Vanderbilt Cup Races

Awesome job Art.  Interesting how parts of this ROW in Levittown were left open, utilized for schools, auctioned, fought over and eventually developed while the ROW from Bloomingdale rd to Wantagh ave was just directly built over by Levitt’s houses with no problem and no trace of the ROW left at all.

From Kleiner's Korner: Nassau County Surveys of Motor Parkway Property Transferred or Disposed Of (Levittown)

Great addition Art. I had forgotten there was a bit more of the ROW sold than I originally thought.

From Kleiner's Korner: Nassau County Surveys of Motor Parkway Property Transferred or Disposed Of (Levittown)

Amazing post !!!  Thank you.

From Greg O's Garage: The Great Wall of East Hills and Long Island Motor Parkway director Clarence Mackay

Great job. Did not know this was still here. If interested, I authored a very detailed website on Clarence Mackay. Unfortunately I have lost the ability to update it and some links are broken. But it still is full of lots of good info and pictures. Website: Mackayhistory.com
(Tap small blank box on upper right corner of each page to move to next page or tap section names on first page to navigate)
Bill McLaughlin

From Greg O's Garage: The Great Wall of East Hills and Long Island Motor Parkway director Clarence Mackay

That’s a great find Greg! Must have been fun to explore.

From Greg O's Garage: The Great Wall of East Hills and Long Island Motor Parkway director Clarence Mackay

Thanks Art!

And yes Brian. Between the elevation and overgrowth, it’s very difficult to access most of the driveway. Getting permissions from residents also took a few days.

From Greg O's Garage: The Great Wall of East Hills and Long Island Motor Parkway director Clarence Mackay

Great job, Greg.

From Greg O's Garage: The Great Wall of East Hills and Long Island Motor Parkway director Clarence Mackay

Looks like you all had a full & fun day, the elevation in and around is steep.

From Greg O's Garage: The Great Wall of East Hills and Long Island Motor Parkway director Clarence Mackay

Ernie, Your comment about “some sort of park in area” was first brought up when the super highway project was abandoned in late 1952. ( Moses effectively killed it.) Concerned new residents in the area asked the County not to sell the Motor Parkway ROW but save it for parks, schools, community centers etc.

From Greg O's Garage: An actual strip of the Motor Parkway sold

My pleasure Ernie.  If you are interested I’ll be posting additional Nassau County surveys showing acquisition and disposal of Motor Parkway property in several Nassau County locations, including Levittown.

From Greg O's Garage: An actual strip of the Motor Parkway sold

Art: Thank you for posting that survey. I believe it answers my question why that plot was never developed: half of it remained with the county. Even today on Google Maps there is a boundary line that follows the south side of Orchid leaving the county’s triangle between that boundary and the “proposed” Orchid road.

Now if some brave elected official would just put some sort of park in that area.

From Greg O's Garage: An actual strip of the Motor Parkway sold

David, Your assuming the overall width of the super highway was to be 115 wide. My thoughts are that the Levitt piece abutted the 100 foot wide Motor Parkway ROW and together they would make the super highway more than 200 feet wide.

From Greg O's Garage: An actual strip of the Motor Parkway sold

Ever hear of Rex Mays? Qualified 3rd, finished third, driving a 2 year old Alfa, practice car for Nuvolari in 1936. Yep, my dad, was offered factory rides with Alfa Romeo, Auto Union and Mercedes for the 1938 season. His car was 30 miles per hour slower than the German cars and still finished with average speed only 3 miles per hour slower than the winner. I guess fake news has always been around.

From Newsreel "1937 Vanderbilt Cup Race"

To Al Velocci:  Leaving only a 115 ft wide space open for a proposed “super highway” doesn’t seem nearly wide enough to accommodate.  And the distance left open by Levitt, (even if you want to include the polaris ball fields) from Pintail lane to Bloomingdale road is only a mile and a half.  Far short of 4 miles.  Additionally, if there was a risk of this highway actually being built, why would Levitt then build over the Motor Parkway ROW from Bloomingdale road to Wantagh ave?  Not arguing, I’m just fascinated how it all played out.

From Greg O's Garage: An actual strip of the Motor Parkway sold

And I meant note the survey is courtesy of Al Velocci.  Thanks Al!

From Greg O's Garage: An actual strip of the Motor Parkway sold

The undeveloped lot.

From Greg O's Garage: An actual strip of the Motor Parkway sold

Ernie - here’s a survey done in 1949 showing the extension of Orchard Road at Carnation and the undeveloped lot.  1926 and 1950.

From Greg O's Garage: An actual strip of the Motor Parkway sold

Two things I always found curious about Levitt in this area. First is Orchid Road ended at the corner of Carnation, and the last north west corner plot (could have been #88 Carnation) was never developed, despite being an oversized when compared to its neighbors. Next is when in a later phase of Levittown Orchid was pushed out to Newbridge, but with a kink at this corner.

Fun fact: if you look close where the LIMP curves south by Pintail the fence line curves on the empty lot before Pintail Lane. That lot was once a school, and the fence line still to this day has that curve.

Years back on some forgotten blog I remember reading someone’s post who as a child lived on Carnation, and he said their back yard had a bit of a hill from the elevated curve of the former roadway.

In the Raceway picture showing number 12 there are some obscure details. First is the Newbridge hotel (now a Mobile gas station). Directly to the left of the race car is a square sign that surely reads “RAILROAD CROSSING LOOK OUT FOR THE CARS” as that is an at grade crossing of the Steward Line over Newbridge Road. The two power poles appear to be traditional trolley type power poles; at this time the Pennsylvania Rail road was using this section of track to test various power schemes for their under construction Pennsylvania Station of New York City.  See: http://arrts-arrchives.com/newpage1.html

From Greg O's Garage: An actual strip of the Motor Parkway sold

Levitt not being able to acquire all of the Motor Parkway ROW through today’s Levittown… seems like a no brainer, right ?  Especially when you consider the County claimed they were aggressively trying to sell off the Parkway ROW and get the property back on the tax rolls. Not so for the section between Clinton Ave. in Garden City and Rt. 135. After WW 11 there was talk about building a super highway in Nassau County. In January 1948 it was announced it would stretch from North Hempstead to Farmingdale “following the old Motor Parkway for a goodly distance “. On January 31, 1948, William Levitt agreed to keep vacant a 115 foot wide strip of land 4 miles long thru Island Trees for the highway. Coincidently it was on Jan. 5, 1948 that Levitt announced that his Island Trees development was to be called Levittown.

From Greg O's Garage: An actual strip of the Motor Parkway sold

That’s the Ormond Hotel in Ormond Beach, Florida. In the early years of the 20th. century, the beach located a short distance from the hotel was the site of several automobile and race related events. Participants and spectators for these events would stay at the hotel. Probably the most famous event took place on January 27, 1904 when Willie K. set the one mile land speed record at 92.3 MPH during the Ormond-Daytona Beach Automobile Tournament. Sadly, the hotel was demolished in 1992 and is now the site of the Ormond Heritage Condominiums. However, the hotel’s rooftop cupola was saved and restored. It now resides across the street in Fortunato Park. (see attached photo)

From Mystery Friday Photo #10 Solved: The Hotel Ormond -An early race destination at the "Birthplace of Speed"