Vanderbilt Cup Races

Howard, I had sent you pics of my visit to Caroline St. and Fresh Meadows. I’ll resend if you did not receive them. Please let me know.
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From Howard Kroplick:

Found them and posted above.

From Sam & Dave's "Excellent Motor Parkway Adventure" VIX: On to Bethpage State Park Updated 1/14/16

Wow - adds to the story of the Andrea Doria, which like the car was beautiful. 

Ron

From The 1956 Chrysler Norseman Concept Car Lost at Sea Updated 1/13/16

Howard has remained quiet on this question….please chime in and let us know your opinion on this!
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From Howard Kroplick:

Dave, I will need first to take a road trip to see the posts!

From Sam & Dave's "Excellent Motor Parkway Adventure" VIX: On to Bethpage State Park Updated 1/14/16

I just thought I’d offer a little extra info on Coey. Yes, he was a balloonist among many other things. His first wife, Carrie Hume Lewis, became the first woman to ascend in a balloon from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1909. That balloon, the Kathleen, was constructed by George Bumbaugh, one of the leading balloonist of the age. It was named, “Kathleen” after Bumbaugh’s teenage daughter. Interestingly, years later when Carrie passed away, Coey ended up marrying a much older Kathleen Bumbaugh, his final wife. http://www.firstsuperspeedway.com/photo-gallery/ca-coey-thomas-torpedo-1905

From Mystery Foto #2 Solved: Edwin Ross (E.R.) Thomas and Charles Andrew (C.A.) Coey at Krug's Hotel

Great work Frank. You are the man. I love how the curiosity got you so strong that you had to get in your car and check this out for yourself! I’m the same way.

I dont know if I’m buying the retaining wall theory. It’s a theory as good as any other right now, but I’m having a hard time thinking this would have been their best solution for a possible land slide location.

Were there any other posts in the area? Did you take pics? I actually have a video of this spot that we took that day, I’ll send to Howard.

From Sam & Dave's "Excellent Motor Parkway Adventure" VIX: On to Bethpage State Park Updated 1/14/16

Didn’t have much time this weekend, but I’ll throw in E.R. Thomas as the entry into the 1906 American Elimination trial.  Photo send to Howard separately might be my reason.  But other photos of Thomas confused me a bit.

From Mystery Foto #2 Solved: Edwin Ross (E.R.) Thomas and Charles Andrew (C.A.) Coey at Krug's Hotel

Interesting but a very sad story .....

From The 1956 Chrysler Norseman Concept Car Lost at Sea Updated 1/13/16

It’s interesting how concept cars, even if they never actually go into production when introduced, are often precursors of designs in production models which came along 5, 10, or 15 years later.  For example, compare the lines of the 1956 Norseman, particularly the roof and rear windshield, to the Dodge Charger and the Rambler Marlin which came into production in the mid-1960’s.  Lots of similarities.

From The 1956 Chrysler Norseman Concept Car Lost at Sea Updated 1/13/16

From Rich R.

Interesting color version may have its place as a conversation piece. But there’s no replacement or substitute for the authentic and historic B&W original image.

From A Colorized Photo of the #23 American that Raced in the 1910 Vanderbilt Cup Race

Thanks for yet another informative read, Howard. It’s always great when you can learn something new, too, with the diver, David Bright’s story. I like ocean liners almost as much as cars, and have been collecting press photos on favorite liners for some years now. Can’t have everything, but my lone Andrea Doria pic is this pre-maiden voyage rendering of her three(!) Lido Deck swimming pools from Sept., 1952. Submitted by the Italian Line’s New York ad agency, the D.M. Grattan Co. of Fifth Avenue, is it irony or fate that the press release on back is printed on teal paper?

From The 1956 Chrysler Norseman Concept Car Lost at Sea Updated 1/13/16

That’s so interesting that they used to use wooden bodies for these trucks. I guess I always assumed that cars were made of metal rather than wood, but in 1918 I suppose they were a lot different from now in many ways. I also didn’t know that the first international road race was on Long Island. The history of automobiles is so interesting!

From New Series Long Island Auto Manufacturers & Body Builders #1:Bell & Post Motors of Farmingdale

From John W.:

- I love viewing these emails. I remember in 1960 driving through there with my Dad and going under the bridge, him then telling me the story of Motor Parkway as we in Deer Park called it. He recalled the toll booth on Commack road and some other details. I always knew of the section which continues to be used starting at Half Hollow Road in Dix Hills. In fact, I remember looking at the gate that prohibited you from continuing into what was once the Baruch estate….Benjamin Baruch, who once owned Bagatelle Nursery through which the parkway once ran. I road those roads as my family was in the nursery business and the General Manager of the nursery was a friend of the family from Holland (my grandfathers friend before both came here).
My mother recalled that gate I mentioned being open as an entrance to the estate as my other grandfather was a farmer who had a cider mill. Benjamin used to have my family press his apples for cider.
By the way, I have not seen it myself but my son tells me there are traces of the road running through the Kaufman Camp in Colonial Springs.
And that, Howard, is about all I can tell you except remembering riding my bike on the old road when I got older, having grown up in Deer park. And I remember getting my butt fired for not telling Mom first where I was going!
One more thing. Ironically, when I was first married we lived in Ronkonkoma, two blocks north of the parkway.

Thanks again for all you do.
JW

From Long Island Motor Parkway Bridge Series #59:Half Hollows Road Motor Parkway Bridge(Colonial Springs)

From Ariejan Bos:

These two men are Elwood Haynes (on the left) and Charles A. Coey. Coey was a (presumed) millionaire from Chicago, who raced with Thomas roughly between 1905 and 1907. He had entered the Thomas, which was raced by Le Blon in the American Elimination Trials for the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup. Haynes was of course the car manufacturer, who had entered a Haynes racer for the same trials, with driver H.N. Harding. The Haynes would end on 3rd place, the Thomas of Le Blon on 2nd place. In the Vanderbilt Cup race itself Le Blon would end on 8th and last place. The photo was shot in front of the Thomas Flyer headquarters: on the photo you can just see a glimpse of a Thomas being prepared, which could very well be the car of Le Blon. As to the day of the photo, I have not a real clue. My feeling says shortly before the Elimination Trials, but it could also be somewhere between the trials and the actual race.

From Mystery Foto #2 Solved: Edwin Ross (E.R.) Thomas and Charles Andrew (C.A.) Coey at Krug's Hotel

From Tom Saal:

The two men in the mystery photo are E. R. Thomas and C. A. Coey.
A similar photo appears on page 1842 of the Sept. 29, 1906 issue of Automobile Topics in a story about the Vanderbilt elimination trials.
I Xeroxed the story years ago (pre-internet) when I was writing the Pope-Hartford story for Automobile Quarterly.
Tom Saal
North Ridgeville, OH

From Mystery Foto #2 Solved: Edwin Ross (E.R.) Thomas and Charles Andrew (C.A.) Coey at Krug's Hotel

We are very proud of John Logerfo’s Arcadia book on Central Park/Bethpage.  Great story, great pictures makes for an interesting read of the history of Central Park/Bethpage.

From New Arcadia Images of America Book: Bethpage by John Logerfo

The Norseman sounds like the perfect plot for a novel…
Thanks for researching this.

From The 1956 Chrysler Norseman Concept Car Lost at Sea Updated 1/13/16

Hi Dave, 
Had to check out the Caroline posts today for a closer look. Physically being there made all the difference. I believe they’re genuine Motor Pkwy posts. There were rectangular and triangular types and both are identical in size to posts in Fresh Meadows. The triangular’s also had the two rust stains where wires once protruded from, as in Fresh Meadows as well. The hole for this style wire (not the spiral) is an exact fit around the wire and can easily be overlooked when the wire is completely missing. Some of the posts in Fresh Meadow still have the little rusted strand sticking out. I think this style triangular post/wire was used away from the roadway where it defined the Motor Pkwy property line, and dressed with denser fencing material to keep the undesirables out, such as bicyclists like me. :D

But I believe those posts do not belong there. I think they’re being used as a makeshift retainer wall for the steep sloping hill in this area. Next to the posts is a heavy weight downed tree, strategically placed adjacent to the backyard fences. The fences on top of the hill are less than 10’ from the drop! Most likely the posts were temporarily placed there by Rt. 135 construction crew upon completion in 1963, to increase stability on top and help prevent terrain from spilling down. Probably an unexpected occurrence or expwy design overlook. The crew had access to this state owned property and the heavy machinery to accomplish this, a problem too much for the homeowners and probably illegal for them to fix anyway.

So where did the posts come from? Checked out some of Howard’s photos of Dead Man’s #2 curve that was located further south (also involved in the 135 construction). The posts down there were similar to the ones up north and all appear made of wood, but that is questionable. Sending Howard some pics of the findings.

PS. I stopped by the east side of 135, and at the dead-end of Carol Dr. (north of the watershed where Dead Man’s Curve #2 was situated nearby), I encountered another NY State area that was sealed off to the public with locked fences. Camera equipped drone came into mind, but considering any remnant hindering the efforts of a major construction project would likely just be swept away clean and/or destroyed. We’ll never know for sure until it’s investigated. See you guys on the trail!

From Sam & Dave's "Excellent Motor Parkway Adventure" VIX: On to Bethpage State Park Updated 1/14/16

These were some very interesting years to be a teenager near Detroit. Cadillac turned 50 in 1952 and Ford in 1953. Sports Cars were beginning to gain a place in the American way of life. The car companies noticed and Concept Cars were the hit of the Detroit Auto Show.

From The 1956 Chrysler Norseman Concept Car Lost at Sea Updated 1/13/16

From John T:

Love the Norseman piece. You should consider writing a book about the interesting Chrysler cars that appeared and disappeared over the years. Won’t be a best seller but it’d be fun to do

From The 1956 Chrysler Norseman Concept Car Lost at Sea Updated 1/13/16

Thanks for continuing the conversation Frank. Too often it seems people check the link, comment and then disappear when we have really interesting subjects on the table worth further discussion. I recommend some kind of continuous blog for the site. Once a site post becomes older, people dont go back and continue to check and the discussion just dies.

You bring up a very interesting point. How did they determine what locations would get wood and what would get the concrete posts? Obviously we know that south of Central Ave there were (and still are) posts and going into Bethpage Park there were (and still are) posts, so why in this small in between section did they decide only wood?

If you are correct and it was only wood here, it makes it even more interesting that someone would have done this. Love the private seating theory. Doubt the lunch spot one! Especially if they had to hunt for the posts. But then again, some town employees go unsupervised for quite some time! I believe some of the posts did have holes in them. I will definitely take more/closer pics next time. Will check out the hot dog stand in more detail too. I know where it is.

From Sam & Dave's "Excellent Motor Parkway Adventure" VIX: On to Bethpage State Park Updated 1/14/16