(unindexed to date - please scroll away)
This is yet another page to cover additional information and photographs of this interesting old highway; see also my Automotive, Chrysler, Dudgeon (really!), Mercedes, and SS and JAGUAR car pages and other related pages.
A Motor Parkway Panel has been convened to keep the LIMP alive in situ and in 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.
(Courtesy of Northport Public Library)
[Thumbnail image; click on picture for larger image.]
William K. Vanderbilt, Jr.
"Willie K."
LONG ISLAND MOTOR PARKWAY HISTORY - continued
History Page 2
- - - * - - -
Vanderbilt Cup Disclaimer.
Although the Vanderbilt Cup races are of great interest to any Long Island Motor
Parkway aficionado, they are NOT the provenance of this site, except when they were
run on or across the LIMP. However, a separate
LIMP-Vanderbilt Cup Race Page has been created to cover the races as they
related to the Motor Parkway (and material formerly here has been moved to that page).
Links will be provided to sites that do cover these extraordinary races in more depth,
IF those so interested will kindly forward the URLs to me.
PHOTOGRAPHS - continued
Now, let us turn to the photographs; these were apparently xerocopies of copies of
originals in the files of the Vanderbilt Museum, many possibly taken by Willie K, himself.
There are two series, one taken from wall montages and one from a scrapbook
prepared by Children's Librarian Mrs. Reeder. These snapshots are, as noted
above, not of the greatest quality, but the do give a flavor and I will try to get
permission to reproduce them directly from the originals.
First, those from the library walls. Here is a pre-Parkway shot of No. 19
skidding around Krug's Corner in Mineola, with Krug's Hotel in the background on the
southwest corner of Willis Avenue and Jericho Turnpike; this tells us two things, at
least - the photo is taken to the southwest and the race is running clockwise (notice
the "Thomas 'Flyer' Headquarters" banner):
[Thumbnail image; click on picture for larger image.]
Parkway photos start with a real steam traction engine (one of the
only non-muscle powered devices used) grading the ground surface before spreading
aggregate, being fed by a tank wagon because, while it could carry enough coal for a
day's work, it needed to refill with water for the boiler almost every hour, then a
snapshot entitled "FIRST ACTUAL WORK DONE ON
L.I.M.P. Jun 6th '08", a bridge under construction, showing the
photographers car under girders laid on freshly-prepared abutments prior to
back-filling, and photo 110 showing "Lodge progress - Sep. 16 '08":
Continuing with those from the library walls, we have a racer careening along the
LIMP, haveing just passed under a bridge, and then one whizzing around a banked
curve (Dead Man's?):
And, lastly, one of a lodgekeeper outside a brand new lodge (note the snazzy uniform
with brass {?} buttons and cap), plus two badly faded sepias of a new lodge and
keeper, again in the uniform:
Next we turn to the scrapbook; starting with a blur that I thought
represented the opening ceremonies of the Parkway (but on re-examination doubt
seriously - wish I knew why it went out of focus) and "View showing mixing of first
concrete on culvert Sta. 511+00 &bsp; June 23 '08":
Vanderbilt was not present at the opening ceremony; he was either at the bedside of
his dying father-in-law or off on the Corsair escaping hayfever; Arthur Pardington
presented Willie K's speech.
There's that steam traction engine pulling the grader again, plus "View showing
finished roadway and side ditching Aug 6 '0{8?}":
"Forms for Bridge Abutments. Westbury Road July 28 '08" and a
badly-blurred "Formwork for Bridge at Westbury Rd. July 28 '08":
These are possibly different prints of the same photo - but see the rear curtain
windows of the photographer's car.
"View looking South through bridge over Jerusalem Road Sep 3 '08" and that
other view of the photographer's car at an unfinished bridge again:
Postcard "No 2 Dead Man's Curve, Motor Parkway, L. I." (no question now
about contemporary name and space between words) and a view of a right-hand
curve with a big hill to the right {where?} and note the chicken-wire {?} fencing at
the property line:
Postcard "No. 6 'Car Coming' - Watching the Races on the Motor Parkway, L. I."
and Postcard "{No. 4?} "A View of the Motor Parkway, L. I." with a picture of toll plate
437 (probably of 1932) superimposed:
Notice the height of the posts and the "hardware cloth" {?} wire fencing in the card
on the right.
Racer under a bridge and on a curve, again:
Arthur Rayner Pardington, erstwhile Vice President and General Manager of
the LIMP, moved to Detroit in 1913 to help create the Lincoln Highway (today's Route
30) from New Jersey to California; see NEWSDAY
L.I. History- Pioneers in Motion sidebar (thanks to LIMP aficionado John
Herling for this tip). On 20 May 03, Marshall Davies Lloyd, grand-nephew twice
removed (if I have this right) of A. R. Pardington, checked in with me and I objected to
the spelling of "Rayner", knowing full well of the famed and historic "Raynor" family of
Long Island; wrong again, and I was not alone.
His family was direct from England; his father, born in England, was the Rev. Rayner S.
Pardington, and even R.S.'s cemetery in Brooklyn has it wrong:
How do we know? Because (1) Mr. Lloyd says so and (2) because the
Smithtown Public Library has ARP's papers, donated by his son-in-law, Robert S.
Noble (and Noble's son), and the curator of the collection, librarian Richard Hawkins,
found ARP's appointment to and discharge from the N.Y. State Naval Militia, both of
which spell it "Rayner".
Mr. Lloyd also was kind enough to furnish this obituary:
Obituary courtesy of M. D. Lloyd
(Thumbnail image - click on picture for larger image)
If you have trouble with that, here it is in plain text (again courtesy of Mr. Lloyd):
The Fort Wayne Daily, Fri., 6 Aug 1915; P14
PARDINGTON DEAD
Lincoln Highway Man Passes Away at Home in Detroit.
William M. Griffin, Fort Wayne's premier Lincoln highway booster, today received
formal notice from the Lincoln Highway association of the death of A. B.
A. R. Pardington, vice president and secretary, of that
organization, which occured recently in Detroit. Mr. Pardington was in Fort
Wayne on the occasion of the Lincoln highway dedication and delivered a short
address at the Concordia college campus. It was his last public appearance, as
shortly afterward he was taken seriously ill and never rallied. Mr. Griffin and a
number of other local men were close personal friends of the decedent.
[Mr. Lloyd pasted the clipping up from three parts of the page.]
On 18 Feb 04, Mr. Lloyd steered me to President Woodrow Wilson's membership
card no. 1 in the Lincoln Highway Association:
(03 Mar 04)
(Smithsonian Inst. images - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail images - click on pictures for larger images]
These are from the Smithsonian's America on the Move exhibit.
Note who signed the card!
1 Vanderbilt Court
(Garden City)
The General Manager's House
On 17 May 00, being in Garden City anyway and wanting pictures of the General
Manager's house, I found an unexpected bonus; opposite the house, on the
south side of Vanderbilt Court (shown on my rapidly-disintegrating 1967 5th
Edition Nassau Hagstrom's map 4 at E-10, oddly enough, as Huntongton Road),
are a few remanent posts and several had twist wire still threaded through (see
LIMP POSTS). Here is the house,
formerly tenanted by the Super, Mr. A(lfred). J. Kienzle*, and then owned by
him after the Parkway closed down. The first view is looking ENE from near
Clinton Road, the second from further east on Vanderbilt, looking WNW, and
the last is of a new foundation just to the east, going in smack across the old entry
ramp (I theeenk)!
We have a disagreement! One says the above is so and another advises that
Kienzle "never lived there, that building was an office building only. Kienzle
lived in Mineola for most of the time he worked for the Parkway. He did move
to Garden City in the early 1940's and lived on Stewart Ave. {an old Garden City
directory would resolve the matter easily}.
[* - I had read the name variously as "Kienzley" or "Kiengley"
erroneously, based on his flourished signature on the tickets reproduced on these
pages.]
(photo 17 May 00 by and © 2000 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail images; click on pictures for large images.]
{Unfortunately, I never noticed a tiny "Private Road" sign buried in the underbrush
at the south side by the Clinton Road sidewalk until after I crossed Clinton and looked
back; thus, technically, and if the sign is legally valid (and if it is, why is there a
municipal street sign and why wasn't it marked private years ago?), I was a
trespasser, for which I would apologize if it is legally warranted and if I knew to whom
to do so.}
I happened to drive past on 17 May 00 and there was a huge 2-2½ story house
being completed right across the RoW!
NOT SO! I am amazed how confused I can get at times! That's
NOT the RoW! It's on the N side of the GM's house and the new house
is further in on Vanderbilt Court than the LIMP entry ramp. On 31 May 02, I
walked W in from Raymond Court all the way to the top of the embankment and,
turning around to face SE, took this photo of the W face of the GM's house:
(photo 31 May 02 by and © 2002 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail image; click on picture for larger image.]
This photo gives an excellent idea of just how high the embankment is. Can
you imagine that standing right here ca. 1916 or so, the late L. I. aviation pioneer,
George Dade, could look unimpeded all the way
N to the hangars that stood in the SE corner of the intersection of OldCountry Road
and Clinton Street?
Sempre Vivolo
(The Brentwood Toll Lodge)
LIMP Historian Bob Miller says that the Brentwood Toll Lodge is still in existence today
as the Sempre Vivolo Restaurant, moved about 100' from it's original location
{696 Motor Parkway, Hauppauge, 631-435-1737}. - I made a point to get out
there 17 May 00 with the digital, spoke to Carmine Vivolo, son of the owner, Vincent
Vivolo (who has four other Xxxx Vivolo restaurants in the NY Metro area), and took
these photos:
(photo 17 May 00 by and © 2000 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail images; click on pictures for large images.]
They are taken from the sidewalk on Motor Parkway looking ESE and WSW (couldn't
get a clear shot of the latter), then from their parking lot looking W, from the back
parking lot looking N, and from the rear street (an LIE access ramp-cum-service road)
looking NE. The restaurant is located on the south side of Motor Parkway, just
west of LIE Exit 55 (Old Willets Path to the north and Caleb's Path to the south),
opposite Kennedy Drive, and features fine, "up-scale' Italian cuisine. If it was
the Brentwood Toll Lodge, it isn't evident to me, but I'd have to see a photo of the
lodge to tell; the Vivolos got it ca. 1985 as a residence from a contractor who had
already modified it heavily.
Here again, we have a falling out among thieves; one swears the above is so and
one insists it just ain't so! Unless someone can advance definitive proof this
was NOT the Toll Lodge, I'll go with Bob.
Well, on 05 Jan 2004, I heard from a gentleman whose "mother claimed that she was
born in that house in July, 1931, which would have been prior to 1938 when the toll
lodges were sold". he wrote further (heavily edited) that "in addition, unlike
the Garden City toll lodge, this property was always a single story (well, there was
an attic). The house was a #4 (or #6) Bridge Road, Brentwood. It had
a large kitchen, a living room, and two bedrooms". "There was never any other
building or structure nearby. Bridge Road still runs next to the Sempre Vivolo
Restaurant,which was enlarged although not drastically, from the original structure
that was my grandmother's house".nbsp; He "visited the site last week when I was
visiting my in-laws. Bridge Road was still there - - - and that restaurant is
most definitely my grandmother's house. I do remember that the house used
to be about twice as high above Motor Parkway than it currently is".
(05 Jan 04)
Now what? I'll try to check the beams and rafters, if allowed.
Nassau County Police Dept. Photos of the LIMP moved to LIMP History Page 4 on 21 Nov 2003.
(21 Nov 03)
Associate Mark DeSantis has sent along a lot of Vanderbilt Cup Race photos; many have been moved to the new LIMP-Vanderbilt Cup Race page. See his site for many more.
Because the Main Page overloaded, please visit Continuation Pages 1A, et seq.
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 - 2000, 2001, 2002,
2003,
2004
- All rights reserved.
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The index on this page has been truncated (links removed) to save page space; see the LIMP Index on the page preceding the main LIMP page.
