Vanderbilt Cup Races

From Jim Moran:

Howard,

The Councilman and I would like to thank you for getting together such a top notch team for the Community Cleanup and for all of your organizing efforts. It was a phenomenal event and the bridge looked so nice after our hard work. Can’t thank you enough.

Sincerely,
Jim Moran
Leg. Aide to Councilman Zuckerman

From The Amazing Clean-Up of the Old Courthouse Road Motor Parkway Bridge

My revised answer for the bonus photo is it’s a cigar sticking out of the wall. Great optical illusion!

From Mystery Foto #21 Solved: A 1937 Cirkut Photo of Mitchel Field and Roosevelt Raceway Update: 5/27

The photographer appears to be over Garden City with his camera pointed northeast toward Westbury. The structure in the background is the grandstands built for the 1936 & 1937 Vanderbilt Cup Races. The train track is the LIRR Central Branch or A.T. Stewart’s old Central Railroad. In the center is the bridge over the LIMP connecting Stewart Ave. to Roosevelt Field (& raceway). The airplane is on the right side in Mitchel Field. The date is at least 1937 but might be a year or so later based on the finished condition of the buildings at Mitchel Field. Among the many events that took place hear are: Lindbergh’s 1927 solo flight; the previously mentioned Vanderbilt Cup Races; the R-34 Dirigible’s landing in July, 1919; Lindbergh’s homecoming celebration (6/16/27); Clarence Chamberlin’s first passenger flight to Eisleben, Germany; Chamberlin’s stunt flight taking off from Stewart Ave. in 1928; and the site of the first retail shopping mall in NY State (1956). The bonus photo could be a Civil War era “Minne” ball (bullet).

From Mystery Foto #21 Solved: A 1937 Cirkut Photo of Mitchel Field and Roosevelt Raceway Update: 5/27

Hi Howard and crew!!  Great job!!!

From The Amazing Clean-Up of the Old Courthouse Road Motor Parkway Bridge

I forgot to note that the Cradle of Aviation Museum has all sorts of great pix and maps, such as those at http://sbiii.com/limpmaps.html#mitchel and http://sbiii.com/limpmaps.html#WWILIMap , and SPLIA also has the Soils Map http://sbiii.com/limpmaps.html#soilsmap.  It would be great if you could get better shots of those.  Sam, III

From Mystery Foto #21 Solved: A 1937 Cirkut Photo of Mitchel Field and Roosevelt Raceway Update: 5/27

Did Caterpillar ever REALLY make such a truck?  Sure looks like it’s cobbered up from a tractor and a Mack!  YAY - an Amphicar <http://sbiii.com/automot1.html#amphicar>!  {Lighten up, Ted!}  Sam, III
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From Howard Kroplick

I believe it is a Mack truck with a Caterpillar engine.

From Mustang III Highlights from Newsday's Field of Wheels and the Merchant Marine Academy Car Show

Thanks, Bob.  There’s a little more on this ceremony at <http://sbiii.com/limpopen.html#wpkmarkr>.  By the way, the car turning left across Willis in Bob’s pre-WWII picture seems to be a 1939 Chrysler product (for dating).  Sam, III

From My Motor Parkway Story #3: Bob Valentine and the Williston Park Historic Marker

From Gary Hammond

• Location & orientation -  Mitchel Field, prior to becoming Mitchel Air Force Base, looking (l to r) from the north, then to the east, then to the south; taken from top of coal bunker

• Significant events – numerous events (see William K. Kaiser’s The Development of the Aerospace Industry on Long Island, Vol. III, A Chronology: 1833-1965, Hofstra Univ., 1968, for a comprehensive listing); including the Pulitzer Trophy Race which was held here in 1920 and 1925; the 1st “blind” flight by Jimmy Doolittle, Sept. 24, 1929; home to the Medical Research Laboratory and School for Flight Surgeons, 1919-26; (The school trained medical personnel in the specialized field of aviation medicine, and also conducted research to improve physical and technological problems experienced by fliers – today it’s known as the USAF School of Aerospace Medicine); numerous record setting flights took off or landed here; served as a major embarkation point for military flights overseas.

• Structure with 2 red arrows – Roosevelt Raceway grandstands

• Train track in aerial – former Central RR of LI, also spur going to coal bunker & alongside warehouses (later base PX)

• LIMP Structure – Roosevelt Field LIMP bridge

• Airplane – located in close-up G

• Year – winter of 1937/38?; after the George Vanderbilt Cup races; snow on ground; hangars have been doubled in size, but still retain checkerboard roof markings (so pre-WWII camo)

• Object in wall – Civil War lead bullet (Minie Ball)

• See attachments for cover & map from Sept. 1945 Mitchel Field Handbook with some of the buildings identified

From Mystery Foto #21 Solved: A 1937 Cirkut Photo of Mitchel Field and Roosevelt Raceway Update: 5/27

Great teamwork from the entire crew. I really enjoyed helping out and seeing the results of the project. Looking forward to assisting with completion of the job in the fall.
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From Howard Kroplick

Mike, I totally agree! Great teamwork and lots of fun!

From The Amazing Clean-Up of the Old Courthouse Road Motor Parkway Bridge

Can’t stay away from here,there’s too much going on.What a fantastic job you all did,as always,keeping the Motor Parkway alive and known to all to see

From The Amazing Clean-Up of the Old Courthouse Road Motor Parkway Bridge

Where did Courthouse end or lead too?
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From Howard Kroplick

Brian, Old Courthouse Road connected I.U. Willets Road and Shelter Rock Road (formerly call Highway to Mineola.).See above 1924 aerial.

From The Amazing Clean-Up of the Old Courthouse Road Motor Parkway Bridge

The aerial looks like Mitchell Field Air Base looking north northeast. Major events were the Vanderbilt Motor Parkway Cup Races and the only 2 major road races held at Roosevelt Raceway.The air base held the National Air Races from 1920 -1925 and was a major hub for air defense during WW ll .The structure indicated by the red arrow is Roosevelt Raceway site of the 1936-37 Vanderbilt Cup Race. The railroad is the Central Branch of the LIRR Mitchell Field Sta. The Motor Parkway Structure looks like the Merrick Ave Bridge of the LIMP. In closeup g you can see a plane on the field.I think the time of the foto is late 1930s about 1935-1940 .The object in the wall looks like a lead bullet.

From Mystery Foto #21 Solved: A 1937 Cirkut Photo of Mitchel Field and Roosevelt Raceway Update: 5/27

A nice mix of community service and amateur of archeology.  News of future PSE&G right of way clean up is encouraging. Hope that will stimulate walking, biking and enjoying North Hempstead’s new landmark.

From The Amazing Clean-Up of the Old Courthouse Road Motor Parkway Bridge

Looks like you folks did a great job!  Thank you.
Ken Harris

From The Amazing Clean-Up of the Old Courthouse Road Motor Parkway Bridge

Clearly Mitchel Field, looking NE with the LIRR Meadowbrook Secondary and LIMP beyond, with the parade ground in E, officers row in C and D/  LIMP bridge in B.  Plane in the upper middle of G = this mod-‘30s.  Bonus - memorial pebble in Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall!  Sam, III

From Mystery Foto #21 Solved: A 1937 Cirkut Photo of Mitchel Field and Roosevelt Raceway Update: 5/27

It’s hard to express how much this affects me; thanks one and all.  Owners to the north were dead set against this when I first tried, ‘way back.  Amazing how Mother Nature takes over; I was there on a visit only a few years ago and it was relatively clear.  “(190*8*-1938)”, no?  Per ardua ad astra!  Sam, III
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From Howard Kroplick I

Sam, thanks for the kind words. This section of the Motor Parkway opened in 1909.

From The Amazing Clean-Up of the Old Courthouse Road Motor Parkway Bridge

Bob , thanks for the information; you and Ruth have done so much to preserve the LIMP , and make others aware of it’s importance and history. All of us owe you two, Howard, Al and the LIMP Society sincere thanks and continued support for this worthy preservation project.

From My Motor Parkway Story #3: Bob Valentine and the Williston Park Historic Marker

Likely one of the best spots to recall our historic past. Easily accessible, wonderfully walkable and yet near to but hidden from main roads such as New Hyde Park Road.

From The Amazing Clean-Up of the Old Courthouse Road Motor Parkway Bridge

Identify the location and orientation of the aerial:  Mitchel Field, Garden City looking northeast towards Roosevelt Field and Raceway.  Mitchel Field closed in 1961 after several plane crashes (one into a Hofstra Univ. building). 

Name the many significant events that occurred at this location:
1919 British Army R-34 dirigibile landed at Roosevelt Field (first airship crossing the Atlantic); 1920 Pulitzer Air Race speed record by Major C.S. Mosely, 1925 Air Race speed record by Lt. Cyrus Bettis in a Long Island built Curtis racer; 1927 return of Charles Lindbergh after his flight to Paris; 1938 starting point for the first transcontinental bomber flight made by Army B-18s; 1954 last air speed record recorded on LI.

Identify the structure that is being pointed at by the two red arrows: Roosevelt Raceway grandstand

Identify the train track in the aerial: Central RR

What Long Island Motor Parkway structure was captured in the aerial?
Roosevelt Field Motor Parkway Bridge connecting Stewart Avenue with Roosevelt Field. 

Can you find the airplane in the aerial?  Close up in G.  East end of panaromic photo.

What is the year of the aerial? Provide a rationale.  1937 - Grandstand built,  compared to a 1939 photo sent to Howard some buildings had not been built yet.

Bonus: Identify the object sticking out of the below brick wall. Snake peeking its head out of the wall.

From Mystery Foto #21 Solved: A 1937 Cirkut Photo of Mitchel Field and Roosevelt Raceway Update: 5/27

Mitchell field complex looking toward Roosevelt raceway(red arrows) picture has to be 1936-1937 years of vanderbuilt cup at the track. I assume this timeline because mitchell field housing was built around 1932
Mitchell field was a training base in WW I ,in the 1920’s Air racing was popular here.airmail service started in 1924
During WW ll Mitchell field was used as the “Air Defense Command"This was to defend home soil, bases and other Military facilities in the US.
The bridge is the Roosevelt field motor parkway bridge
The train line was an extension of the Hempstead line (no longer in use) stops at Clinton Ave. I believe it was called the Stewart line and ran to Bethpage junction.
Close up G shows an aircraft ,sitting on the grass runway or tarmac

From Mystery Foto #21 Solved: A 1937 Cirkut Photo of Mitchel Field and Roosevelt Raceway Update: 5/27