Additional WILLISTON-NEW HYDE PARK ROAD Documentation.
A Motor Parkway Panel has been convened to keep the LIMP alive in situ and minds and museums.
There is also a lot of automotive material on my ORDNANCE and HISTORY pages.
Also, if you like automotive history, see the links on the Automotive page.
RoW = Right-of-Way.
LONG ISLAND MOTOR PARKWAY - continued
[The contents of this page AND the backup thereof were BOTH
inadvertently overwritten at 11:40 on 12 May 01!
Since all trace of what was intended to appear here is gone, I am using this page for
LIMP NEWS.]
LIMP NEWS (and Current Events)
[Events of interest for Panelists and Associates are posted on the Motor Parkway Panel page.]
- - - * - - -
Motor Parkway Panel Associate Howard Kroplick will be lecturing on the
Vanderbilt Cup Races at the Smithtown Public Library on 07 Oct 2004.
(12 Mar 04)
There was a celebration of the listing of the Long Island Motor Parkway in Queens on
the National and New York Registers of Historic Places, given by the Friends of
Cunningham Park, a 5O1(c)(3) organization dedicated to the maintenance and
improvement of Cunningham Park, one of the premier parks of Queens. It took
place on Sunday, 06 October 6, 2002, starting at 10:00, at 199th Street between 73rd
Avenue and Union Turnpike.
The Vanderbilt Cup returned to Long Island! See the main page.
There was a Collectible and Antique Car meet at the
Long Island Museum of Art, History and Carriages tied into the Vanderbilt Cup
and the races, with the Smithsonian's 1908 Simplex that ran here on loan, on 06 Oct
2002 at the Museum in Stony Brook.
1935 LIMP tag #1 was on eBay at $750, Item #1079036530!
(photo from eBay seller by permission - all rights reserved)
Panelist Bob Miller presented one of his fantastic LIMP slide shows to the Greater Astoria Historical Society at Quinn's Gallery, Long Island City, New York, on 04 Mar 2002.
BIG NEWS(DAY)! - John Hanc, writer on health and fitness, wrote a feature on the LIMP in the Thursday, 14 Jun 01, issue of NEWSDY, Long Island's leading newspaper, with a front cover lead, and the cover of Section B, on pp. B6 through B8!
Panel Member Ron Ridolph put on a great LIMP Symposium (on his own, NOT a Panel event) on 29 Apr 01 at Christ Episcopal Church in Babylon (LI, NY); Ron showed his own slides, which included the demolition of two of the last three LIMP RR overpasses (the Main Line at Mineola and the Oyster Bay Branch at Williston), with commentary by Al Velocci, author and noted collector of LIMP plates/tags and other artifacts, and the Garden City Toll Lodge video by John Ellis Kordes, Garden City historian; Motor Parkway Panel Members and Associates and many other LIMPers got together.
Ron repeated this show for the Long Island Model "A" Ford Club (again on his own, NOT an official Panel event) on 30 May 2001.
You just might spot these NYS license plates at one of our get-togethers (MOTORPKY is Joe DeBono's and MOTR PKY is Panel Member Al Velocci's):
(License plate photos courtesy of R. Ridolph - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail image on right; click on picture for larger image.]
The Grandstand Marker(s) in Levittown
Touring the Nassau segment of the LIMP with funding and county officials on 03 Nov
2003, I deliberately took my digital camera because I knew we'd be on Orchid Road in
Levittown, the site of the Vanderbilt Cup grandstand, at which there is a historical
marker that I never quite got around to photographing. Our guests were kind
enough to give us a moment to snap a photo, but what to my amazement did I find
but TWO markers, one on Orchid as expected and one just around the
northwest corner on Skimmer Lane (on the west side, just north of the RoW):
(04 Oct 05 map by and © 2005 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail image - click on picture for larger image, OR
see the two enlargements below.]
(03 Nov 03 photo by and © 2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
The upper sign bears the seal of the Town of Hempstead.
A Winter's Tale - no, not about Leontes and Hermione, but about remnants
of the Long Island Motor Parkway in western Suffolk in the Winter of 2002/3
(continuing from page 7 and the
Suffolk page. I love Winter; one can see
the contours of the land and houses and other features hidden by the lush foliage of
a Long Island Spring, Summer, or Autumn. Well, on 07 Jan 2003, taking some
parks and preservation people on a tour of the LIMP RoW, we went up (N) Bagatelle
Road from Colonial Springs Road toward the LI Expressway after a snowfall and, lo
and behold, there was the RoW, plain as day, on the W side of Bagatelle south of
Threepence Drive! I went back with the digital camera on 23 Jan 03 at
10°F, only to find to my horror that the camera batteries had frozen and that
there was no snow left out there. Nothing daunted, I went back on 27 Jan 03
after another good snowfall and recorded this (plus a few additional photos taken the
next day, 28 Jan 03) :
As noted on the Suffolk page for reference, "if you look at
the bottom of page 7 of my LIMP website,
there are two photos of the LIPA right of way both east and west of Bagatelle.
The photo on the left, i.e. west of the Bagatelle greensward, shows a plateau
traveling N-S just below the power line; here they are again for ease of reference"
{just the view W this time}:
(01 Apr 00 photo by and © 2000 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail image; click on picture for larger image.]
"That plateau IS the Parkway." Well, here it is in the dead of winter,
even more dramatic against the snow:
(Bagatelle area photo 27 Jan 03 by and © 2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
Going back the next day, I realized that there is far more showing in a different light;
going well S of the power lines and turning around at Chateau Drive, where a new
development at Chateau Drive and also on Weinmann Boulevard crossing Chateau
parallel to, and just W of, the RoW, has obliterated a lot of the RoW, the RoW
appears, first beyond a sump just N of Chateau and then starting to climb up to the
power lines:
(Bagatelle area photos 28 Jan 03 by and © 2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
Something may be wrong, here. The Suffolk Hagstrom's shows a sharp, curving
RoW on the N side of the park between Chateau and Threepence, the S and W
boundaries of Farmington Lane. This certainly looks like it should be
the LIMP RoW, but Soils Maps "J" and "K" on the LIMP Maps
page don't show any such sharp curve; it may have been an access ramp for the
Bagatelle crossing but it's rather far S for that.
(29 Jan 03)
Further N, the grade becomes surprisingly steep and then the power line RoW
appears (it's not-quite-visible on the image to the far right on the R.H. photo, but it
was visible to the eye):
(Bagatelle area photos 28 Jan 03 by and © 2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
Having climbed, the LIMP RoW levels out for the power line RoW crossing (you can
barely make out the high-tension tower at the upper center of the R.H. picture) and
then climbs precipitously again:
(Bagatelle area photos 28 Jan 03 by and © 2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
Then driving N along Bagatelle just N of the power lines, the RoW drops sharply and
then we see the RoW outlined against the snow, up high, still dropping down:
(Bagatelle area photos 28 (l.) and 27 (r.) Jan 03 by and © 2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
Then, it drops amost to grade and continues on the far side of another sump,
visible just just under the Cyclone fence rail:
(Bagatelle area photos 27 Jan 03 by and © 2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
Our last view of the clear trail against the snow is more-or-less opposite Tamara
Court, where the RoW has dropped almost to grade and runs into the houses built up
against it from there on up (N) to Threepence Drive:
(Bagatelle area photo 28 Jan 03 by and © 2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
It was not particularly evident exactly where the RoW crosses Bagatelle, although
there is a suspect ridge in a clearing on the E side. One of our LIMP devotées
has been "on the ground" there and feels that the N-S ridge, which runs up behind
the E side of the homes on Dix Woods Drive to the public school on the SE corner of
Bagatelle and the LIE service road, matches a gradually-SW'erly-curving ridge just to
its S, indicating that the crossing is just N of Threepence Road. Once we make
our overlays, we can trace this out on Soils Map "K" (referenced above), where
Colonial Springs Road, Bagatelle, Burr's, and HHR are quite unmistakeable for
reference.
The RoW then goes N behind the homes noted, popping back into view on the right
(facing S), ¾ of the way down the driveway to the school:
(Bagatelle area photos 27 Jan 03 by and © 2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
The second shot (right) is taken on the RoW where it crosses the school driveway,
turned 180°, facing N towards the LIE and its monstrous Connecticut Wall; there
is no trace of the RoW on either side of the LIE that I could find.
Now, somehow, the RoW snakes from just E of Bagatelle Road to a point some 2,000'
E, where the present Motor Parkway (County Route 67) intersects Half Hollow Road.
I "thought" I saw it in the line of trees behind the homes on the E side of Pettit Drive,
left photo below, but that's too far W; my original assumption that it runs between
the dead ends of Lone Hill Place and Broadoak Lane is probably true, just because of
the property lines. Driving to the dead end of Lone Hill and looking E shows an
almost unmistakeable ridge running downhill and N (N-S ridges on LI are rare), right
photo:
(Bagatelle area photos 27 Jan 03 by and © 2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
Going around to the W end of Broadoak and panning the camera N shows the ridge
disappearing N in the direction of Half Hollow Road:
(Bagatelle area photos 27 Jan 03 by and © 2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
Just to locate where we are, as I went back out on Broadoak (E) to its intersection
with Woods End Road, North, I shot the street sign looking NE, turned left onto
WERN, and took it N two blocks to HHR, only a block E of 67, where I turned left (W) and
took this Winter shot of the place were I've always assumed the RoW continued S,
directly opposite today's (Vanderbilt) Motor Parkway, Route 67:
(Bagatelle area photos 27 Jan 03 by and © 2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
I'm not so sure any longer; I think the RoW had to angle SW to between today's Lone
Hill Place and Fox Lane in order to line up with the ridge W of Broadoak. Look
at a Hagstrom's and note how 67 bends down almost to the S just as it reaches HHR;
the actual RoW may well have continued SW. For further locating, Burr's Lane
runs N-S half way between Bagatelle and Lone Hill and the land on the SE corner of
Burrs and HHR, which was a public high school, is now Five Towns College.
I went back out there the next day (28 Jan 03) to look more carefully at a very old
and interesting fence I spotted from the E/B RoW at the SW corner of Deer Park
Avenue (State Route 231) that bore investigating (it showed up against the snow)!
While on my way out, I stopped to take the additonal Bagatelle Road shots inserted
above and then went up to the end of Lone Hill Place again to verify my suspicions
(they jibe) and then back to Fox Lane, which is "C"-shaped, running S from HHR and
back, where I spotted a N-S line of bi, old trees that appears to mark the RoW,
opposite (N) and along the E edge of 38 Fox Lane (S):
(Bagatelle area photos 28 Jan 03 by and © 2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
Coming back down the W end of Fox (S), I turned E into Melissa Court and, sure
enough, there was that row of big trees on a N-S ridge just beyond the houses on
the circle at the end:
(Bagatelle area photo 28 Jan 03 by and © 2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
Looking at Soils Map "K", however, it s quite clear that the RoW went NE from where
it crossed Bagatelle to just about where today's LIE is, knocking much of the above
into a cocked hat (or discrediting the accuracy of the Soils Maps). If the
preceding alignment is valid, then the RoW must have gone N imediately E of the W
end of Fox Lane and across the middle of Melissa Court; back to the drawing board!
Then, turning right (E) onto HHR/67/RoW, I continued on to just short of Deer Park
Avenue (State Route 231), less than a mile, the next full crossing, and, sure enough,
what I thought I'd seen turned out to be just that, an ancient split rail fence.
Whether it is actually the S boundary fence of the LIMP or just the N boundary fence
of the reputed (and so marked and mapped) "Historic Huntington Cemetery" (of which
I saw no trace) or not, I'll leave to your perfervid imaginations (I really haven't the
foggiest notion - but it's certainly in the right location) - looking SSW, S, and SE:
(28 Jan 03)
(Deer Park area photos 28 Jan 03 by and © 2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
Some of the questions of location noted above and throughout this site may well be
resolved as we develop, or are given, GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) data and tie it
in to old highway and property maps.
Because the Main Page overloaded, please visit the many Continuation Pages noted on the LIMP Index page.
THUMBS UP!
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S. Berliner, III
To contact S. Berliner, III, please click here.
of this series of Long Island Motor Parkway pages.
© Copyright S. Berliner, III -
2001, 2002, 2003, 2004,
2005
- All rights reserved.
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