Vanderbilt Cup Races

*Driver - Believe he’s William K Vanderbilt, with acquaintance.

*Auto - Should be Mr. Vanderbilts 1907 Renault.

*Location & Orientation - The photographer is facing northwest. The car is heading east on the LIMP, just passing over Bellmore Ave via the Meadowbrook Pkwy Bridge. Land to the right is the Ladenburg property.

*Historical Significance - During the 10/1/1910 VCR, driver Harold Stone & mechanician Matthew Bacon crashed through the wood railing on the north side of this bridge in their Columbia Racer. Mr. Stone survived, but Mr. Bacon did not. This mystery foto is likely afterwards in 1910. Probably experiencing just how wicked this curve was.

From Mystery Foto #50 Solved: William K. Vanderbilt, Jr. on the Long Island Motor Parkway

Great reference Brian! That is an amazing discovery buried under 100+ year old concrete! Super rare. Congrats Howard for this amazing find in the old original Mill!

From Update 12/12/20: An Amazing "Message in a Bottle" Discovery and the Roslyn Grist Mill Match Challenge

Aw Greg, you beat me to it. But at least Howard got his answer.

From Film of the Week: Care-Free Cars (1956) Starring Henry Austin Clark, Jr.

She’s likely the daughter of the Frank Krug we know of, Art.

From Kleiner's Korner: How the Motor Parkway Aided the Red Cross in Garden City

Like Frank above, courtesy of Arrt’s Arrchives below. A good number of the Transmission Towers, some seen in the mystery foto, have been removed. Probably around the same time of the construction of the Meadowbrook Pkwy. Electric is below ground now. There’s 7 towers west of Carmen Ave ( Blue Course ). Then the towers commence just west of the Meadowbrook Pkwy.

From Mystery Foto #49 Solved: A 1953 View over Merrick Avenue and East Meadow and Westbury

Jim Croce came to mind.

From Update 12/12/20: An Amazing "Message in a Bottle" Discovery and the Roslyn Grist Mill Match Challenge

Among the files of the Peter Helck Family Collection is this check for $16.14 made out to Peter from Henry R.W. Finn, Treasurer of the VMCCA, sponsor of the 1946 Jubilee Rally in Mineola.  Each of the club’s 75 members who contributed $25 to the event received a prorated amount of the proceeds after expenses.  Finn’s analogy as to the less than desired monetary gain to the club was that the exhaust was more than the intake, and that “multiple downdraft carburetion with larger intake valves would have been very helpful”.  Accounting for an average inflation rate of 3.64% between 1946 and today, the real amount due the Helck family is $231.84! 

And the bank the check is written against is now part of Capital One, so a deposit still may be possible!

I’m also showing a license plate for #16 found among the Helck collection similar to the ones Jerry shows above for the Hartford’s Golden Automobile Jubilee in 1907.

From Update: The 1946 VMCCA Jubilee Anniversary at the Mineola Fair Grounds

Is John’s booklet still available?  I would like to buy one.

From New Booklet "Historic Road Racing in Milwaukee"

Photos below of the Salisbury Plains RR Station by Merrick Ave, and CRR bridge over the Meadow Brook Hunt Club access road, courtesy of NassauCountyNY.gov and Arrts-Arrchives.com

From Mystery Foto #49 Solved: A 1953 View over Merrick Avenue and East Meadow and Westbury

Over Eisenhower Park in Salisbury looking NW, directly above future Nassau County 9/11 Memorial. Merrick Av, Stewart Av, Park Blvd, Meadow Brook Hunt Club access road and CRR bridge, and Meadow Brook Lodge access ramp to Motor Parkway hidden under the trees. The lodge and its porte cochere are visible. Salisbury Links clubhouse in the foreground and the Salisbury Plains RR Station just to its north. RR crossing at Merrick Av. Meadow Brook lodge was the starting point for the 1908-10 Vanderbilt Cup Races. Photo taken sometime before 1960’s, before the lodge was removed.

From Mystery Foto #49 Solved: A 1953 View over Merrick Avenue and East Meadow and Westbury

Garden City looking northwest from Salisbury Park

Merrick Avenue on the right (diagonal from lower left to upper right)
Stewart Avenue bordering Mitchel Gardens housing complex
Building off of Merrick Avenue is the Meadowbrook Train Station years before this picture was taken.  The building became a test site for scientific experiments, including sonic booms (see picture).  Smith property in the park just east of Merrick Avenue.  Polo field grandstands.

VCR ran through the area as does the Motor Parkway north of Mitchel Gardens
Late 1940s - pre-Roosevelt Field and Meadowbrook Parkway.  Mitchel Gardens still there. 

From Mystery Foto #49 Solved: A 1953 View over Merrick Avenue and East Meadow and Westbury

00:03 – 00:24 HAC Jr in 1910 BUICK Model 10 Toy Tonneau
01:08 – 01:12 and 01:29 – 01:34 HAC Jr’s 1910 White Opera Coupe
01:41 – 01:46 HAC Jr’s 1912 Packard Landaulet
02:00 – 02:03 Warren Kraft?
03:16 – 03:24 Hewlett and Dorothy (Dot) Treadwell
05:24 – 05:36 & 05:44 – 05:52 & 06:06 – 06:16 Charles Addams
06:25 – 06:32 HAC Jr (with megaphone) and Charles Addams
06:41 – 06:47 HAC Jr
07:11 – 07:20 Mary Ullman

From Film of the Week: 1960 Antique Automobile Rally to The Museum of The City of New York

Is this thread still open? When exactly was the “St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church” converted into the “Resurrection Byzantine Catholic Church?” I was looking to add pictures of the church to Wikipedia, but when I saw it, I thought it was the wrong church.

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

Meadowbrook Club looking NW from over Salisbury/Eisenhower Park with Post/Merrick Avenue running from lower left to upper right and LIRR Central Branch running from upper left to lower right. Salisbury Plains station at near side of parking lot.  LIMP in distance.  Flying fields at far left.  Sam, III

From Mystery Foto #49 Solved: A 1953 View over Merrick Avenue and East Meadow and Westbury

It seems to me that there are older pix of this bridge around in which the trolley wire supports are clearly visible.  Sam, III

From A New 1946 View of the Broad Hollow Motor Parkway/Trolley Bridge in Melville

I’m no antique-car expert but the low white tourer at 1:08 (etc.) is underslung and so might well be an American Underslung, quite possibly a 1913 Tourist.  Sam, III

From Film of the Week: 1960 Antique Automobile Rally to The Museum of The City of New York

Here’s 2 color postcards from HAC/LIAM showing the 1912 Packard Laudaulet and the 1900 Columbia.

From Film of the Week: 1960 Antique Automobile Rally to The Museum of The City of New York

Looking northwest over then Salisbury Park and it’s lake. Merrick Ave runs from bottom to top on a diagonal and Stewart Ave right to left. The date? Salisbury Park opened in 1949 so it’s after that. There is no hint of the Meadowbrook Parkway which was built from 1953-56. Also, there is no sign of railroad tracks, temporary (Levittown construction) or otherwise so it is after 1951 when the last Levitt houses were constructed and before 1953. The old Salisbury Plains LIRR station can be seen as can the (still extant?) LIRR bridge over the Meadowbrook Club entrance road. The Motor Parkway row would have run from left to right just north of the still visible LIRR row and Lilco towers.

From Mystery Foto #49 Solved: A 1953 View over Merrick Avenue and East Meadow and Westbury

Howard,

Please consider displaying replicas of the coins found at the grist mill and not the actual coins. There was a robbery at the McClarty Treasure Museum in Vero Beach, FL many years ago where some Spanish coins found on the site of the 1715 Fleet disaster survivor’s camp were taken. A friend’s father was approached by somebody trying to sell the coins and recognized them as the coins that were taken. (No two Spanish colonial coins of the era were exactly alike as they were hand struck and trimmed to weight.) While the coins were recovered, I believe cast replicas are now on display.

From Update 12/12/20: An Amazing "Message in a Bottle" Discovery and the Roslyn Grist Mill Match Challenge

Awesome discovery. So cool to find stuff like that. This story got pretty impressive news coverage.

From Update 12/12/20: An Amazing "Message in a Bottle" Discovery and the Roslyn Grist Mill Match Challenge