Vanderbilt Cup Races

Thank you to all the recent individuals who commented.  It’s always fascinating to read first hand experiences of topics on the site.  Keep them coming!

From Mystery Foto #18 Solved: The Links Golf Club's Private Entrance to the Long Island Motor Parkway

I love to hear about The Links. My dad knew all the members, but the names are vague to me. My brothers probably remember better than I do, I’m not good with names.  I wasn’t allowed in some of the rooms, except to clean up. Neither were the wives:)  There were 2 other couples after Bert & Percy. We kind of knew it was going to be the end when the last couple was managing. They had problems. I do remember the side door to the clubhouse, I remember the whole place like it was yesterday. So good to share the memory, thank you!

From Mystery Foto #18 Solved: The Links Golf Club's Private Entrance to the Long Island Motor Parkway

I vividly remember Bert when on occasions a member instructed me to go to the side entrance of the clubhouse to receive a well welcomed cold refreshing coke. Either Bert or Mr. Prescott would retrieve a bottle for me. I do not remember the circumstances when there was a change of management at the clubhouse. However I certainly agree with you Pamela that it was a step in the wrong direction. I am sure we could share some memorable stories on the cast of characters who were members of the club!

From Mystery Foto #18 Solved: The Links Golf Club's Private Entrance to the Long Island Motor Parkway

It was so fun to work there! We churned the butter and rolled it to look like golf balls.
Bert and Percy were the caretakers then. When they passed, the new ones were not so good. Sadly, everything went downhill.

From Mystery Foto #18 Solved: The Links Golf Club's Private Entrance to the Long Island Motor Parkway

Here are a few Newsday clippings that I saved back in the day that enhance some of the previous made comments.

From Mystery Foto #18 Solved: The Links Golf Club's Private Entrance to the Long Island Motor Parkway

Here is the opposite side of the Links GC scorecard.

From Even More Information on the Links Golf Club in Searingtown

Many movies and series have been filmed on Long Island. Neat to know that the series Gotham and Titans have used this location, I’ve been a fan of these shows. Used to drive around and work in Nassau. I’ve always imagined coming upon a film location by surprise/ by accident.

From Mystery Foto #44 Solved: The "Braes" Mansion in Glen Cove, film location of Batman's Wayne Manor

Reading through Gary Hammond’s comment above, it brought me back to the mid 1990’s. On my 1994 Hagstrom , this location was marked as Museum in the Park. At the time, I planned on visiting there and the Garden City Toll Lodge Museum. I was a bit disappointed that the museum wasn’t there anymore, but the man I met in Eisenhower informed me about the collections being in Hofstra. Never went to Hofstra to check it out, but then headed to the lodge. There was another man visiting the lodge while I was there. We started talking about Motor Parkway, he joked I was bitten by the Motor Parkway Bug; like he was lol.

From Kleiner's Korner: Miscellaneous News Concerning Vanderbilt Cup Race Drivers and Cars

The old Nassau Co. Hist. Museum would later be known as the Bicentennial House, and then as the Museum in the Park. The small brick former garage was also used by the Museum for curatorial and exhibit purposes, before later serving as a workshop for the Park’s Puppet Theater. A memorial rose garden was added, as was the LIRR Steam Locomotive #35 as part of the complex. In the 1980’s there were plans to add a Carousel and also talk of a McDonalds being built adjacent to the complex. In 1986 the Nassau Co. Museum Reference Library was moved out of the building - part to Hofstra as part of the L.I. Studies Institute, the rest to Sands Point Preserve. In January 1991, the building, then known as the Museum in the Park, ceased being part of the NC Museum System. It has since been used my many other NC departments, and at one time by the Woman’s Sports Foundation, although they haven’t been there in a number of years. It still stands near the lake, but now mistakenly called “Lannin House”, something it NEVER was! I assume this was a political decision, done since 2011! Originally it was part of the James Clinch Smith estate, whose home was built there in 1901. By 1923 Joseph J. Lannin owned the property. Lannin died May 15, 1928. He had apparently given the property for the house to his daughter prior to his death. The J. Clinch house was demolished for a new home being built for newly married Dorothea Anne Lannin and Harry A. Tunstall who were married on September 17, 1929. This new, fully furnished home was destroyed by fire on October 15, 1929, the night before the Tunstalls returned from their honeymoon. The present brick Tudor style home was built as a fireproof building as a result of this tragic fire. We know that they held a “housewarming and tea at their new home” on May 11, 1930. It was built by the Tunstalls, not Lannin. The Nassau Co. Memorial Park, which surrounded the property on 3 sides, was dedicated on October 3, 1949. Commonly known as Salisbury Park, it was renamed for President Eisenhower. The artifacts once exhibited in the building were returned to the Museum’s collections storage facility to be used for changing exhibits or on display at other Museum sites such as Old Bethpage Village Restoration. My job prior to my retirement was as the Museum Registrar, responsible for all the Nassau Co. Div. of Museum Services collections (library / archival / historical / biological / archaeological and geological, etc.), including those once housed in the old Historical Museum! Oh, and I checked my records and no, we didn’t have a portrait of George Robertson in the collection.

From Kleiner's Korner: Miscellaneous News Concerning Vanderbilt Cup Race Drivers and Cars

‘The Braes’ Glen Cove, LI
Herbert Pratt
Webb Institute of Naval Architecture

From Mystery Foto #44 Solved: The "Braes" Mansion in Glen Cove, film location of Batman's Wayne Manor

And one more image.

From Sam and Dave’s “Excellent 2019 Vanderbilt Day”- #2 Manhasset Hills

The estate mentioned in several previous posts was Brookwood, the residence of Henry Miller Minton. It was designed by Thomas H. Ellet c. 1929 in North Hills. Minton was chairman and president of Church & Dwight Co., the company behind Arm & Hammer Baking Soda.

I had a classmate in the Herricks School District who lived on the corner of Executive Drive at the Old Courthouse Road/VPM Bridge. My classmate sister was friends with a family member who lived on the estate. The family of the estate gave my classmate sister a number of first edition books from their library. 

The timeline for this was in the mid 1960s. I was a caddie at the Links GC during this time period. The estate was not visible in the area closest to the golf course along the 14th fairway. When the property was developed around 1976-1977 some of the townhouses were adjacent to the golf course property line. Those owners had a terrific view of that fairway.

Attached are a couple of pictures of Brookwood.

From Sam and Dave’s “Excellent 2019 Vanderbilt Day”- #2 Manhasset Hills

You finally gave me an easy one!  This is the Webb Institute in Glen Cove.  From Wikipedia:
In November 1945, the institute purchased its current home: The Braes, the former country estate of Herbert L. Pratt, in Glen Cove on the North Shore of Long Island. Designed by James Brite and constructed between 1912 and 1914, the main house had a distinct H-shaped layout and Jacobean, Tudor, and Renaissance-influenced design elements that made it distinct among Long Island estates of the era. It was the largest of the six Pratt estates in Glen Cove.[3] Conversion work began in 1946.[4]
Webb Institute was used for the exterior shots of Wayne Manor in the 1995 film Batman Forever, again in the 1997 film Batman & Robin, and for interior and exterior shots for the 2014 TV series Gotham.[5] The Webb Institute reprised its earlier film role as Wayne Manor for the 2019 film Joker. It was also featured in the 1998 film Great Expectations. Interior and exterior shots appeared in the 2015 TV series Limitless in Season 1, Episode 14.

From Mystery Foto #44 Solved: The "Braes" Mansion in Glen Cove, film location of Batman's Wayne Manor

I believe the heading illustration is by Robert Patterson (American, 1898-1981), a well known artist and illustrator, and is from a 1952 Ethyl Gasoline advert.

From Kleiner's Korner: Miscellaneous News Concerning Vanderbilt Cup Race Drivers and Cars

Thank you for posting. My Grandfather, George Robertson, did have a younger brother who died at age 34 but I don’t know much about him. Was there ever a picture that was placed in the Museum of George and where would it be today? Love to see it. Thanks as always for all the great work you do!

From Kleiner's Korner: Miscellaneous News Concerning Vanderbilt Cup Race Drivers and Cars

Thanks Gary for the info. on the Nassau County Historical Museum of which I didn’t know had existed.  Must have been an interesting place.  What happened to the museum and its content?  Anything still housed by Nasssu County?  Thanks.

From Kleiner's Korner: Miscellaneous News Concerning Vanderbilt Cup Race Drivers and Cars

The Braes in Glen Cove. Built by Herbert Pratt of Standard Oil fame, it became home for Webb Institute of Naval Architecture after his death. The exterior views appeared in a few of the more recent Batman movies as I recall, depicting the fictitious home of the title character Bruce Wayne.

From Mystery Foto #44 Solved: The "Braes" Mansion in Glen Cove, film location of Batman's Wayne Manor

Interesting middle photo, on the cover of the Arcadia Publication’s The Motor Parkway by Howard and Al Velocci show’s a Sept. 1908 view from the Camen Ave. ‘bridge’ East Meadow NY, (from the other side of photo) with a 1908 Buick Model 10 below on the road, that’s in a another article of this newsletter.

From Profile of Arthur See-Driver of the #44 Maxwell during the 1909 Massapequa Sweepstakes

Do the Mach 1, Mach 2a and Milano prototypes still exist today?

From Autoevolution.com: 5 of the Most Fascinating First-Generation Mustang Concepts

That’s the former Herbert L. Pratt estate in Glen Cove that he named “The Braes”. It is currently owned and operated by the Webb Institute of Naval Architecture. They renamed it Stevenson Taylor Hall. The building was featured as Wayne Manor in three movies: Batman Forever; Batman And Robin; The Joker Movie. It was also seen as Wayne Manor in the TV series “Gotham”.

From Mystery Foto #44 Solved: The "Braes" Mansion in Glen Cove, film location of Batman's Wayne Manor