Vanderbilt Cup Races

-What is the location and orientation of the aerial?

Meadowbrook Hospital in East Meadow (Now NUMC) looking North/NorthEast.

-Identify the landmarks

Meadowbrook Hosp., R. Moses bridge over the Wantagh Pkwy in the upper right, The LIMP Westbury Ave PW bridge to the left of the RM bridge.

Zooming in very tight on the hospital parking lot shows a neat, classic ‘Woody’ station wagon parked closest to the hospital. Wouldn’t mind having that car today!

-Identify the roads in the aerial

Hempstead Tpke along the bottom with a small sliver of Carman Ave showing. The Wantagh Pkwy upper right.

- Give your rationale for the approximate date of the aerial.The photo was not dated.

1951-
I checked the construction dates on the Zillow and Redfin real estate sites for the homes being constructed on Clearmeadow Dr east of the Hospital in the photo. Most homes we constucted in 1951-52.

From Mystery Foto #76 Solved: An Aerial of Meadowbrook Hospital and East Meadow Circa 1951/1952

Two iconic symbols of American history. Being a guitar player and have played a Les Paul, the Les Paul has a very unique & special sound which is very pleasant to the ear compared to other guitars. Very cool piece, keep them coming Howard.
Best regards,
Wayne Carroll Petersen
Barney Oldfield Great Great Nephew

From The Black Beauty Meets The Black Beast in Roslyn

Meadowbrook Hospital, with the LIMP in the background?

From Mystery Foto #76 Solved: An Aerial of Meadowbrook Hospital and East Meadow Circa 1951/1952

It looks to be Howard’s old neighborhood, East Meadow…..looking northeast with Hempstead Tpke running l to r across bottom, Carman Ave. lower left running north; old Meadowbrook Hospital in dead center with the county jail behind to left and the sprawling jail farm behind.
At the top in the distance can be seen Salisbury Park Drive with the LIMP running across the back of the farm and the Limp bridge over Old Westbury Rd. And another LIMP bridge over Wantagh State Pkwy.  I estimate the photo date to be 1947 because the first section of the new Levittown appears at the far top right.

From Mystery Foto #76 Solved: An Aerial of Meadowbrook Hospital and East Meadow Circa 1951/1952

Nassau County Medical Center (NUMC) East Meadow. With the Jail just to the north of the hospital. My guess is 1948 or very soon after WWII. Facing North from Hempstead Tpk. The close up looks like Salisbury Park Drive crossing over the Wantagh Pkwy (which is the reason for today’s photo?) . The central RR should be just north of the Jail, but i cant seem to find it in the picture. I think the hospital building is still there, but hidden behind the big 18 story tower now. Parking lot is still the same.

From Mystery Foto #76 Solved: An Aerial of Meadowbrook Hospital and East Meadow Circa 1951/1952

It’s amazing that the cognac bottle is still almost full! How many people must have resisted the temptation to taste it during the past 108 years? Or someone must have kept it in a safe all the time ...

From The Silk Menu Celebrating Louis Wagner- Winner of the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup Race

Isn’t it interesting how people who never even met Austin Clark refer to him as “Austie”, so it will make it appear that they knew him so well. He NEVER referred to himself by that name in all the years that we were friends and I worked for him. Beverly Rae Kimes called him that and other people picked up on it , now it it is being perpetuated by auction companies and anyone else who want people to think they knew the man. I only ever heard him, his family, and his friends (the real ones who actually know and spend time with him) know him as Austin. He and John Fitzgerald Kennedy were classmates at Harvard (class of 1940) yet do we hear Kennedy referred to as “Fitzie” ? Call him by what he did himself - it is Austin, not Austie.

From Henry Austin Clark Jr.'s 1911 Type 35R Raceabout to be Auctioned in Monterey

So I did do good on this one, better than I thought I did. I’m surprised that there wasn.t more answering this one

From Mystery Friday Foto #75 Solved: 1935 Aerial of Bethpage and Old Bethpage

Remind me to never be away on vacation while my favorite type of mystery photo gets posted!

From Mystery Friday Foto #75 Solved: 1935 Aerial of Bethpage and Old Bethpage

Thanks, Frank.

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

Hi Brian,

You’re right about Stony Brook. It’s tough surfing there. The easiest way I found is to have the browser opened twice separately to the link below (1938 Aerial Photographs of Suffolk County). Leave one always viewing this page. With the other one, click on any of the map links below. When the map appears, use the ‘Return to Thumbnail List’ link at the top center of the page. Keep using the browser’s back button to navigate back and forth. This helps a bit.

http://alex.sinc.stonybrook.edu/1938ind.html

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

Almost missed the Mystery train. Old Bethpage/Bethpage/Central Park looking West. I’m going with approximately 1915. At the bottom right is one of the three original toll houses by J.R. Pope, the Bethpage Lodge (1908-1938) and its access road off of Round Swamp Rd. The lodge remained abandoned until 1960, then destroyed! (I would’ve gladly moved in and fixed ‘er up). The Round Swamp Rd Pkwy Bridge, and the Botto Farm Hwy Bridge. The longer 1908 course was the only race using this area (besides the rumrunners) Battlegrounds at the bottom. While cheating for race years, I noticed the 1914 Vanderbilt Race used guardrails that were not made of humans. For a while I thought Botto’s rectangular farm and access road at the top left was today’s half of Bethpage Park parking lot, though same shape and vicinity, the parking lot is actually smaller and a bit more to the west.  This site is packed with all sorts of goodies. Much thanks Howard and Dana.

From Mystery Friday Foto #75 Solved: 1935 Aerial of Bethpage and Old Bethpage

let’s try this.  Fairchild aerial photo of Bethpage, Round Swamp Road.  1935.
Bethpage lodge, Powell Ave. bridge. Used in the 1908-1910 Vanderbilt Cup Races.

From Mystery Friday Foto #75 Solved: 1935 Aerial of Bethpage and Old Bethpage

I know there has to be more landmarks than what I’m going to mention, Round Swamp Road and the Bethpage Lodge. I see lots of others things that I’m not sure of, maybe Powell Ave and Old Bethpage Rd. I think I did pretty good

From Mystery Friday Foto #75 Solved: 1935 Aerial of Bethpage and Old Bethpage

I was able to see the inside of the garage wall that faces south towards the motor parkway and had large cut outs for large windows which would swing open. Which would sell food according to the owners in the 1960s. There were many more cement posts which are now missing.  I used to ride my bicycle in the mid 60s on the motor parkway and would talk with the family at his house.

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

Walt is, of course, SO right - tricked by a “radiator” cap!  Somewhat off topic, the history of C. K. G. Billings and his Fort Tryon estate in Manhattan and Farnsworth are really worth your time; it was he who gave the fabulous 1903 horseback banquet at Sherry’s!  Just Google him and follow the many links.  Sam, III

From Mystery Foto #74 Solved: The C.K.G. Billings "Farnesworth" Garage in Locust Valley

Hi Howard

This looks like Old Bethpage back in the early 20’s with its farms and very little development. Photo taken from theNassau/Suffolk line looking west. The triangle upper middle on the right would be formed by Old Bethpage Rd. and Round Swamp Rd. with Haypath Rd. capping off the triangle on the right. The second close shows the bridge over Round Swamp Rd. and the toll house now occupied by a fire house. The middle left road at a 45’ angle is Battle Row named for the tenants who worked the farms and did the sand mining. The sand mining was carried on toward the bottom of the photo. The road just above the water filled sand pit would be Claremont Rd.
Nice photo
Harry Bell

From Mystery Friday Foto #75 Solved: 1935 Aerial of Bethpage and Old Bethpage

There was a good article in the August ‘62 Road & Track magazine about the Bird auction with some good photos. Wealthy enclaves like like location used to be good sources for early exotic car purchases. In 1943 my father bought a 1936 Mercedes 540K cabriolet that had been used in one of the “Topper” movies for $1,000. The location was La Jolla, CA., a wealthy suburb of San Diego. He later sold it in 1963 for $4,500 and was happy about it.

From The 1962 "Car Auction of the Century" at the Farnesworth Garage

I was at this auction as well, was 12 years old,  the Bugatti that Austin Clark bought had a hole cut in the top of the hood for easier access to the carburetor, and was I believe raced at Roosevelt Raceway in either 1936 or 1937 at the George Vanderbilt Cup Races held then . A lot of people who attended the auction drove over in pre WWII classic cars and I spent more time in the grassy field next to the auction taking photos of those cars (brownie box camera borrowed from my aunt) . The Duesenberg roadster (body by LeGrande) as far as I know is still owned by Dieter Holterbosch, and the Duesenberg Beverly sedan (Murphy coachwork) is owned by a collector/dealer in Va. this car when in the Bird estate had its shift lever cut off about 8 inches above the floor, and canvas covered rear top was stained as the roof of the garage leaked above it. Friends said that in the years the cars were stored there they could get into see the cars if you gave the caretaker a bottle of booze. Also in the garage was a rare 1940 Buick woody wagon with very low mileage and a 1952 Buick sedan with low miles as well. Back in the early 1970s when I worked for Austin we would go out to lunch and meet some long time Oyster Bay residents who remembered Wallace Bird and they had some pretty interesting stories about his “interests” beyond the cars. I have all this written down, plus photos (snap shots) that were found on the ruins of the mansion he had taken and were salvaged by one of the fellows we talked too back in the 1970s before the rain go to them. Photos show his boat, him and his wife, the Bugatti, plus local females who posed for him.

From The 1962 "Car Auction of the Century" at the Farnesworth Garage

There is no Franklin in that group of cars. The first car with the round radiator is a French built Delauney - Belleville. note it has a radiator cap - Franklin’s were always air cooled, and not as large a car as the car in the photo. The D-B cars were imported into the USA at thie time of the photo and for a few year prior, Brewster was a agent in the USA for them. The vertical shocks mentioned were made by Westinghouse and a popular accessory at the time that gave a better ride as the roads were for the most part not paved .

From Mystery Foto #74 Solved: The C.K.G. Billings "Farnesworth" Garage in Locust Valley