Vanderbilt Cup Races

These 1909 photos of the Old Country Road highway bridge in Mineola/Garden City by surveyor Clinton Robertson demonstrate the difference between north and south views. The top photo of the bridge is looking north and well lit. The bottom photo is looking south and darker. These were taken at the same time, sometime in the afternoon.

From Mystery Friday Foto #45 Still Open for Discussion: A Motor Parkway Bridge Built on a Curve

Wow a blast from the past. That’s my old neighborhood (Queens Village).  We used to ride our bikes on that network of VMP through Alley Pond and Cunningham parks onto streets over the Clearview Expy. onto VMP onto streets and end up at the Worlds Fair grounds back in the late 60’s (I was like 11-12 years old). I remember the old entrance and exit onto the Grand Central Parkway from Springfield Blvd. and the bridle path when we used to visit my relatives in Brooklyn (oh the Interborough).  Thanks guys!!

From Sam Berliner III: A 1970 Walking Tour of the Motor Parkway in Queens

Like the fact that these could switch back to bicycle mode if there was engine troubles or if the gas tank was empty :~ )

From Motorcycles of the Vanderbilt Cup Races Updated: 4/28/2016

-Identify the location and race
1914 Indy 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

-Identify the race cars and their drivers.
From the cars I can recognize in the photos top to bottom;
#43 Willie Haupt-Duesenberg-finished 12th
#49 Ray Gilhooley -Isotta-crashed
#26 Joe Dawson-Marmon-crashed
Unsure, but looks like #42 Eddie Rickenbacker-Duesenberg-finished 10th
#5 Charles Keene-Keene-finished 8th
#3 Barney Oldfield-Stutz-finished 5th

From Mystery Racers: The 1914 Indy 500 Race

Looking west from Levittown grandstand area.
Turning left (south) in area now known as Orchid Road then right at Newbridge Road
with Newbridge Hotel visible.
1908-1910 races on this stretch.

From Mystery Foto #46 Solved:A View of the Motor Parkway looking West from the Officials' Stand/Press Box

All great guesses, but Al and Brian’s stands out furthest in my opinion. Clinton Ave parkway bridge (1909) in Garden City looking NW, with its 50ft RoW being fenced in. The flat roadway in the photo appears about 16ft. width, and less than 22ft. As Al noted, the only LIMP section to get the 22ft roadway this early was between Merrick Rd in Salisbury and Round Swamp Rd in Bethpage. The structures in the distance on left could belong to Mineola Fairgrounds (1866-1950). They had eight buildings standing inline on the south side by Washington Ave and 11 Street. As Brian suggests, the object in the distance at right could be a smoke plume from a westbound steam engine on the LIRR mainline, measured approx 0.8 miles from this bridge, a distance close to what’s seen in the photo. Vanderbilt Court roadway (lodge entrance) would’ve been off this photo to the left, after measuring the distance 100 ft between it and the LIMP, center to center.
The Westbury Ave parkway bridge (1909) with its 16ft width also an excellent guess, but the south view against the sun I believe, would’ve back-lit all the workers, making them appear darker in the photo. The only shadows are under the hats. There are no photos of this bridge’s railings but I suspect they too were low, as its sister Mineola RR bridge just to the south.
The Bloomingdale Rd highway bridge (1908) with water tower is a great guess too, but the high railings don’t match. I guess these were placed to help keep farm equipment from spilling onto the roadway below.
That’s my two cents. Feel free to comment, I’m sure I’ve missed several things on this tricky mystery  

From Mystery Friday Foto #45 Still Open for Discussion: A Motor Parkway Bridge Built on a Curve

Howard, here’s the working link for the PLI Newsletter that connects, so you can use it in your blog (the one there now isn’t connecting). Its
https://preservationlongisland.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/PN-Fall-2017-for-website-upload.pdf

From The Residence of the Starter of Five Vanderbilt Cup Races -Fred Wagner- Rediscovered in Smithtown

Thank you, Howard, for all your help in the successful effort to place The Residence of the Starter of Five Vanderbilt Cup Races, Fred J. Wagner, on the National Register of Historic Places! The New York State Review Board for Historic Preservation unanimously approved his home for the State Register on June 13, amazingly, the 150th Anniversary of Fred’s birth in 1869. Designed by Gustav Stickley, Fred’s home qualified under three criteria, notably Criterion B, as nationally significant “for its association with the life of Frederick J. Wagner of national and international auto racing fame.” Officially cited as the ‘Frederick and Annie Wagner Residence’ (Annie was Nancy’s nickname), both the Stickley rectory and adjacent church (originally built as St. Patrick’s R.C. Church) belonging to the Byzantine Catholic Church of the Resurrection in Smithtown, are now listed on the National Register. Many thanks, Howard, for your blog picturing your great collection of materials about Fred, all cited throughout the Register Nomination I prepared. Thank you for helping to preserve Long Island’s historic treasures in Smithtown!  P.S. As you suggested, I’ve bought a checkered flag. To borrow a line from Field of Dreams, if I wave it, will the auto shows come?

From The Residence of the Starter of Five Vanderbilt Cup Races -Fred Wagner- Rediscovered in Smithtown

As long as this came alive again, I took more time with the second blow-up; the inscription reads:  “- COUPE VANDERBILT - 1904 - / Le Match - GABRIEL - LONG ISLAND RAILROAD {sic} - / au passage á Niveau d’Hicksville” [at (the) crossing in (the) neighborhood of Hicksville].  Sam, le Troisième

From Mystery Foto #8 Partially Solved:A Humidor Vanderbilia from the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum

Since we don’t know the bridge, we don’t know the year, by we DO know that the entire Hempstead Plains section was built between 1908 and 1911, so no possible 1929 LIACC or its hangars, nor Camp Mills.  I have good recipes for crow (and have eaten my share) but I can all but guarantee this is a PARKWAY bridge!  In my not-at-all humble opinion, some of you are wasting your time looking for matches to highway bridges.  Selah!  I have spoken (yes, I live dangerously).  :·)  Also, look at the precision with which the left-hand ditch was cut; amazing - and unlikely for just a country road.  C’mon, guys.  Fu’ther, what IS that thing on the right horizon, just above the fence crossbucks?  I spotted it instantly as Westbury Station but the present two-story building wasn’t built until 1914.  ???  Sam, III

From Mystery Friday Foto #45 Still Open for Discussion: A Motor Parkway Bridge Built on a Curve

Great picture looking west at the grandstand area and the pits before they were built. Sometime around early 1908. You can see the layout for the pressbox on the other side. Looking into the distance is the Newbridge road bridge and the Newbridge Hotel. Also in the distance is the Westbury Road Bridge and the Ladenburg Farm windmill in the background.

From Mystery Foto #46 Solved:A View of the Motor Parkway looking West from the Officials' Stand/Press Box

-Where is the location of the Mystery Foto and orientation of the photographer?
This photo was taken looking West from the Press Box/Officials Stand in the Hempstead Plains (now Levittown.)

-Which Vanderbilt Cup Races were run in this section?
1908, ‘09, ‘10

-Identify the significant buildings and Motor Parkway structures
Newbridge Rd bridge,The New Bridge Hotel on Newbridge Road

-What was the appropriate month and date of the Mystery Foto? Provide a rationale.
October 1908 LIMP completed, but race not run yet.

From Mystery Foto #46 Solved:A View of the Motor Parkway looking West from the Officials' Stand/Press Box

Tom, thanks so much for providing this information!

From Mystery Foto #8 Partially Solved:A Humidor Vanderbilia from the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum

Possibility of Bloomingdale Rd - maybe not so unlikely that the photographer was positioned south of this Hwy Bridge during construction. The boundary fencing on both sides of the Bloomingdale south of the LIMP could have extended to the ROW fencing east & west. Being that the parkway built the bridge, doing SOME road paving on both sides seems like a good idea, but certainly not the ENTIRE roadway.

From Mystery Friday Foto #45 Still Open for Discussion: A Motor Parkway Bridge Built on a Curve

Thanks Brian - makes sense since so much of what I’m looking at (and the surveys in Howard’s possession) use the term “station”.  This info. will help identify some locations and structures I’ve had a hard time determining.

From Kleiner's Kolumn: Revisiting the Transformation of the Motor Parkway into Salisbury Park Drive

Although blurry, this may be in the early stages of the bridge.

From Garden City Archives: The "Snake Turn" of the 1908-1910 Courses of the Vanderbilt Cup Races

Fred, 

I just came upon your Vanderbilia photo, with the question about your silver box.

This was cigar box that was created in the 1990s by the London silversmith, Glynn Lambert.  It is silver plated box with a mahogany interior.  The image that Glynn etched into the top is his interpretation of the 1904 Vanderbilt Cup pochoir art that Montaut displayed in his book, “10 Ans de Courses 1897-1907”.

As far as I know, only 2 of these boxes were created.  I own the second.

From Mystery Foto #8 Partially Solved:A Humidor Vanderbilia from the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum

Interesting info Art, thank you. ‘Station’ is used in the plans here, and I thought it was strictly a LIMP construction term. Defined as a unit of measurement between points in surveying.

From Kleiner's Kolumn: Revisiting the Transformation of the Motor Parkway into Salisbury Park Drive

Mike - yes, always fun to be near what I am researching.  Brings it a bit closer to home.  Very interesting what was there before - makes you wonder what changes will take place over the next 100 years or so.

Al - thanks.  Bob Reed according to some searches on google was a firefighter with the East Meadow Fire Department who the day after fighting a lumber yard fire died of a heart attack.  As you know there is a fire house on that triangle: very appropriate as a memorial.

From Kleiner's Kolumn: Revisiting the Transformation of the Motor Parkway into Salisbury Park Drive

Thanks Al Prete. You saved me the research!

From Kleiner's Kolumn: Revisiting the Transformation of the Motor Parkway into Salisbury Park Drive