Vanderbilt Cup Races

Great time at the meeting. What fun stories of growing up in Central Park and how Bethpage got its name. A playground indeed with the abandoned parkway cutting through the town! I just learned there were three extra Apollo Lunar Modules built that were never used after the program was cancelled prematurely. One of them is located at the Cradle of Aviation, Garden City. I’ve seen this one but didn’t know at the time it was an original. The other two are in Washington DC and Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The LEM a must-see when in town.

From Big Crowd Enjoyed "A Trip Back in Time" in Bethpage

Looking west from Newbridge Road Levittown at Salisbury Park Drive.  The bridge over the Wantagh State Parkway is in center, Parkway light pole (wooden) also visible on left of overpass.  Greenbelt Lane homes on right. LILCO substation on left. Meadowbrook Hospital in distant left.

From Mystery Foto #43 Solved : A 1955 View of the Motor Parkway in Levittown Looking West

Looks like Long Island Motor Parkway before it became Salisbury Park Drive, looking west from Newbridge Road towards Carman Avenue. To the right are Levitt ranches down the block from my home on Grace Lane.  To the left is the LIPA substation,  in the distance is the Nassau medical center.  A neighbor of mine, told me her and her friends would go down the block to play on the motor Parkway.
Besides the obvious ruins of the Motor Parkway, you can see the bridge going over the Wantagh Parkway,  when I get home from work I will take pictures of today’s view and forward them.

From Mystery Foto #43 Solved : A 1955 View of the Motor Parkway in Levittown Looking West

Those look like Levitt houses on the right, so I’m guessing Levittown. I see a tall building in the background, so I’m guessing the photographer was looking west, towards the city. There appears to be a bridge in the background, behind the utility pole in the middle of the photo. Could it be the bridge over Jerusalem Avenue?

From Mystery Foto #43 Solved : A 1955 View of the Motor Parkway in Levittown Looking West

My, that web page sure does look familiar <http://sbiii.com/limpvcup.html - ¾ of the way down>!  HA - it never even occurred to me to look on my own site.  Since I have no provenance, that proves nothing.  If Mark is still active with, perhaps he can chime in on this.  Sam, III

From Mystery Foto #42 Solved: The Team Reunion of Joe Tracy and Al Poole for the 1956 "Rerun"

Fascinating meeting last night. I’m a lifelong LIer, although I never lived in Bethpage, I grew up nearby. I love looking back at the LI of a bygone age.

From Big Crowd Enjoyed "A Trip Back in Time" in Bethpage

Knowledge that comes along with Ernie Sr has to be the real deal

From Big Crowd Enjoyed "A Trip Back in Time" in Bethpage

Howard,
Thank you for a very enjoyable evening last night. My 93 year old Dad had a very good time, seeing many of his friends from the Central Park Historical Society, and speaking of his beloved home town Bethpage. Afterwards, he had fun identifying some 50-75 year old baseball card sized aviation photos that were brought to the meeting by one of the attendees. I know he enjoyed explaining the source of the Bethpage town name to the audience, and I thank his friend Lenny for handing over the microphone for him to do so. He doesn’t get to do much public speaking anymore because he is limited to the amount of walking he can do, so a few years ago I had to “retire” him from his weekly docent duties at the Cradle of Aviation, where he is of course a founding member. That was something he very much enjoyed, proudly speaking of the museum’s aircraft, many of which he had a hand in assembling back in their original era, especially the Lunar Excursion Module, or “LEM” as it’s commonly known. I bring him to the museum occasionally to participate in special events (like the July 20th celebration of the Apollo 11 Lunar Landing 50th Anniversary, where he was treated with much celebrity) and to say hello to his friends there.
My brother Tom (who could not attend last night) and I are looking forward to next spring and seeing the renovations and changes you’ve made to the Roslyn Harbor garage. Amazingly, we have yet to see the Tucker in person since it’s completion!
Thanks again, from both Ernie Jr. and Sr. !! :>)

From Hold the Date: Presentation: Memories of the Long Island Motor Parkway in Central Park (Bethpage)

I would have loved to attended this.
I grew up playing on the parkway as it converted back to woods in the early sixties right through to the seventies. We all knew where dead man’s turn was.
Great times.

From Hold the Date: Presentation: Memories of the Long Island Motor Parkway in Central Park (Bethpage)

Mystery Foto #42, Addendum. For what it’s worth I know that you identified the two men as Joe Tracy and Al Poole but a piece of reference material which I found identifies this pic as Joe Tracy and George Robertson in Old 16. Not sure where this reference came from.

_________________________________

Howard Kroplick

Dick, Al and George did look similar. The back of the photo had the caption of Joe Tracy and Al Poole.

From Mystery Foto #42 Solved: The Team Reunion of Joe Tracy and Al Poole for the 1956 "Rerun"

Hoping to bring 93 year old Ernie Sr. with me tonight. He grew up in Bethpage, had 45 yrs. @ Grumman, and is a charter member of the CPHS.

From Hold the Date: Presentation: Memories of the Long Island Motor Parkway in Central Park (Bethpage)

Hello Edith,
By any chance, did you ever attend the Sweet Hollow Elementary School and if so, what time period?  I attended from 1951 through 1953.  It is the same building as shown (circa 1980 Ron Ridolph) and has the same windows on the other side.  My class room was on the right side, ground floor of the building with very large windows.
Also, when you lived on the corner of Route 110 and Ruland, was it a large white wood sided farm house with green shudders on the windows?  There was a porch that ran the width of the house and the house set far back from the roads.  It was also directly across from the Farmingdale road intersection.  In January of 1953, my family was in a terrible auto accident at that intersection and were shoved across rte. 110 and pushed into the trees on your side of the property.  We were lucky we were not killed, as paint from the sides of the vehicle was left on a tree trunk and utility pole we went between.
Hope to hear from you.
Thanks.
Maureen Schimkat Standish

From Kleiner's Kolumn: Documenting the Ezekiel Smith Farmway Bridge in Melville Over Time

Dean Zwicker:
Mystery Foto #42 appears to be Joe Tracy driving, with possibly Al Poole as passenger.  They raced in the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup Race.
Dean Zwicker

From Mystery Foto #42 Solved: The Team Reunion of Joe Tracy and Al Poole for the 1956 "Rerun"

Dick Gorman:
Mystery Foto #42…. The team shown in Old 16 was Joe Tracy and George Robertson.
I believe that the date that they drove together is 1908. Couldn’t find and answer to the last question.

From Mystery Foto #42 Solved: The Team Reunion of Joe Tracy and Al Poole for the 1956 "Rerun"

Joe Tracy driver, and Al Poole mechanician team, raced in the 1904-1906 Vanderbilt Cup Races, before the Motor Parkway was built and used as a racetrack. The Tracy/Poole team raced with Locomobiles and a Royal Tourist in 1904. Old 16 won the first U.S. VCR race driven by George Robertson/Glenn Ethridge.

From Mystery Foto #42 Solved: The Team Reunion of Joe Tracy and Al Poole for the 1956 "Rerun"

Mystery Foto #42…. The team shown in Old 16 was Joe Tracy and George Robertson.
I believe that the date that they drove together is 1908. Couldn’t find and answer to the last question.

From The Amazing and Continuing Saga of the 1906 Locomobile Twins- Part I

Neat maps Art! Cherry Ave (Botto bridge) is new news to me. As Brian noted it appears to once have traveled through Botto’s private farmland (in today’s Bethpage Park), that also included Broadway over the SOB. Walking old Cherry Ave sounds neat Brian, perhaps this early Spring.
I thought of Lee’s childhood street passing through the Camp Mills area in Garden City, but I think these maps are too new to reveal it.

From Nassau County Department of Pubic Works Surveys and Maps: Closing the Motor Parkway

It’s Joe Tracy and George Robertson but hanged if I can find the background.  As I recall, Howard reported that Tracy was asked to go easy on the car and instead he flogged it (perhaps it was George who complained of that)!  Sam. III

From Mystery Foto #42 Solved: The Team Reunion of Joe Tracy and Al Poole for the 1956 "Rerun"

Here’s a true Castagna SS and my own ca. 1956 pic of a 1930 works SSK: note the centered badges.  Sam, III

From Tucker 1044 and Chrysler's Chrysler Highlights from the Americana Manhasset Concours d'Elegance

Pretty strange event when a 1927 SSK (and it IS quite clearly an SSK) is shown; the Mercedes (no Benz) S-modell came out in 1927 but the Mercedes=Benz SS only in early 1928 and the M-b SSK in mid 1928.  Then, it took a while to build the body.  Hmm.  Stranger still, if one looks closely at the kuhlerhaube (the radiator shell), it’s got the two embossed Mercedes stars on either side of the crease from ‘27, NOT the current M-B centered wreath badge of ‘28 and on.  Also, no such car appears in any of the endless S/SS/SSK/SSKL pix I’ve ever seen since I drove a ‘28 SS in 1956.  Methinks we may have a creative fake here; I’m running it by the M-B Historical Collection.  Sam, III

From Tucker 1044 and Chrysler's Chrysler Highlights from the Americana Manhasset Concours d'Elegance