Vanderbilt Cup Races

Frank- It’s really cool how even the headlight bezels were cut down and reshaped, so factory replacements won’t fit. If you look closely at the closeup of the grill, you may notice how that was cut and sectioned towards the bottom.

From Restoration Update: Hear the 1962 Holman-Moody Challenger III Roar in the New Year

This is a closeup of the Nibbe’s farmway bridge I wished I had obtained back during the Apr2013 mystery. https://www.vanderbiltcupraces.com/blog/article/mystery_foto_8_can_you_identify_these_two_motor_parkway_bridges_near_the_hu
This is the farmway bridge above Motor Parkway looking south in Bethpage (Central Park). Deadman’s curve #2 is after the bridge. That could be racer J11 of the Jericho racing team during the Meadowbrook sweepstakes.

From Mystery Foto #2 Solved: The J11 Chalmers-Detroit at the Nibbe Farmway Bridge in Central Park (Bethpage) on its way to winning the Jericho Sweepstakes

Great ongoing restoration. Is it still possible to obtain original chrome headlight trims, or do they have to be built from scratch?. The Sun Tachometer is advanced for that vehicle year. Love the precise graphics. Great work by Ida Works among other contributors!

From Restoration Update: Hear the 1962 Holman-Moody Challenger III Roar in the New Year

Thank you David and to all for adding additional insights and comments into this debate.  Very much appreciated!

From Kleiner's Korner Vote Request: The Ongoing Debate Over the Highest Hill on Long Island

Al Prete - I believe below is Arlene and Carmine’s stretch of Motor Parkway in Dix Hills. Amazing how they managed to uncover, and then preserve the historic roadway!!

From Mystery Foto #1 Solved: A 1940 view of the Motor Parkway at Half Hollow Road in Dix Hills

A wonderful posting Art!
This “debate” is actually a trick question well-known to old geology majors like myself.
A hill that raises 250 feet from sea level, is a higher (taller) hill than a hill that raises 200 feet from a base elevation of 100, even though that second point has the higher elevation (300 feet).

“Highest point” usually equates to highest elevation, so Jayne’s Hill (also known as High Hill) is the highest point on L.I., usually measured as 399 feet (between 380 and 400 according to the latest USGS mapping).

However, the hill rises from the Huntington Valley, the floor of which Route 110 more-or-less traces by the Walt Whitman Shops. This floor has an elevation of about 150 feet. (An old benchmark by the Walt Whitman Home is at 153 feet.) Therefore, one can say that Jayne’s Hill rises about 399 minus 150 or about 250 feet from its base.

Harbor Hill, according to the latest USGS mapping is at an elevation between 360 and 380 feet. However, if we were to walk the flank of the hill, we would be walking all the way down to Roslyn Pond, elevation 13 feet. 360 feet (and Harbor Hill is higher than that)  minus 13 feet is 347 feet, making Harbor Hill the “highest/tallest hill,” as measured from its base.

Some of the other postings use old USGC measurements or maps that can vary from modern, more accurate measurements.  Howard, your cell phone readings illustrate the reason geophysicists don’t use cell phone to take elevation measurements!
As for Al V.‘s side issue:
A comparison of 1898 and 2019 USGS topographic maps makes it unlikely that Deepdale was ever the highest point. In 1898, the location of the future mansion was between 240 and 260 feet; in 2019, the same location was measured as between 250 and 260 feet. (By the way, in the same 1898 map, Harbor Hill was measured at 391 feet and in a related 1900 map, High Hill was measured in excess of 420 feet, illustrating how old maps got things wrong.)

From Kleiner's Korner Vote Request: The Ongoing Debate Over the Highest Hill on Long Island

Sounds healthy! Can wait to see how it runs!

From Restoration Update: Hear the 1962 Holman-Moody Challenger III Roar in the New Year

Howard’s nicely redone Black Beast garage floor work, photo of before.

From Mustang HoofBeats December 2021: A visit to Howard Kroplick's great car collection

Thanks to Al Prete for the cartoon reference - love that !  ( you have to understand that I taught art for 35+ years so this would be a treat to see!)

From Mystery Foto #1 Solved: A 1940 view of the Motor Parkway at Half Hollow Road in Dix Hills

I find it interesting that even in the twenty first century, the elevations of these “mountains” are not definitively known.  I think there is no debate that Jayne’s Hill is the highest on Long Island.  As for OHEKA, a comparison of the 1903 USGS topographical map and the 2019 map shows that the hill the mansion sits on remains at 280’—not nearly high enough to claim highest honors and debunking the claim that Kahn elevated the hill.

From Kleiner's Korner Vote Request: The Ongoing Debate Over the Highest Hill on Long Island

In regards to town cars, my dad had a Springfield RR P1 Riviera Town Car, which was in awful shape when he got it.  It was supposed to be restored (long story), actually was in a shop at the time of Hurricane Agnes with the shop being flooded.  Despite that, still a beautiful car.  Our family sold it off years later and I’ve no clue where it ended up.  But it supposedly was once owned by the founder of Time Magazine, though who ran it into the ground I don’t know.  It was a 1929, aluminum head engine, one of the most elegant cars, IMHO, that Rolls Royce of America ever produced.  But like any town car, it had that open front.  I don’t remember if there was a ‘removable roof’ available for the front or whether it had windows.

From Walt Gosden Article: A Vanderbilt Locomobile

Putting an FM radio tower like WALK on the top of a hill at high elevation is a no brainer - FM signals are line of sight and do not follow the curvature of the ground as AM signals do. 

If any large object (such as a mountain, tall building or even airplane in flight) were to block the signal, reception would be difficult at best, next to impossible at worst (it isn’t accidental that before the WTC, virtually every FM antenna (and later, TV antenna) were on top of the Empire State Building for that very reason. 

Hence, tower height above average terrain is critical for FM antennae, even more so than the actual transmitter output power. 

From Kleiner's Korner Vote Request: The Ongoing Debate Over the Highest Hill on Long Island

Although this variation of opinions - perhaps even still somewhat of a controversy in this day and age - may not mean much in The Great Scheme of Things, it is a beautifully researched, documented, and written treatise on an interesting subject which probably has a large appeal to a limited audience both on and around Long Island.  To all those who contributed to this piece, thank you so much.

From Kleiner's Korner Vote Request: The Ongoing Debate Over the Highest Hill on Long Island

It’s me again Al, lol - Your thoughts of Ruland Hill being in the vicinity is correct. There was a Mr. Ruland that owned properties around Bald Hills during the 1800’s. Couldn’t find any Ruland reference mapwise in Smithtown. Up until 1960, there was a Fire Tower Lookout on this hill, also referred as Telescope Hill. One could see for miles from atop. This location is now the Radio/Tower Station for 97.5 WALK FM. Below I marked a 1947 & 1970 Topo Map Overlay as best as possible, and a today view. When driving on Blue Point Rd at this point, it’s like a roller coaster. South Shore is visible.

From Kleiner's Korner Vote Request: The Ongoing Debate Over the Highest Hill on Long Island

That’s the Nibbe farmway bridge in Central Park (today’s Bethpage) and we’re looking south because the direction of the various race courses that used this section of the LIMP after the bridge was built was counter-clockwise making the car heading north. Also, the distinctive tree on the right is visible in other photos of the bridge. In fact, isn’t that Peter Nibbe himself just to the left of the tree? The racer is the J-18 Chalmers-Detroit during the 1908 Jericho Sweepstakes with W. R. Burns driving. That would make the date October 10, 1908.

From Mystery Foto #2 Solved: The J11 Chalmers-Detroit at the Nibbe Farmway Bridge in Central Park (Bethpage) on its way to winning the Jericho Sweepstakes

Al - Below I found a reference to Rulands Hill, Smithtown. From U.S. Coastal Geodetic Survey.

From Kleiner's Korner Vote Request: The Ongoing Debate Over the Highest Hill on Long Island

Does the Avanti belong to Rich Carlsen?

From Mustang HoofBeats December 2021: A visit to Howard Kroplick's great car collection

This is the Nibbe farmway bridge in Bethpage.  The photographer is facing south.  It is located after the second “deadman’s curve” and was created to connect the west and east sections of Peter Nibbe’s farm.  The racecar was the #J11 Chalmers-Detroit and was driven by W.R. Burns who finished first in the Jericho sweepstakes averaging 46.2 mph.  The photo was taken October 10th 1908.

From Mystery Foto #2 Solved: The J11 Chalmers-Detroit at the Nibbe Farmway Bridge in Central Park (Bethpage) on its way to winning the Jericho Sweepstakes

The Brooklyn Eagle 1875 article mentions “Ruland’s Hill, southwest of Coram.” Was this another name for Bald Hill, which IS SW of Coram? From the veterans memorial on Bald Hill (next to the aforementioned amphitheater), on a clear day in winter, you can see both the Long Island Sound and the Great South Bay.

As a lifelong Long Islander I was always told that the highest point is Jayne’s Hill.

From Kleiner's Korner Vote Request: The Ongoing Debate Over the Highest Hill on Long Island

Frank - We couldn’t come to any conclusions about where Arlene and Carmine’s house is in relation to theirs.

From Mystery Foto #1 Solved: A 1940 view of the Motor Parkway at Half Hollow Road in Dix Hills