Vanderbilt Cup Races

Looks like Bethpage to me.

From Update: Mystery Foto #37 Solved: The Bethpage Lodge Under Construction in September 1908

GREAT detailed photos of the longest Motor Parkway bridge. The black drill by the embankment also captured the surrounding views, feeling like you’re actually standing there on the corner by Old Central Ave. Amazing capture in such a narrow field. The dilapidated LIMP roadway above likely the reason for the bridge’s removal. I only wish the LIMPPS were around then to help preserve it. We could’ve painted it, cleaned around it, and immortalize this structure as proper. Thank you Patrick for sharing these long lost gems!

From Updated: From a Family Photo Album: The Central Avenue/LIRR Motor Parkway Bridge

Pat Ahern has dated his father’s photos.

From Updated: From a Family Photo Album: The Central Avenue/LIRR Motor Parkway Bridge

So glad Roslyn HS students will benefit from Mackay’s inspirational Marly Horse! Adding to Hollywood stars pictured with Marly Horse sculptures at Universal Studios, I’ve attached a portrait of a special ‘star,’ the sculptor of the Marly Horses – Guillaume Cousteau the Elder (1677-1746) painted in 1730 and seen in Devereux Emmet’s Head of the Harbor home in Smithtown township. His sister Lydia Field Emmet (1866-1952) may have been inspired by the maquette (model) of the head of Cousteau’s ‘Summer’ sculpture (at Marly), seen in the print, as the pose for her White House portrait (1934) of First Lady Lou Henry Hoover painted at the request of Eleanor Roosevelt. Devereux’s nephew Robert Emmet Sherwood (1896-1955) was one of the screenwriters for Hitchcock’s thriller Rebecca (1940), which featured four pivotal scenes with Cousteau’s Marly Horses. In English film director Alfred Hitchcock’s American debut, when British-American actress Joan Fontaine runs to embrace English actor Laurence Olivier, the watching Marly Horse in the main hall is recognizable as ‘France,’ a nation that someday would be liberated because of America supporting Great Britain. Four weeks after the film’s release, Sherwood was quoted, in May 1940, declaring America was a bastion of democracy, earning him a White House position as speechwriter to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt through World War II. Cousteau and Marly ‘horsepower’ made a difference as should all public sculpture. A great inspiration for Roslyn HS!

From A Motor Parkway Director's Second Horse Statue Returns to Roslyn High School

I was a roommate with Billy-Haithcock Academy-NY then on to Ct.  Lost contact with him about 5 years ago…..he would send me posts cards often from somewhere in Pa.  Growing up he was a absolutely wonderful friend….another roommate we had was Chris Crawford who sadly past on about the same time.  Would appreciate any photo’s you may have……….miss him dearly!

From From the Grace Holloway Family Album: Photos of the Old Westbury Home Built by Driver Foxhall Keene

Correction- Image with the booth & crossing gates is southwest, not southeast.

Ahern is familiar to me. When you have time Howard, could you ask Pat if he has a relative that worked for LILCO? I recall a lineman with that surname when I worked in Hicksville.  Thanks

From Updated: From a Family Photo Album: The Central Avenue/LIRR Motor Parkway Bridge

EXCELLENT!

The image with the gentleman on the bridge, camera was viewing south. Great shot, the steel tower that’s on the west side of the ROW is still there today.

The holes must be for dynamite. Pretty sure the view here is northwest. The steel tower on the opposite side of the bridge isn’t there today, but the old concrete foundation is. Dave & Sam first came upon this foundation. Frank F and I also viewed this closely and saw where the 4 tower legs were cut flush. Foundation is on the south side of the tracks, and the historical marker is a little ways left of the foundation. Here’s 2 views from the website: Southeast - crossing gates, and my Northwest guess. The homes seen should be along Revere Ave.

From Updated: From a Family Photo Album: The Central Avenue/LIRR Motor Parkway Bridge

Thank you Howard for another great ‘Horsepower’ history!! Amazing that nearly 200 years after Louis XV commissioned the Marly horses, a Long Island Motor Parkway Director also commissioned ‘horsepower’ for his Roslyn estate during the ‘horseless age’ of the auto. The Marly horse and groom image now at Roslyn HS (Mackay’s North statue) was made available to the general public by the 1940s when inexpensive tabletop metal casts appeared in movie sets during the Golden Age of Hollywood and in LI homes—like the attached ‘conversation piece’ spotted on the North Shore. Now our friends know why they liked it!
______________________________

Howard Kroplick:

Corey, you are correct! Check out this YouTube video on the Marly Horses:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot7FVdZZZz8

From A Motor Parkway Director's Second Horse Statue Returns to Roslyn High School

I could have sworn that I sent in a comment on Mystery Foto #36, the Locomobile. Maybe my name wasn’t attached. Any way I didn’t see it in the comments.
Dick G
_____________________________________

Howard Kroplick

The post is MIA!

From Mystery Foto #36: A Locomobile Limo with a Vanderbilt Cup Radiator Mascot

A scene from “The House on 92nd Street” (1945)

From Mystery Foto #28 Solved: The Sperry Gyroscope Plant in Lake Success on September 27, 1952

THANK YOU HOWARD!! I went to RHS 1965 and the horse was always there, in our yearbook and at anything to do with the school. went back in 2015 and heard about the restoring of the statue, it was and is part of that school, and town..
and
buy the way i lived just down the hill for the estate and would play up there from when i was a little tike till Junior high when they build country estates… we cause hell with them building on our play fields, hills. got shot ( buckshot i think)  at by who every was in charge of the estate back in the early 1950’s
know the status well, we used to play around them, and in the spring when caterpillars would be out we would shot them off the statue with slingshots or what ever we had…
thank you for all you have done to bring the horse back
samc
old friend of gus frost

From A Motor Parkway Director's Second Horse Statue Returns to Roslyn High School

Upon close examination of the photo, I believe there is a replica Vanderbilt Cup on the radiator as a mascot. Since they were manufactured by Locomobile to celebrate George Robertson’s victory in the 1908 Vanderbilt Cup Race, I’m guessing the car is a Locomobile; maybe a Model “H” Touring that’s either overloaded or converted to Station Wagon duty. Since the race was held in October, 1908, and the trees in the background have no leaves, I’m guessing the date to be either late 1908 or early 1909. Since we’re talking Locomobile here, I’ll say its place of origin was Bridgeport, CT.

From Mystery Foto #36: A Locomobile Limo with a Vanderbilt Cup Radiator Mascot

*Mystery Fotos relation to the VCR:  This Locomobile Transport Vehicle has a VCR Mascot Pewter Cup/Radiator Cap. A Sterling Silver miniature VCR cup were initially given as favors to invited guests of The Vanderbilt Cup Victory Dinner - Stratford Hotel, Bridgeport CT 11-09-1908. To honor the Locomobile’s 1st & 3rd place finishes for the 10-24-1908 VCR. These cups became a hot item, Locomobile Co. began offering 2 types of Pewter Cups for owners in March 1909. Radiator Cup/Cap $2.25 or Cup for existing Cap $1.50

*Image Date: Being that these caps and cups became available in 1909, I’ll say 1909 thru 1910.

*Vehicle Manufacturer & Model:  Locomobile Touring Automobile Type/Class 40 - 7 seater. Count 11 heads, they made it work. On their way to the 1909 or 1910 VCR?

*Manufacturing location: Likely the Locomobile Plant in Bridgeport, CT

From Mystery Foto #36: A Locomobile Limo with a Vanderbilt Cup Radiator Mascot

This charming story brings back memories from the days-of-my youth working during the summer in the sand mines off West Shore Road to earn money for college and my dear mother’s stories from her days as a student at Roslyn HS (Bernadette Peterford, Class of ‘47). Bravo!

From A Motor Parkway Director's Second Horse Statue Returns to Roslyn High School

Thanks for this Howard.  Hopefully the new owner’s commitment to keep the building standing will hold true.  If only for the memory of what once was.

From The 1948 Press Release Announcing "The Opening of the New Long Island Automotive Museum"

In the Auto Museum film, it shows Joe Tracy driving the Locomobile type I truck. This was made from a touring car by the Ardmore Garage in Ardmore, Pa. that was the Locomobile dealer there and used as a service truck for newer Locomobiles in the 1920s. I bought that truck/car from Austin and along with Walter McCarthy made new front fenders that were identical to the fenders it would have been fitted with when new in 1907, I also made a new dashboard and found an bought the proper brass headlamps and restored those as well. I sold the Locomobile before any further work was accomplished and it is my understanding that today the car is now fitted with a replica touring car body like it had when it was new.

From The 1948 Press Release Announcing "The Opening of the New Long Island Automotive Museum"

This one is out of my league but possibly one of the first buses to hit the road.  Looking like a close 1910 model, this right side steering wheel adds to the mystery! Europe? You got me, gotta leave this one to the experts.

From Mystery Foto #36: A Locomobile Limo with a Vanderbilt Cup Radiator Mascot

Thanks Brian. I was focusing on that white building in the back with its steeple as the church. It wouldn’t make sense that far away, and its configuration in the photo doesn’t match today’s church. This is one tricky photo. Thanks!

From Mystery Friday #35 Solved: A View Along the Long Island Motor Parkway in Melville

The future ahead was so bright…

From The 1948 Press Release Announcing "The Opening of the New Long Island Automotive Museum"

Looking veeeery closely you can see that little Cup trophy mascot sitting right there on the radiator of this Locomobile touring car.  A dinner cup version was also given out at a Bridgeport Conn. (where they were built) banquet in November 8,1908 to celebrate the Locomobile victory. This photo was probably taken in 1909.

A closeup of his photo was shown in the December 30th 2009 VCR blog entry.

From Mystery Foto #36: A Locomobile Limo with a Vanderbilt Cup Radiator Mascot