Vanderbilt Cup Races

These threads seem to be coming thick and fast!  Love it!  Here I go again - see my LIMP Page 3 <http://sbiii.com/limpkwy3.html> for some 24 Sep 1999 pix of this area.  Art K., you’re doing a fab. job; thanks muchly.  Sam, III

From Kleiner's Kolumn: Revisiting the Transformation of the Motor Parkway into Salisbury Park Drive

Hmm.  That open patch seems too small for the grandstand and no sign of the press box.  Pits?  Other clues?  Can’t make out details but that big porch rules out Garden City with the Clinton bridge beyond.  Early construction - see the water pipe at right.  I have to assume that’s the omni-present Ladenburgh windmiill on the horizon.  Pass.  Sam, III

From Mystery Foto #46 Solved:A View of the Motor Parkway looking West from the Officials' Stand/Press Box

Another rambling - re Frank F.‘s OCR bridge pix - I lived in Mineola for many years and, back then, potatoes kept sprouting out of my lawn.  The whole area was once dead flat, the vast Mott potato farms.  So just think of what a massive operation it was to raise the grade of E-W OCR and lower the N-S RoW for the LIMP (mostly by hand, at that)!  Sam, III

From Mystery Friday Foto #45 Still Open for Discussion: A Motor Parkway Bridge Built on a Curve

Magnificent presentation of early automotive racing history. Thank you Mr. Kroplick for your continued pursuit of this now century old information. Marvelous and very scholarly work. Preservation of this early industrial history is doubly important in this age of revisionists. Your factual and non-editorial approach keeps proper perspective as we view hard core pragmatists , adventurers and yes , even dare devils , seeking to further personal and business interests—all the while enjoying the thrill and challenge of unbridled speed. Gentlemen start your engines!
____________________________________________________

Howard Kroplick:

Thanks so much for you positive comment. Much appreciated!

From Hemmings Classic Car: The Vanderbilt Cup- America's first internationally recognized road-race

Many of my missing 2,200 images are LIMP-oriented.  Gotta get busy and extract them from old hard drives and JAZ cartridges (*IF* I can).  Pray for me.  Sam, III

From Sam Berliner III: A 1970 Walking Tour of the Motor Parkway in Queens

Seeing the locust posts still standing reminds me of what my father, born in 1915, says they used to tell him: the problem with locust posts is you can’t tell when they’re worn out.  So what you want to do is put a brick on top of the post; that way you know when the brick wears out the post must be worn out.
He also said his uncles told him how in the late 1800’s, they got a gig supplying black locust turning blanks to the NY City Police Department.  But the PD stopped buying them because they were cracking too many heads.

From Kleiner's Kolumn: Revisiting the Transformation of the Motor Parkway into Salisbury Park Drive

These photos were all taken at the 1914 Indianapolis 500 Mile Sweepstakes on Saturday May 30, 1914. The cars we see are with No.3 Barney Oldfield with Stutz,  No.5 Charles Keene with Beaver-Bullett, No.26 Joe Dawson’s Marmon, No. 42 Eddie Rickenbacker with Duesenberg, No.43 Willie Haupt with Duesenberg and No. 49 Ray Gilhooley’s Isotta. The race was won by René Thomas on a Delage.

From Mystery Racers: The 1914 Indy 500 Race

I’m not second guessing anyone this time, just curious.  Reading Al’s comments, I imagine not even he actually knows, so we are ALL guessing!  How are to find out (if ever)?  Sam. III

From Mystery Friday Foto #45 Still Open for Discussion: A Motor Parkway Bridge Built on a Curve

These 1909 photos of the Old Country Road highway bridge in Mineola/Garden City by surveyor Clinton Robertson demonstrate the difference between north and south views. The top photo of the bridge is looking north and well lit. The bottom photo is looking south and darker. These were taken at the same time, sometime in the afternoon.

From Mystery Friday Foto #45 Still Open for Discussion: A Motor Parkway Bridge Built on a Curve

Wow a blast from the past. That’s my old neighborhood (Queens Village).  We used to ride our bikes on that network of VMP through Alley Pond and Cunningham parks onto streets over the Clearview Expy. onto VMP onto streets and end up at the Worlds Fair grounds back in the late 60’s (I was like 11-12 years old). I remember the old entrance and exit onto the Grand Central Parkway from Springfield Blvd. and the bridle path when we used to visit my relatives in Brooklyn (oh the Interborough).  Thanks guys!!

From Sam Berliner III: A 1970 Walking Tour of the Motor Parkway in Queens

Like the fact that these could switch back to bicycle mode if there was engine troubles or if the gas tank was empty :~ )

From Motorcycles of the Vanderbilt Cup Races Updated: 4/28/2016

-Identify the location and race
1914 Indy 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

-Identify the race cars and their drivers.
From the cars I can recognize in the photos top to bottom;
#43 Willie Haupt-Duesenberg-finished 12th
#49 Ray Gilhooley -Isotta-crashed
#26 Joe Dawson-Marmon-crashed
Unsure, but looks like #42 Eddie Rickenbacker-Duesenberg-finished 10th
#5 Charles Keene-Keene-finished 8th
#3 Barney Oldfield-Stutz-finished 5th

From Mystery Racers: The 1914 Indy 500 Race

Looking west from Levittown grandstand area.
Turning left (south) in area now known as Orchid Road then right at Newbridge Road
with Newbridge Hotel visible.
1908-1910 races on this stretch.

From Mystery Foto #46 Solved:A View of the Motor Parkway looking West from the Officials' Stand/Press Box

All great guesses, but Al and Brian’s stands out furthest in my opinion. Clinton Ave parkway bridge (1909) in Garden City looking NW, with its 50ft RoW being fenced in. The flat roadway in the photo appears about 16ft. width, and less than 22ft. As Al noted, the only LIMP section to get the 22ft roadway this early was between Merrick Rd in Salisbury and Round Swamp Rd in Bethpage. The structures in the distance on left could belong to Mineola Fairgrounds (1866-1950). They had eight buildings standing inline on the south side by Washington Ave and 11 Street. As Brian suggests, the object in the distance at right could be a smoke plume from a westbound steam engine on the LIRR mainline, measured approx 0.8 miles from this bridge, a distance close to what’s seen in the photo. Vanderbilt Court roadway (lodge entrance) would’ve been off this photo to the left, after measuring the distance 100 ft between it and the LIMP, center to center.
The Westbury Ave parkway bridge (1909) with its 16ft width also an excellent guess, but the south view against the sun I believe, would’ve back-lit all the workers, making them appear darker in the photo. The only shadows are under the hats. There are no photos of this bridge’s railings but I suspect they too were low, as its sister Mineola RR bridge just to the south.
The Bloomingdale Rd highway bridge (1908) with water tower is a great guess too, but the high railings don’t match. I guess these were placed to help keep farm equipment from spilling onto the roadway below.
That’s my two cents. Feel free to comment, I’m sure I’ve missed several things on this tricky mystery  

From Mystery Friday Foto #45 Still Open for Discussion: A Motor Parkway Bridge Built on a Curve

Howard, here’s the working link for the PLI Newsletter that connects, so you can use it in your blog (the one there now isn’t connecting). Its
https://preservationlongisland.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/PN-Fall-2017-for-website-upload.pdf

From The Residence of the Starter of Five Vanderbilt Cup Races -Fred Wagner- Rediscovered in Smithtown

Thank you, Howard, for all your help in the successful effort to place The Residence of the Starter of Five Vanderbilt Cup Races, Fred J. Wagner, on the National Register of Historic Places! The New York State Review Board for Historic Preservation unanimously approved his home for the State Register on June 13, amazingly, the 150th Anniversary of Fred’s birth in 1869. Designed by Gustav Stickley, Fred’s home qualified under three criteria, notably Criterion B, as nationally significant “for its association with the life of Frederick J. Wagner of national and international auto racing fame.” Officially cited as the ‘Frederick and Annie Wagner Residence’ (Annie was Nancy’s nickname), both the Stickley rectory and adjacent church (originally built as St. Patrick’s R.C. Church) belonging to the Byzantine Catholic Church of the Resurrection in Smithtown, are now listed on the National Register. Many thanks, Howard, for your blog picturing your great collection of materials about Fred, all cited throughout the Register Nomination I prepared. Thank you for helping to preserve Long Island’s historic treasures in Smithtown!  P.S. As you suggested, I’ve bought a checkered flag. To borrow a line from Field of Dreams, if I wave it, will the auto shows come?

From The Residence of the Starter of Five Vanderbilt Cup Races -Fred Wagner- Rediscovered in Smithtown

As long as this came alive again, I took more time with the second blow-up; the inscription reads:  “- COUPE VANDERBILT - 1904 - / Le Match - GABRIEL - LONG ISLAND RAILROAD {sic} - / au passage á Niveau d’Hicksville” [at (the) crossing in (the) neighborhood of Hicksville].  Sam, le Troisième

From Mystery Foto #8 Partially Solved:A Humidor Vanderbilia from the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum

Since we don’t know the bridge, we don’t know the year, by we DO know that the entire Hempstead Plains section was built between 1908 and 1911, so no possible 1929 LIACC or its hangars, nor Camp Mills.  I have good recipes for crow (and have eaten my share) but I can all but guarantee this is a PARKWAY bridge!  In my not-at-all humble opinion, some of you are wasting your time looking for matches to highway bridges.  Selah!  I have spoken (yes, I live dangerously).  :·)  Also, look at the precision with which the left-hand ditch was cut; amazing - and unlikely for just a country road.  C’mon, guys.  Fu’ther, what IS that thing on the right horizon, just above the fence crossbucks?  I spotted it instantly as Westbury Station but the present two-story building wasn’t built until 1914.  ???  Sam, III

From Mystery Friday Foto #45 Still Open for Discussion: A Motor Parkway Bridge Built on a Curve

Great picture looking west at the grandstand area and the pits before they were built. Sometime around early 1908. You can see the layout for the pressbox on the other side. Looking into the distance is the Newbridge road bridge and the Newbridge Hotel. Also in the distance is the Westbury Road Bridge and the Ladenburg Farm windmill in the background.

From Mystery Foto #46 Solved:A View of the Motor Parkway looking West from the Officials' Stand/Press Box

-Where is the location of the Mystery Foto and orientation of the photographer?
This photo was taken looking West from the Press Box/Officials Stand in the Hempstead Plains (now Levittown.)

-Which Vanderbilt Cup Races were run in this section?
1908, ‘09, ‘10

-Identify the significant buildings and Motor Parkway structures
Newbridge Rd bridge,The New Bridge Hotel on Newbridge Road

-What was the appropriate month and date of the Mystery Foto? Provide a rationale.
October 1908 LIMP completed, but race not run yet.

From Mystery Foto #46 Solved:A View of the Motor Parkway looking West from the Officials' Stand/Press Box