Deftly changing gears, we come up with a Socony map of the "Long Island Motor Parkway, Mineola, New York:" , featuring the Trianon Beach, "at end of Motor Parkway; shaded grove for basket parties, free boating, refreshments. Duck dinners $2.00." Showing "ROADS LEADING TO PARKWAY", it starts at the
Hillside Ave. Lodge at Rocky Hill Road in today's Bayside in Queens (thus dating it after 1926) and runs through the other ten lodges,
Great Neck Lodge (Lakeville Road in Lake Success),
Roslyn Lodge (Roslyn Road),
Jericho {Turn}Pike Lodge,
Garden City Lodge (Clinton Street/Glen Cove Road),
Meadow Brook Lodge (Merrick Avenue/today's Post Avenue),
Massapequa Lodge (Massapequa Road (today's Route106),
Bethpage Lodge (Manetto Hill Road{?}),
Huntington Lodge (Round Swamp Road),
Deer Park Lodge (Deer Park Avenue),
Brentwood Lodge (Joshua's Path{?}), ending up out at the
Ronkonkoma Lodge (Rosevale Avenue) and the Petit Trianon Restaurant* (also called "Inn* on some documents):
* - described as "'Petit Trianon' Inn and Restaurant" in another brochure (post-Hillside extension).
[Thumbnail image; click on picture for larger image.]
Departing from the Library exhibit, here's a more recent find (14 Aug 02), an undated, unsigned, hand-drawn chart of the "Vanderbilt {sic} Motor Parkway Toll Houses {sic}", as found in the records of the Town of North Hempstead:
(chart from Town of North Hempstead)
[Reduced image to fit screen; click on chart to see larger image, BUT,
before you do that and scroll - see immediately below*]
* - Rather than make you scroll all over that huge image, I've excerpted each lodge image separately, here. Note, however, that on the original, there are no callouts for ROSLYN ROAD on the East Williston portion or for DONNA LANE on the Mineola portion; to preserve the original image, I added the callouts on the excerpts (only):
(excerpt from Town of North Hempstead chart)
(excerpt from Town of North Hempstead chart)
(excerpt from Town of North Hempstead chart)
(excerpt from Town of North Hempstead chart)
Other than the common gaffes of calling the Parkway "Vanderbilt" and the Lodges "Houses", there is little to note on this chart, except that we know it post-dates the LIE and predates the March, 1989, move of the Garden City Lodge to downtown Garden City.
We should make a distinction here between "Toll Lodge" and "Toll Gate"; not all Toll Gates had accompanying Toll Lodges at all times. See the 1929 LIMP brochure and map, on LIMP Tour page, for a then-current list of Toll Gates. In at least one case (perhaps Great Neck and Hillside), at least for a time, the tollkeeper or his wife walked from the Lodge to the other gate. Here is that list of gates, transcribed from the noted brochure:
TOLL GATES
(Moved from main LIMP History Page on 13 Feb 2002)
ROCKY HILL TOLL GATE
(from Greater Astoria Historical Society brochure for R. Miller slide show)
{ca. 1928 or later (by autos)}
If I recall correctly, the Ronkonkoma gate was very much like this one, but set across the end of the LIMP at grade, whereas the RoW runs left-to-right across this picture, with the entry perpendicular to the RoW up on the crest of the embankment at Rocky Hill Road, in "T"-fashion. This was the second western terminus, after expansion westward from Lakeville Road (Great Neck Gate) and before expansion west to 193rd Street and Horace Harding Boulevard (Flushing); most (if not all) intermediate gates and lodges had only one or two lanes.
Here's the other end, a picture of the last Western Terminus toll gate at Nassau Boulevard (Horace Harding Boulevard) in 1929 (enlarged from the brochure on the LIMP Tour page and below):
Nassau (Horace Harding) Boulevard Gate ca. 1929
(from 1929 brochure)
"Accessibility of Towns by Toll Gates"
[title and list from "LIMP and SUNRISE TRAILS
Main and Secondary Highways" map of 1929
in the 1929 "LONG ISLAND MOTOR PARKWAY, INC." brochure (below),
and maintaining the format and quaint hyphenation]:
Accessibility of Towns by Toll Gates
Great Neck Gate - Great Neck and
Port Washington.
Roslyn Gate - Roslyn, Sea Cliff, Glen
Cove and Locust Valley,
East Williston.
Mineola Gate - Mineola, Jericho
Turnpike.
Garden City Gate - Garden City
Hempstead and Freeport Avi-
ation Fields.
Meadow Brook Gate - Merrick,
Westbury, Wheatley Hills.
Massapequa Gate - Hicksville, Jeri-
cho, Massapequa.
Bethpage Gate - Farmingdale,
Amityville, Cold Spring.
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Huntington Gate - Huntington,
Centerport.
Deer Park Gate - Deer Park, Baby-
lon, Northport.
Brentwood Gate - Brentwood, Bay-
shore, The Islips, Smithtown.
Ronkonkoma Gate - Southerly to
Montauk Highway to Sayville,
Patchogue, The Hamptons and
Montauk Point. Northerly to
North Country Road to Port
Jefferson, Riverhead, Green-
port and Shelter Island.
Smithtown Gate - Jericho Turnpike,
St. James, Smithtown and
Middle Country Road.
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[Remember that, although the Socony map is from 1926 or later (it has the western extension to Hillside), the LIMP brochure's map, although dated 1929, does not and there are some discrepancies in the lists and the names.]
I could not find the 1929 LIMP Brochure image anywhere else on my site (it's on the LIMP Tour page) so here it is, the map and a blowup of the gate list in the upper left corner (illegible though it be - hence the tabulation, above):
[Thumbnail image; click on picture for larger image.]
[Provenance of images long lost.]
Well, now, where might that Smithtown Gate have been? By elimination, it almost has to be the Commack (Harned Road) spur just east of Commack Road, putting one at the Jericho Turnpike (Middle Country Road to the east) southwest of Smithtown (right up Old Willets Path) and just west of the fork with Nesconset Highway (today's Route 347), which, in turn, leads to Port Jefferson and the North Country Road (today's Route 25A).
Here is a closer view of the LIMP part of the Socony map:
[Thumbnail image; click on picture for larger image.]
This is the eastern Suffolk part of the Socony map, from Millers (sic) Place and Shoreham to Orient on the North Shore and from Bellport, Brookhaven, and the Moriches to the Hamptons, Sag Harbor, and Amagansett on the South Shore:
[Thumbnail image; click on picture for larger image.]
Now, here's the Long Island part of a Mobil map of the NY metro area from 1935 [Socony (Standard Oil Company of New York) became Socony-Vacuum, Socony-Mobil, and finally just Mobil - nope; now it's ExxonMobil#], courtesy of LIMP enthusiast Mitch Kaften (I hope to get higher-res. scans to put up in segments):
[Thumbnail image; click on picture for much larger image.]
[# - for other gasoline brands, see my Automotive page.]
Lastly, we have the large (and inaccessible and thus blurred and largely illegible) "Road Map of Long Island with LIMP overlay:
[Thumbnail image; click on picture for larger image.]
This appears to be one of the DeBeers maps of the late 1800s (available at any Nassau Museum shop) with a later overlay.
At the eastern end of the Motor Parkway, across Rosevale Avenue on the western shore of Lake Ronkonkoma, the Petit Trianon Restaurant/Inn was highly touted with flyers and ads, one of the latter is reproduced here, together with a menu:
[Thumbnail images; click on pictures for larger images.]
The latter, although à la carte (literally), includes Filet Mignon for all of $1.00.
There was a dormitory for Parkway workers located just south of the Inn and in a similar architectural style; it still stands today, as a private (as in "KEEP OUT!") nursing home (it's still there and I returned to take pictures).
Here is a Toll Lodge Daily Record Book, open to Sunday/Monday, January 8/9, 1928, recording that the weather was cloudy/rainy, the numbers of the last Green and Salmon tickets sold or collected {?}, and the number of tickets sold (Green at $1.00 and Salmon at .50) , and a LIMP Accident Report from what appears to be 04 July in 1925 at Brentwood, submitted by John Voras, stating that an Overland (later Willys/Jeep/Chrysler) apparently was forced over by another car that did not stop (the Ross "Sanitarium" {sic} is now South Oaks Hospital and Bob's Garage in Central Islip took the car away):
[Thumbnail images; click on pictures for larger images.]
Here is a view of three rubber stamps sitting on the Daily Record Book in the Library showcase (for scale) and the three stamps themselves, with a tax stamp (PLUS TAX 5¢), a car and trailer stamp (THIS TICKET FIVE DOLLARS / GOOD FOR CAR AND TRAILER / SUBJECT TO CONDITIONS / PRINTED ON BACK OF TICKET) , and a one-way trip stamp (ONE TRIP TO LAKE RONKONKOMA / OR ONE TRIP TO HILLSIDE AVE.))
[the latter two also have a reversed image of the text so you can read them]:
[Thumbnail images; click on pictures for larger images.]
[Thumbnail images; click on pictures for larger images.]
Here are four tickets, all signed by A. J. Kienzle, General Manager;
No. 2632 dated APR-8, 1915, listing the Registry No. (28607 or 28667) at $1.50 (lavender),
No. 2972 dated "JUL20, '22" (ochre), and
No. 1799 dated ",OCT12,'23" (orange), both at $1.00 with "Wat Tax 10 Cents", all issued by the Brentwood Lodge, and
No. 2858 dated "JUN 7-24 ", now at only 50 Cents plus "War Tax 5 Cents" (salmon),
issued by the "WHEATLEY HILLS GOLF CLUB" (does that imply a private entrance ramp there?).
[Thumbnail images; click on pictures for larger images.]
The first three, bear warnings (varied) to the effect that "Auto{mobile}s when stopping must clear pavement with all wheels", "Do not stop or park autos on top or under bridges, or on approaches to bridges or on curves", "The making of fires through the wooded section is prohibited", and "Picnic parties please dispose of refuse and papers before leaving" (this last on the 1924 Golf Club ticket only, which also bears the imprint "Speed Limit 40 miles per hour").
Let me depart from the old exhibition to show you a
full-year pass for the LIMP for 1932; this was
issued to one Carl Ericson, Game Warden and
signed by A. J. Kienzle as General Manager (the
signature appears to have been printed) and is number
88. However, a dash and the number 443
are hand-written after the printed "88"; I wonder what
that is all about. Here it is, obverse and
reverse (with all the rules):
(20 Sep 04)
(pass images courtesy of C. Ericson's son via P.
Masterson 20 Sep 2004 - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail images; click on pictures for larger images.]
The pass was loaned to MP Panel Friend Pat Masterson,
who kindly scanned it for us on 20 Sep 2004, and it
measures 3" x 5".
The reverse of the pass has an interesting tidbit; I
don't know what Moses's speed limit was on Northern
State Parkway in 1932, but it was only 35mph when I
started driving in 1950, 5mph SLOWER than
the LIMP from the western terminus to Wyandanch!
Back to the exhibition.
Now this is not a plate, but a rubber stamp
reproduction of one, appearing on an envelope received
from Ronald E. Ridolph, a Motor Parkway Panel
member:
Which would be a perfect segué into Who's Who, which
followed, because the note from Ron Ridolph was on a
reproduction of LIMP letterhead, but the page
overloaded so it's now on the
next page.
Who's Who on the Motor Parkway
(or Who Was Who) - (on
LIMP History Page 1.)
PHOTOGRAPHS
(on LIMP History Page 2.)
Because the Main Page
overloaded, please visit Continuation Pages listed on
the LIMP Index Page.
THUMBS UP!
THUMBS UP! - Support your local police, fire, and emergency personnel!
S. Berliner, III
To contact S. Berliner, III, please click here.
of this series of Long Island Motor Parkway pages.
© Copyright S. Berliner, III - 2000, 2001, 2002,
2004
- All rights reserved.
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