Vanderbilt Cup Races

Just to clarify, is this in Garden City near Old Country Road or near Vanderbilt Court where there was a bridge over Clinton Road?  Thanks in advance.
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Howard Kroplick:

Bill, it is actually near Transverse Road in Garden City.
http://www.vanderbiltcupraces.com/blog/article/wednesday_september_29_2010_the_motor_parkway_mayan_ruins_in_garden_city1

From Exploring the "Mayan Ruins" Bridge in Garden City- Updated: 4/23/2017

Hi Bob - Sorry to hear about Ralphie. ALS is rare but still a nasty bug.

From Sam & Dave’s Excellent Lost Motor Parkway Adventure III: The "Mayan Ruins" in Garden City

Robert…. So sorry for the outcome of your past neighbor, Ralphie. I used to work along with someone quite a few years ago. He was a hard worker, and a gentleman. He also eventually succumbed to ALS. He reported to work until it was physically impossible, and you never heard a complaint out of him. He’ll never be forgotten by those who knew him.

From Sam & Dave’s Excellent Lost Motor Parkway Adventure III: The "Mayan Ruins" in Garden City

Good photos, Howard. Frank and I arrived a little late. In case anyone is wondering, I’m the redhead walking along with Frank at the west abutment. I’m a bit camera shy anyway.

From Exploring the "Mayan Ruins" Bridge in Garden City- Updated: 4/23/2017

Great work guys but for this mission to be fully completed we have to do one thing: DIG!!!

I volunteer to dig. Might be good idea to do this before someone moves into that other house.

From Exploring the "Mayan Ruins" Bridge in Garden City- Updated: 4/23/2017

Hi Guys,
Unfortuanately Ralphie passed away late in the last century from ALS.  He was an only child, had been married, but had no children which I can recall.  He owned a dive shop somewhere out in The Moriches.  He was a loner and would dive solo with tanks all along the south shore of Long Island.  He probably had quite a collection of found items.
Your recollection of the EJ Korvette’s location is correct.  Near where Big Lots is today.
Best Regards,
Bob Stambaugh

From Sam & Dave’s Excellent Lost Motor Parkway Adventure III: The "Mayan Ruins" in Garden City

Frank,
I believe I might have some deeply buried slides/photos and I will get the images to you when I can…Please don’t hold your breath.
I will tell you this too, IF there was ever a visible sign on or near these walls, our neighbor Ralphie at 30 Pell would have found it and had it hanging in his garage but, I never saw one.  Their house was built a few years before ours.  Ralphie (GCHS Class of ‘59, Marine Vet) was a god to us neighbor kids, actually looked like ‘Adonis’.
Thanks for your comments on my posts.
Bob

From Sam & Dave’s Excellent Lost Motor Parkway Adventure III: The "Mayan Ruins" in Garden City

Thank you Robert. You are one of very few that may hold links to Long Island’s past. Past photography was expensive and likely not part of many leisure outings. It would be a treat for many, including myself, to learn Long Island’s history from a new perspective.

From Sam & Dave’s Excellent Lost Motor Parkway Adventure III: The "Mayan Ruins" in Garden City

This day’s findings was conducted by the best there is. These are bridge abutments, reduced in height over the years from approximately 8 feet to 3 feet. And the local kids had a blast playing around them over the years.

From Exploring the "Mayan Ruins" Bridge in Garden City- Updated: 4/23/2017

great photos and film!

From Mystery Foto #15 Solved: The Historic Hangar 16 at Curtiss Field (Circa 1931)

Where is this Ralphie guy? Is he still around? Kids?

From Sam & Dave’s Excellent Lost Motor Parkway Adventure III: The "Mayan Ruins" in Garden City

Roger—-very cool store back story for where that name came from. Now get searching for those old pictures / slides so maybe we can put this abutment mystery behind us!

From Sam & Dave’s Excellent Lost Motor Parkway Adventure III: The "Mayan Ruins" in Garden City

Mr. Stambaugh….Frank and many of us are quite glad you’ve been sharing your memories here. Frank and I became sort of a dynamic duo with the LIMP. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think Korvettes was at the S/W corner of Glen Cove Rd/Voice Rd. Pretty much all the buildings are still there, but became new stores etc. I know that Voice Rd deadends to the former LIMP ROW. The steel tower lines run parallel with the LIMP thru out. A group of us were invited to view the abutments in the R/O #30 Pell Terrace. We’ll have to ask the current owner if we could poke around his garage LOL.

From Sam & Dave’s Excellent Lost Motor Parkway Adventure III: The "Mayan Ruins" in Garden City

Dave,
Man am I dating myself…EJ Korvette’s was our 1950’s version of
Walmart.  The name supposedly came from the fact that [E] ight [J] ewish [Kor] ean War [Vet] eran[s] founded the retailer.  They had stores across the NYC area.
Bob
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Howard Kroplick

Bob, this is an article from Haaretz.com on E.J. Korvette’s founder Eugene Ferkauf and the Korvette name:

Americans of a certain generation know the urban legend that “E.J. Korvette” is short for “Eight Jewish Korean War Veterans.” In fact, Ferkauf, who didn’t serve in the Korean War, took the E. from Eugene and the J. from his friend and partner Joe Zwillenberg, while Korvette was an alternate spelling for Corvette — the warship and sub-destroyer, not the car. Ferkauf thought it “had a euphonious ring,” he wrote in a memoir.

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/this-day-in-jewish-history/.premium-1.659698?=&ts=_1492699266432

From Sam & Dave’s Excellent Lost Motor Parkway Adventure III: The "Mayan Ruins" in Garden City

Frank,
I believe I might have some deeply buried slides/photos and I will get the images to you when I can…Please don’t hold your breath.
Thanks for your comments on my posts.
Bob

From Sam & Dave’s Excellent Lost Motor Parkway Adventure III: The "Mayan Ruins" in Garden City

Robert - Amazing information about Garden City, thank you! Quite possible the sign could be buried deep (removed early for aesthetics purposes). Thank you for responding and for the abundance of information about the area. The puzzle has become clearer!

From Sam & Dave’s Excellent Lost Motor Parkway Adventure III: The "Mayan Ruins" in Garden City

Roy cared enough to make sure these maps didn’t go to the wayside. He took that extra mile, and the maps are in good hands ( Howard’s). A round of applause to Roy!

From LI Herald Cover Article: Historic Long Island Maps Found in Malverne Basement

very well done, brings back memories when I was in Plainview, almost 2 years ago. where does the time go when you’re having a good time. In a way I miss Long Island, being away from you guys and not joining in with the events that go on with the VCR and especially not seeing the newest addition to the car collection The Tucker, don’t know when I will see it, maybe if I’m lucky you’ll bring it to Florida to that event you went to, about 1 and half years ago, or even here to the Villages, like I said previously, you don’t need an invite, just come, let me know and I’ll tell you when, you’ll be a real big hit, with any of your cars. The car show is once a month 4pm-9 live entertainment, just about anything you want,

From Sam & Dave's "Excellent Motor Parkway Hike" I: Stewart Avenue to Deadman's Curve, Bethpage

Just did some shooting at Deadman’s curve the other day.  Love the pics…keep’em coming.

From Sam & Dave's "Excellent Motor Parkway Hike" I: Stewart Avenue to Deadman's Curve, Bethpage

Hi Frank,
Thanks for your reply.  The tops (about 24-30 inches) of these walls were removed.  It is very evident by the current state of the concrete on the entire length of the tops of the walls.  The Angelillo’s who lived at 30 Pell Terrace might have had the demolition done or the next owner.  It did improve the view from the house to the east when looking west.  The Russell Road property owners may have done the same thing for the same reason.  I would guess what ever they knocked off was just dumped into the back sides of the wall, ending up as fill.  Digging on the interior sides of the walls would probably verify this.  I doubt they had it carted away.  I do believe the original LIMP road surface is 8-12 ft. below the current dirt surface.
The bottom picture which shows the rear of the extensively remodeled home at 30 Pell from behind the east wall of the LIMP planned but never constructed bridge, shows the back NW corner of our former home at 32 Pell.  My parents had the home built in 1953 and three windows shown are located in the dining room.  There was a potato farm field all the way to Old Country Road to the north of this initial development.  There were 12-15 nearly identical split-level homes built on Pell Terrace, Iris Lane and Avalon Rd.  Most if not all of the homes in this development have been remodeled for obvious reasons.  During the end of the last century, homes which sold new for $15K-$17K in the mid ‘50s started topping $1M, especially after extensive renovations and upgrades.
Never saw any evidence of signage on or around these walls but there could be some such things buried around the ‘walls’, but probably pretty far down.
Let me know what you find out.

From Sam & Dave’s Excellent Lost Motor Parkway Adventure III: The "Mayan Ruins" in Garden City