6pm and Saturday, June 13, from 11am to 2pm. The main floor of the building will be open to the public and there will be an exhibit on the Vanderbilt Motor Parkway and the Garden City Toll Lodge. Children welcome!

Located at the end of Seventh Street in Garden City, the Toll Lodge was built to collect tolls on the Long Island Motor Parkway. When the Motor Parkway closed in April 1938, the toll-taker Christian Ernst and his wife Elizabeth purchased the lodge and the land on which it sat. The Ernsts made it their home until 1977 when it was sold to a local realtor. Ownership changed several times over the next ten years with the building intact. In 1987, the new owners planned to tear down the toll lodge for the construction of a new home.

The Garden City Chamber of Commerce sprang into action and began a campaign to save the toll lodge and to move it to a new location.  With the donation of the lodge by the Taylor Warner Real Estate and community support, the toll lodge was saved by the Chamber of Commerce and the Village of Garden City.  The lodge was moved from its Clinton Road location to Seventh Street in the heart of Garden City on March 19, 1989. Currently vacant, the Toll Lodge will be the site of a few temporary exhibits:

• Friday, June 12, from 3pm to 6pm and Saturday, June 13, from 11am to 2pm: Vanderbilt Motor Parkway and the Garden City Toll Lodge.
• Friday, July 10, 3pm to 6pm and Saturday, July 11, 11am to 2pm: 150 Years of the Garden City Hotel.
• Friday, August 14, 3pm to 6pm and Satureday August 15, 11am to 2pm: Declaration 1776: The Big Bang of Modern Democracy

Greg O.