Vanderbilt Cup Races

Wow - am I EVER old!  I remember 5¢ hamburgers at the White Castle on the north-east corner of Sunrise Highway and Broadway in Lynbrook.  Little squares of grey cardboard in a tiny square bun - inedible except for scads of Heinz ketchup!  OMG - it’s still there (satellite view)!  Lots of Mar 2000 pix of Deadman’s Curve at <http://sbiii.com/limpkwy5.html#deadman>.  Sam, III

From Was the First Parkway Fast Food Restaurant Located in Central Park (Bethpage)?

forgot the link -

http://www.vanderbiltcupraces.com/blog/article/was_the_first_parkway_fast_food_restaurant_located_in_central_park_bethpage

From Update #1: Time to Wail: The Western Wall of the Mayan Ruins is Gone

I agree with Brian, Sam, and the 1928 photos. I’m estimating the roadway is 12ft below the surface at the abutment, and it’s still there along with the retaining walls. No need to remove anything below if it’s just going to get buried with dirt.

A simple test to the east abutment can verify the 1928 photo. Just need permission, a ladder, and latex gloves (thanks Art!).

Motor Pkwy Police fact 1: If PO Zinzi received the accident call at home (Massapequa Lodge), he arrived at the scene in 7 1/2 minutes traveling 60mph. A passerby beat him to the scene and transported the injured to a nearby hospital. That’s pretty fast considering the parkway’s low traffic volume.

Motor Pkwy Police fact 2: As determined by homeowner and NYPD detective Cloonan in the ‘50s, his home was previously a speakeasy of sorts. It would later become Rich Foran’s Hot Dog stand. I can definitely envision this location active during prohibition, with its quick in-and-out onto the parkway, the rumrunner’s choice for elusive and high speed delivery. 

From Update #1: Time to Wail: The Western Wall of the Mayan Ruins is Gone

The answer about the car shown with Christopher Morley and his dog.
They were sitting on the running board of a 1928 Model A Ford

From Mystery Foto #36 Unveiled: Christopher Morley's Cat Teaches How to Draw A Map of Long Island in 1927

Brian McCarthy:

https://www.freewebs.com/limparkway/gardencityunbuiltbridge.htm

                            * Image- This is an undated picture of the abutments in question…Art must have provided this aerial to Howard because I’ve seen it on the VCR website. Nice, close up south view. There’s the Russell Rd home that was recently demolished. The road that dead ends quite abruptly to the LIMP s/o the house has to be Transverse Rd. The offset positioning of the abutments show how the proposed road would’ve been from the N/E to the S/W.

                            * 2010…2 left images show the west abutment. 2 right images show the east abutment. Top right image is what I think is the extreme end of the NORTH LOWER WALL ( remember the “roundish carving”? No word from Art, yet ). Lower right image was taken closer to the shed ( which was then brown ). Even with all the vines, the actual abutment is evident.

                              * 2016…Top left image captures mostly the NORTH LOWER WALL that extends from the EAST ABUTMENT, but showing the EAST SIDE of the wall ( I remember the electric conduit that is along this wall below the vines when we were all there ). You can see the up rise of the actual abutment closer to the shed ( then brown, now blue ). The 3 other images are various views of the WEST ABUTMENT. The final 2 images were taken behind & parallel with the BLUE SHED ( east abutment ). The cement/concrete looks new/fresh at the end of the wall ( PARALLEL image, after the CREASED section ).

                              Man, I hope all this thinking amounts to something

From Update #1: Time to Wail: The Western Wall of the Mayan Ruins is Gone

Glad I wasn’t the only one stumped with this one!  Tried a host of sources but no luck.  Guess there’s always more to learn about the Motor Parkway.

From Mystery Foto #36 Unveiled: Christopher Morley's Cat Teaches How to Draw A Map of Long Island in 1927

Hmm, guess my friend Mike will be coming home one day to find his backyard all dug up (or at least near the remaining wall, abutment - whatever it is).  My only contribution is that following our last visit there I came down with a case of poison ivy, possibly by reaching into the vines covering up the wall to try and see if there was a date imprinted (didn’t get too far).  Or possibly venturing into the area off of Raymond Court.  So be careful whenever digging around (as Sammy can attest to, right Dave?)

From Update #1: Time to Wail: The Western Wall of the Mayan Ruins is Gone

Scott, get drunk with Hazelhurst/Mitchel information on Paul Freeman’s incredible Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields site at: http://www.airfields-freeman.com/NY/Airfields_NY_LongIs_Nassau.htm#Mitchel.  As Howard likes to say, enjoy!  Sam, III

From Then & Now: The Long Island Motor Parkway, Mitchel Field and Sonny Corleone

Look at my last picture above, taken from the street looking northward directly up the ROW. You can see THE LIMP fragments EXACTLY there in the ROW exactly where I believe they would be in this location depth wise. This is just irrefutable evidence!

I feel like an attorney providing all of this proof against my defendant SBIII.

From Update #1: Time to Wail: The Western Wall of the Mayan Ruins is Gone

Update #1:

Dave Russo has added a 2016 video of the Mayan Ruins.

From Update #1: Time to Wail: The Western Wall of the Mayan Ruins is Gone

1) Why in the world would anyone SHAVE the abutment? How it survived in the first place is a miracle, but if a home owner was going to spend money to “work” on their ruins they would just get rid of them! Nobody would pay to just shave them down a bit and leave them there.

2) I just sent Howard a video from our 2016 Vanderbilt Day. Look at the first second of the video—-the 45 degree angle wall that meets the flat wall perfectly. Look in the old pictures, the 45 degree wall perfectly meets the abutment at the TOP of the abutment. As you can see from this pic/video, the (then) existing 45 degree wall meets this CURRENT top spot perfectly. So that to me is PROOF that this wall/abutment has absolutely NOT been shaved down. The 45 meets the top perfectly and if the top was shaved that would NOT be the case.

Again it’s also clear to me that these are LIMP pieces, lots of them, in my pics. I think we can all agree the contractors did not dig down 10-15 feet to dig this up!

We either need a Garden City historian to make sense of the old street maps and translate them into an exact location based on the streets of today. Or possibly much easier, we take shovels to Art’s buddy’s house and solve this thing! Maybe we can bribe his buddy with free lunch or something 😊

Man—-I miss LIMP discussion!

From Update #1: Time to Wail: The Western Wall of the Mayan Ruins is Gone

Sorry, I dpn’t buy it.  Those low retaining walls are ‘way underground now, if they even exist.  The abutments are out of true because the bridge would have been a skew bridge to match the angled “E-W” cossing roadway, as you can clearly see on the 1950 aerial and “Garden City Road Plan” (Mar 06 2013 - Long Island Motor Parkway Bridge Series #31) and on an earlier post (Sep 29 2010 - Part II: Then & Now:  The Motor Parkway “Mayan Ruins” of Garden City).  Also, if you look at the upper ‘28 pic (S/B, with Zinzi’s bike), it would appear that the lowering simply extended across from one shoulder to the other (but it SURE wasn’t done with a Boy Scout knife!).  Sam, III

From Update #1: Time to Wail: The Western Wall of the Mayan Ruins is Gone

Mystery Foto # 36…... The author may be Christopher Morley but I am out on a limb here. When he lived and did his writings seems to fit the questions and he lived in Roslyn Heights for most of his life. That’s all I’ve got.

From Mystery Foto #36 Unveiled: Christopher Morley's Cat Teaches How to Draw A Map of Long Island in 1927

Brian - The retaining walls of the east abutment are now exposed? Both? Is this due to the construction going on?

From Update #1: Time to Wail: The Western Wall of the Mayan Ruins is Gone

The Motor Parkway has “NINA” written all over it. Wild guessing the author was American caricaturist Al Hirschfeld. Hirschfeld lived most of his life in NYC

From Mystery Foto #36 Unveiled: Christopher Morley's Cat Teaches How to Draw A Map of Long Island in 1927

Sam III….The lower walls that Dave is explaining about are shown on the 1928 photos, extending on each side of both abutments. You realize how long each lower wall is after zooming in. The lower walls on the east abutment are visible presently in the r/o Pell Terrace. So the east side is MUCH LESS buried under than the west side. Dave has been steadfast on his thoughts about the west abutment, and it’s FINALLY making sense to me. I’m also keeping in mind that both abutments were not straight across from each other, the entire west abutment is further south than the east one.

From Update #1: Time to Wail: The Western Wall of the Mayan Ruins is Gone

Dave - When the crew visited last year, there was evidence that the top lip of the west abutment was trimmed down at some point. You can see the rough cut on the photo where Steve is standing, and only the half closer to Steve was smoothed down. Weird indeed. 

BUT, there’s an easier way than digging to be sure, but it’s prohibited. The east wall’s top lip (Art’s friend) should still be fully intact, but it’s totally covered in vine, and the owner wanted to leave everything undisturbed. We could go back and hand feel the size of the lip. Going to need permission (Art?) and a ladder to get up there. From the old photo, the lip appears about 24in

From Update #1: Time to Wail: The Western Wall of the Mayan Ruins is Gone

Dave is quite right about that lip!  Weird!  I would swear on a stack of Bibles that those were the abutments, not just walls, that I saw back in 2008 and 2017!  What walls, other than the retaining walls-cum-abutments, Dave?  That paving, assuming it survived, is very-much far under the grass; the RoW dipped ‘way down below grade at that point.  Howard, Al, HALP!!!  Are there any plans to show what was what there?  Sam, III

From Update #1: Time to Wail: The Western Wall of the Mayan Ruins is Gone

I taught art to children ages 5 to 12 for nearly 40 years, I am also the appointed village historian for about 20 years. This map from 1927 could be updated and be used again today. the current roadways could be stripes ! There is no where near enough appreciation for art, maps, and local history. There is a lot to cover in a years curriculum but if more local awareness could be included I think it would have a very positive affect and make the kids proud of where they live and the fine heritage of of their community and long island. Perhaps it would even rub off a bit on their parents as well. I used to give a talk on this in the school I taught in as well and you would be totally amazed at the smiles and “gee I didn’t know that” reaction I would get.  Walt G.

From Mystery Foto #36 Unveiled: Christopher Morley's Cat Teaches How to Draw A Map of Long Island in 1927

My parents (Cloonan family) bought this home in the mid 1950’s shortly after I was born. We resided in this home for 5 or 6 years. My father who was a NYC police detective said he had found evidence that he felt it was also a speak easy back in the day. He also realized it was a “drive in” restaurant but found evidence of a speak easy.

It was a beautiful home and have many memories of this home . 
___________________________________________

Howard Kroplick

Jean, thanks for the background. Do you have any early photos of the house? If so, please forward to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

From Was the First Parkway Fast Food Restaurant Located in Central Park (Bethpage)?