Vanderbilt Cup Races

One of my all time favorite photos, Old Country Road and Clinton Ave looking SE at old Roosevelt Air Field. Today, its busiest intersection in Nassau County.

From Kleiner's Korner: The Motor Parkway in Maps - Part IV

So with the t handle knob pulled out it is disengaged ? . Its my grandfathers car he bought it new in Glendale ca. now i have it runs great looks bad had to replace all the glass and rubber that helped it is in sound running shape have not driven to far just around the block have not gone over 35 mph .When i get tires i will drive it faster is the overdrive a vacuum internal shift should i look for rotten vacuum lines . thanks

From The 1937 Chrysler Automatic Overdrive

New aerials have been added.

From Updated: Mystery Foto #17 Solved: The Meadowbrook Polo Club Bridge over the Motor Parkway

Love this!

From Remembering the Vanderbilt Races: Roslyn News, March 13, 2008

Art, you’re a gem!  Forgot all about Wireless Blvd.; used to use it.  Since the polefield was on the left outbound and the right inbound, that kinda proves that we were on the LIMP (and, knowing Dad, that was probably the weekend it closed - I was all of FOUR).  See, folks, I *TOLD* you so!  That would have been in Dad’s new 1939 Dodge, with me standing in the back holding on the the rug rail for dear life.  Al - minor detail, but just how were the unsold lots conveyed to Willie personally when they had been bought by the LIMP corporately; was he the guarantor?  Sam, III

From Kleiner's Kolumn: The Long Island Motor Parkway in Maps (Part III)

I remember working on this restoration in the ‘60s when I was in high school. I worked for Jim Hoe in Weston, CT as a mechanic’s helper during my summer vacation. One of my jobs on this particular car was to install asbestos cloth to the inside of the hood for heat protection. My god, what a car! Never forget when they started it up for the first time and drove it down the road. What a sound!

From Update: Peter Helck's 1921 Benz-Mercedes "Rabbit-the-First" Now Owned by Jay Leno

You can also thank the anti-car lobby for some of this stuff too.

From VanderbiltCupRaces.com Exclusive: 1910 Plans for the Ronkonkoma Motor Speedway

Steve, The bridge adjacent to the Meadow Brook Club bridge was not built as an entrance to Roosevelt Field. It was built by the Parkway in 1908.  It was constructed over a lightly used Hempstead Town road known as Sheep’s Pen Road.

From Updated: Mystery Foto #17 Solved: The Meadowbrook Polo Club Bridge over the Motor Parkway

Sam, Regarding the fate of properties the Parkway purchased east of Inn….  Almost all of the properties for the ROW east of the Petit Trianon were purchased in 1907 with just a few in early 1908. They were not an easy sell because most of those acquired parcels were only 100 feet wide and not all has road frontage.  Some of the properties were returned to the sellers because they had covenants that required that the Parkway had to be built by a certain date. Some of the larger tracts were broken up and sold piecemeal but many of the properties were sold by Suffolk County at tax lien sales in 1939 because the Parkway had stopped paying the real estate taxes in the early 1930’s.  Those properties not sold when the Parkway was dissolved were turned over to Vanderbilt personally who walked away from those in the tax lien sales.

From Kleiner's Kolumn: The Long Island Motor Parkway in Maps (Part III)

Location - East Garden City/Roosevelt field
            Photo is facing towards the southeast
Bridges - Meadowbrook Polo bridge being built {foreground)
          Roosevelt Field bridge (background)
Year built - 1929-1930
Purpose -  access to the Meadowbrook Club’s north polo fields

From Updated: Mystery Foto #17 Solved: The Meadowbrook Polo Club Bridge over the Motor Parkway

From Art Kleiner
Hi Sam, you might be referring to the Mackay Radio and Telegraph Co. location as shown on the 1941 Hagstrom map here. I also have a 1952 Hagstrom which also shows it.  The other two are from historicaerials.com and are from 1953 (still showing the building) and 1980 (showing the building’s footprint).  The street named Wireless Blvd. is a reminder of the Mackay company.  Send me an e-mail apart from the blog is you have any other questions about Mackay.  An internet search produced a lot of hits pertaining to a lawsuit it was in back in the late 30s with the National Labor Relations Board and RCA among others.

From Kleiner's Kolumn: The Long Island Motor Parkway in Maps (Part III)

I would love to find a re-print of this poster.

What great art work!

From Helck Family Collection: The Story Behind Peter Helck's Artwork for this Vanderbilt Cup Race Poster

My father drove me all over the place, especially LI, and I remember one of the marvels of my world was an overseas antenna system (zillions of phone poles all wired together).  As recall it was on the flat land of Hauppauge between the curve of the LIMP and Old Willetts Path and No. St. Pkwy./New Hwy.  Those poles remained there until the Marcus Blvd. area (where I twice worked) was built up.  I can’t find any reference to this array - anyone?  Sam, III

From Kleiner's Kolumn: The Long Island Motor Parkway in Maps (Part III)

From Art Keiner:
I found this picture in a publication named “The Wireless Age”, July, 1920 in a story about the New York Radio Central Station, which was to be a powerful transmitting station located near Rocky Point.  While the Motor Parkway was not named on the map, it is very easily noticeable.

From Kleiner's Kolumn: The Long Island Motor Parkway in Maps (Part III)

New photos and information have been added to the post.

From Update: From the Thayer Family Album: Four Photos of the 1910 Vanderbilt Cup Race

I Identified the Franklin in the photo driving on Lakeville Rd. It is a 1914 Series 6 Touring. the 1913 and 1914 looks similar, but 1913 has right hand drive, 1914 has left hand drive like in the photo, also it has the same windshield but folded and it has electric lights and most likely has electric starter.

From Mystery Foto #16 Solved: The Lakeville Road Entrance to the Great Neck Lodge in 1914

Another location where two bridges were almost this close to each other was in Bethpage’s Central Park, between the Powell Ave and Nibbe’s bridges

From Updated: Mystery Foto #17 Solved: The Meadowbrook Polo Club Bridge over the Motor Parkway

Addendum: The Nov 1951 Newsday article showing the LIMP dirt roadway may have been used by Otto McCamish still living at the Meadow Brook Lodge in 1957. The Merrick Ave bridge was removed in the 1940s making this section of Motor Parkway a private roadway.

From Updated: Mystery Foto #17 Solved: The Meadowbrook Polo Club Bridge over the Motor Parkway

Amazing never seen before ground view of the “twin bridges” in Westbury. Meadow Brook Hunt Club bridge (1920s-1944) under construction in the foreground (there’s a worker standing on the ladder under the bridge). Motor Parkway Roosevelt Field bridge (1909-1940s) in the background.  Photo is looking SE in the 1920s. The bridge was built to link the Meadow Brook Polo Fields (just to the north), to the Hunt Club (just to the south). Motor Parkway motorists experienced a unique view passing under these bridges.

The Nov 1951 photo below (looking east) I believe was taken from the top of the Polo Field bridge, with the LIMP Roosevelt Field bridge already removed, from where it once stood where the car is parked. Is there any information on this?

From Updated: Mystery Foto #17 Solved: The Meadowbrook Polo Club Bridge over the Motor Parkway

Otto was standing on the north side of the LIMP looking east in what I believe is within the boundaries of Westbury today. This would have been a short walk west of the Meadowbrook Lodge. The bridge under construction was for direct access from Stewart Avenue to the recently constructed Meadow Brook Polo Club field and I believe was privately fund by club members. The bridge in the background had been built as the southern entrance to Roosevelt Field (airfield), also from Stewart Avenue. Since there are photos of the area in 1928 with only one bridge, and 1931 with two bridges, this photo must be between those two years. I’ll guess 1929.

From Updated: Mystery Foto #17 Solved: The Meadowbrook Polo Club Bridge over the Motor Parkway