Vanderbilt Cup Races

The three photos of the lights/lanterns and memorabilia are great!

From Never Before Published Photos of the Long Island Automotive Museum

LOL, Dave. Any Drone experts here? A rocket pack would come in real handy, too. When you say it was brutal, that can be taken to the bank. The property just north of Madonna Heights is “Holmes Farm” ( there’s a cell tower within this property, too. ) Maybe there’s access to the ROW via the Farm? Have to check this out when the “seasons right”. The concrete sections being the remains of a culvert would be neat.

From Sam & Dave's "Excellent Motor Parkway Hike" IX:To the Finish Line at Half Hollows Hills

Identify the location and orientation of the Mystery Foto
-Looking West over Westbury/Carle Place

Identify the major roads
-In the center left to right is Glen Cove Road, the soon-to-be roadway between the two large buildings will eventually be Voice Road

Which Motor Parkway structures can be seen in the Mystery Foto?
-Mineola Rail Road bridge is the only structure since it looks like the Old Country Rd bridge was gone by the time of this picture.

Identify the major buildings
-View southwest of the Consolidated Lithograph Company. The building sits next to another identified as Woodall Industries

This image can be found in which online digital collection?
-NYS archives

What was the date of the Mystery Foto?
-October 15 1951

From Mystery Foto#18 Solved:A 1951 View of the LIRR Motor Parkway Bridge from the New York State Archives

Brian: Good luck going to assess! From the mansion till the end was brutal. Look at the pic of Sammy. As funny as it is with his face saying it all (he wanted to kill me), look all around him. That was not easy to walk through. Every step was taken with caution and typically involved holding back thorns. Not fun at all!

Regarding the concrete pieces….I agree with you. I believe there were 4. We are either on the LIMP here or right next to it. The only thing that I thought was perhaps this was a drainage system of some kind? Similar to what was recently discussed with the Levittown locations? Maybe this was a water run-off area? It is sort of sloped here and if the LIMP is to the left of this picture that might make sense.

From Sam & Dave's "Excellent Motor Parkway Hike" IX:To the Finish Line at Half Hollows Hills

Regarding the mansion—“BAGATELLE” - if you click on the red link Howard provides next to the picture above you will learn some interesting info. Here is what is on Wikimapia:

Rumored to have been owned by WK Vanderbilt as a hide-away for his mistress c. 1910. French Manor on 225 acres. Later owned by Dr. Herman Baruch. Now part of the Madonna Heights Crisis Residence for Young Women.
http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=qswyy58wkd5r&lvl=19.274348596...
From NYTimes archives - “In October 1949, Dr. Herman Baruch, the former Ambassador to Portugal (1945) and the Netherlands (1947) and former director of the Texas Gulf Sulphur Company, was married to Anne Maria Baroness MacKay at Bagatelle, Dr. Baruch’s country summer home on Burr’s Lane in Wyandanch. The bride was the daughter of Dirk Rynhard Johan Baron MacKay of The Hague, the Netherlands. After Dr. Baruch died at home in Wyandanch on March 16, 1953, the Bagatelle estate with its many signature azalea, mountain laurel and rhododendron plantings and its numerous specimen trees, was sold to the Catholic Sisters of the Good Shepherd, which developed it into the Madonna Heights School complex. The Bagatelle Nursery Farm in Dix Hills, was sold and sub-divided into expensive large lot upscale homes about the time the Long Island Expressway reached Half Hollow Hills in the late 1960s. Baroness MacKay Baruch frequently attended church in the Our Lady of Miraculous Medal Church (driven in a chauffered limo) during the summer months when the Baruchs vacationed in Wyandanch.”

From Sam & Dave's "Excellent Motor Parkway Hike" IX:To the Finish Line at Half Hollows Hills

As an answer to Brian McCarthy’s question which reads “Did ALL the original automobiles have the steering column on the right side?”
Some yes, some no… In the very early days of the automobile the steering wheel was located in the center in most instances. Some manufactures did place the steering wheel on the right so that drivers would not hit curbs, bushes, or other obstacles.

From Mystery Foto #17 Solved: North Hempstead Town Supervisor Edwin C. Willets Driving a 1904 Buckmobile

Very cool, Jeff Levin.

Just was thinking…Did ALL the original automobiles have the steering column on the right side? Something else to research, lol.

From Mystery Foto #17 Solved: North Hempstead Town Supervisor Edwin C. Willets Driving a 1904 Buckmobile

Dave and Sam, thanks for the hike pics.  Glad you guys are out there to put boots on the ground and engage the enemy (old wild growth).  If I did not live so far away, I would join you.  My heart started to race when I saw the pic of the back side of the Chestnut Hill Elementary School area.  The pipes or rods or whatever were just the kind of debris that was in the old foundation where the Huntington Lodge was at one time before it was moved to where I lived. Do you think that could have been part of the railing on the parkway to keep people from entering the raceway?

From Sam & Dave's "Excellent Motor Parkway Hike" IX:To the Finish Line at Half Hollows Hills

Thank you so much for everyone’s help! The photo has been in my collection for quite some time. I borrowed the original from a descendant of the Hicks family.

From Mystery Foto #17 Solved: North Hempstead Town Supervisor Edwin C. Willets Driving a 1904 Buckmobile

Hi Dave & Sam. The 2 concrete “bases” to the right, they both appear to be the same shape? And the 1 base on the left, I can’t quite tell if it’s of the same style of the other 2? Perhaps there used to be a total of 4. Would you say that these are within the LIMP ROW? These has my mind working, but I honestly would have to been there to assess.

From Sam & Dave's "Excellent Motor Parkway Hike" IX:To the Finish Line at Half Hollows Hills

More Femenias’ Findings.

From Updated: Sam & Dave’s “Excellent Motor Parkway Hike” VI: Broad Hollow Road

So there was a connection between the Willets and Albertson’s.

Jeff Levy:  If you don’t mind making this known, did you derive this image and information from a book or collection?

From Mystery Foto #17 Solved: North Hempstead Town Supervisor Edwin C. Willets Driving a 1904 Buckmobile

Ariejan Bos:

Nice photo! Below my solution. Added some documentation.

The rest of the day we’ll have to celebrate our King’s birthday. Tomorrow by the way a 120 years Paris-Amsterdam memorial run will pass the town of Nijmegen, with one participant being an 1899 Amédée Bollée. Amazing, isn’t it? Two links:

https://www.prewarcar.com/the-race-from-paris-to-amsterdam-in-1898-part-1
https://www.prewarcar.com/preparing-the-1899-amedee-bollee-for-the-race-from-paris-to-amsterdam

Have a nice weekend.

Best wishes,
Ariejan

The car is a 1904 Buckmobile 15hp runabout. The car was produced by the Buckmobile Co. of Utica, NY and this specific model dates from after April 1904.
During the summer of the same year the company got into financial problems and merged with the Black Diamond Automobile Co., also from Utica, NY, who had never arrived beyond the experimental phase of their own car. They continued the production of this model until in 1905 the curtain fell for good.

The man at the wheel is Edwin C. Willets (Willetts?) of Roslyn, who was Town Supervisor of North Hempstead from 1900-1903 and 1904-1907. The Willet[t]s family had their property in Searingtown, just north of the LIMP.

About the the female passenger and the boy, that is too local information for me, so I have to pass on that one.

From Mystery Foto #17 Solved: North Hempstead Town Supervisor Edwin C. Willets Driving a 1904 Buckmobile

Eugene V. Willis was town supervisor in 1903.
His father was Valentine Willis (Valentine Lane)
Photo taken in Williston Park
East Williston derived its name from family

From Mystery Foto #17 Solved: North Hempstead Town Supervisor Edwin C. Willets Driving a 1904 Buckmobile

Mystery Foto #17….Can’t identify the auto. Research was fruitless. But the driver who also was town supervisor of North Hempstead was, I believe, Edwin C. Willets. He served in that post from 1900 to 1907.  Edwin’s father was I. U. Willets, and his name was given to the road of the same name. Don’t know where photo was taken.The boy and the woman were, I believe, from the Hicks family and Hicksville was named for that family. These were tough questions, for me at least. Will this have any effect on my final grade?

,

From Mystery Foto #17 Solved: North Hempstead Town Supervisor Edwin C. Willets Driving a 1904 Buckmobile

Hello to All!

*ID Auto/Model/Year: This should be the easy for most, but not I.

*ID Driver: Edwin C Willets, a son of Isaac U Willets ( prominent owner of farm in an area once known as Plattsdale. Situated between North Hills and Herricks. A road that was built east to west thru his property was known as Westbury Rd. This road eventually was re-named in honor of him, I U Willets Rd. ) Edwin served as North Hempstead Supervisor from 1900 thru 1903, and again 1904 thru 1907.

*ID Foto Location: Isaac U Willets passed away in 1899, but his land was owned by the Willets family until 1912. I believe this foto was captured within I. U. Willets property prior to 1912. The LIMP was pretty much situated at the southern border of this property ( section of LIMP between Shelter Rock Rd and Old Courthouse Rd )

*Bonus:  This is my best guess for the family name of the woman and boy in the foto….Albertson. I came across an ” Mrs. J. A. Albertson ” in a 10/9/1897 newspaper article ( Queens County Review ). And not too far to the northeast of I. U. Willets property, there was adjoining properties of ” Edwin C Willets ” and “Silas Albertson” recorded on a 1906 E. Belcher Hyde Map. Needless to say, Albertson is a hamlet ( a loose term for a village? ). If I’m correct, then the Willets and Albertson families were friends, etc.

From Mystery Foto #17 Solved: North Hempstead Town Supervisor Edwin C. Willets Driving a 1904 Buckmobile

Update to my earlier guess:
I think I have identified the car as a very rare 1904 Buckmobile Twin Cylinder 15hp Runabout.
Founded in Utica, New York in 1903 by Albert J. Seaton, the Buckmobile Company produced a two-cylinder runabout making 15 horsepower. The body was spartan but the premiere of the car led to numerous orders. This led Seaton to try quick expansion of the company – which led to its being acquired by the Black Diamond Automobile Company in 1904. Buckmobile ceased production in 1905. Only three of the about 40 Buckmobiles ever built are known to exist

From Mystery Foto #17 Solved: North Hempstead Town Supervisor Edwin C. Willets Driving a 1904 Buckmobile

The driver of the automobile is Edward Cromwell Willets. He was the Supervisor of the Town of North Hempstead 1900-1906. The woman along side him is his wife, the former Ida Albertson. The community is named after her family. The road named after his farther is I. U. Willets Rd. The photo was taken on the Willets farm which was located west of Shelter Rock Rd. The Motor Parkway right of way west of Shelter Rock Rd. was part of the Willets farm. Eleven plus acres of the farm was purchased thru the Borough Bank of Brooklyn in July of 1909 for which the Parkway paid$15,775.  Most of the Parkway’s r. o. w. between New Hyde Park Rd. and Shelter Rock Rd. came from the Willets farm.  My imagination tells me the auto is parked on what would become the Motor Parkway.

From Mystery Foto #17 Solved: North Hempstead Town Supervisor Edwin C. Willets Driving a 1904 Buckmobile

-Identify the automobile, model and year
Unsure about the runabout-may try looking again later

-Identify the driver who served as the town supervisor of North Hempstead. When did he serve as town supervisor? Hint: His father has a mjor Long Island Road named after him.

Edwin C. Willets of Roslyn was supervisor of the Town of North Hempstead from 1900 to 1903 and again from 1904 to 1907.

-The Mystery Foto was taken on the Town Supervisor’s property which later bordered on the Long Island Motor Parkway. Where was the photo taken?

His Mineola farm

-Bonus: The boy and woman were both from a Long Island family that had a village named after it. Name the family.

Ida Albertson of the Albertson family

From Mystery Foto #17 Solved: North Hempstead Town Supervisor Edwin C. Willets Driving a 1904 Buckmobile

Not sure about this but here’s my guess: the driver is Edwin C. Willets who served two terms as North Hempstead Supervisor (1900-1903), (1904-1907). The passenger, since she appears to be dressed for mourning, could be the widow of Eugene V. Willis, who was the Supervisor from 1903 to 1904. The boy could be her son. Since Willis died early in 1904, maybe Willets was appointed to finish his term. I. U. Willets Road is named after Edwin’s father. The Willis family is remembered as the namesake of Williston Park, East Williston, and Willis Avenue. The photo may have been taken on the estate of Isaac Underhill Willets which later evolved into today’s Buckley Country Day School in North New Hyde Park. As for the car, no clue. I’ll leave that to the “Brass Era” guys.

From Mystery Foto #17 Solved: North Hempstead Town Supervisor Edwin C. Willets Driving a 1904 Buckmobile