Long Island Motor Parkway Page 12 keywords = Long Island Motor Parkway Vanderbilt toll lodge Roslyn road limited access highway Horace Harding boulevard automotive auto car truck car history
Updated: 27 Sep 2004, 09:50 ET
(Created: 12 May 2002)
{Most missing images restored 08 Nov 03; others 17 Nov 03}
[Ref: This is limpwy12.html (URL http://home.att.net/~Berliner-Ultrasonics/limpwy12.html )]

S. Berliner, III's

Long Island Motor Parkway Page 12

(image-intensive continuation page)

{and many of these are only thumbnails, at that!}

Consultant in Ultrasonic Processing
"changing materials with high-intensity sound"
Technical and Historical Writer, Oral Historian
Popularizer of Science and Technology
Rail, Auto, Air, Ordnance, and Model Enthusiast
Light-weight Linguist, Lay Minister, and Putative Philosopher

LONG ISLAND MOTOR PARKWAY

a.k.a. Vanderbilt Motor Parkway

(and related matters)

[If my discs weren't floppy, my photos wouldn't be LIMP!]

{No, LIMP does NOT refer to gender/sexual orientation!}

This site has now been visited times since the counter was installed.

Because the Main Page overloaded, please visit the many Continuation Pages noted on the LIMP Index page.

PAGE INDEX

The index on this page has been truncated to save page space; see the LIMP Index on the page preceding the main LIMP page.

On the main LIMP page:

HISTORY OF THE LONG ISLAND MOTOR PARKWAY,

now continued on the LONG ISLAND MOTOR PARKWAY HISTORY page, and

on the LONG ISLAND MOTOR PARKWAY HISTORY page 2.

On Continuation Page 0:

LIMP POSTS (and reinforced concrete).

LONG ISLAND MOTOR PARKWAY TIMELINE.

LINKS to the LONG ISLAND MOTOR PARKWAY.

LONG ISLAND MOTOR PARKWAY BIBLIOGRAPHY.

On Continuation Page 1A:

LONG ISLAND MOTOR PARKWAY TODAY.

LONG ISLAND MOTOR PARKWAY BRIDGES.

LONG ISLAND MOTOR PARKWAY at confluence of Marcus/Lakeville/NSParkway,

(continued on LIMP page 9).

On Continuation Page 2:

On Continuation Page 3:

Crossings from Roslyn Road to the Maxess Road Bridge.

On Continuation Page 4:

Old Courthouse Road Bridge, New Hyde Park.

Garden City Toll Lodge.

Crossings Continued - Maxess/Duryea Road Bridge.

On Continuation Page 5:

LI MOTOR PARKWAY SPURS.

PERSONAL LI MOTOR PARKWAY APOCRYPHA,

and now continued on the LIMP Apocrypha Page.

LEVITTOWN GRANDSTAND AREA.

DEAD MAN'S CURVE REDIVIVUS.

On Continuation Page 6:

LI MOTOR PARKWAY at WlLLISTON/ALBERTSON/SEARINGTOWN

Dubious Artifact at NSP/NHP Road.

Queens Vignettes.

On Continuation Page 7:

OLD BETHPAGE AREA Update.

ROUTE 110 SAND PITS AREA Update.

On Continuation Page 8:

North Hills.

Mineola-Carle Place.

On Continuation Page 9:

LONG ISLAND MOTOR PARKWAY at confluence

of Marcus/Lakeville/NSParkway, continued,

with Great Neck Toll Lodge.

On Continuation Page 10:

Additional WILLISTON-NEW HYDE PARK ROAD Documentation.

Bronx River Parkway.

On Continuation Page 11:

1941 Queens Aerial Photos.

i.Park Aerial Photos (Lakeville Road Bridge).

NEWSDAY Errata.

On this Continuation Page 12:

Roslyn Toll Lodge .

John Russell Pope

Round Swamp Road Revisited

On the Queens Page:

Western Terminus

(193rd St./Peck Av./Underhill Blvd./Horace Harding Blvd./LIE).

This is yet another new (12 May 02) 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.

The usual convention is followed: N = North, S = South, E = East, and W = West.

LONG ISLAND MOTOR PARKWAY - continued

Roslyn Toll Lodge

As noted in previous coverage elsewhere, the Roslyn Toll Lodge (Roslyn Gate) survives almost intact (unlike Mineola) and in its original location.

However (like Mineola), this is a private residence on PRIVATE PROPERTY,

Please respect the owner's privacy!

Located on the W side of Roslyn Road, on the S side of the RoW, it is in an idyllic setting in a clearing in lush trees, with the original entry ramp as it's driveway (stay out!). The Lodge is just S of I. U. Willets Road and N of Hillside Avenue, running W to E under the LIPA (former LILCO) power lines, and between the former LIMP bridge over the Long Island RR's Oyster Bay Branch and the Wheatley Hills Golf Course, where it makes the wide turn to the S (inside the similar curve in the later Northern State Parkway) to run S just W of Glen Cove/Guinea Woods Road.

[Because of the brilliant sunshine and the deep foliage, the light played havoc with my camera and

some of the photos have been enhanced to show details (and some cropped).

Let's do this in travelogue fashion. Across the street (on the E side), for the first time, I noticed an interesting and unconnected stone entry, no longer in use, and wonder if it was related in any way:

[

- all current photos of lodge taken from RoW
and restored and thumbnailed 08 Nov 03.
Click on pictures for larger images.]

(08 Nov 03)

Turning to face W, here is the driveway, the original entry ramp:

Digressing from the travelogue format for a just moment, here is an excellent old view (undated) of the Roslyn Road Toll Lodge:

(image courtesy of H. Kroplick)
[Thumbnail image; click on picture for larger image.]

So, which way are we facing? Based on another old photo below, we are looking SSW from the LIMP RoW and the dual carriageway curves left (S and E), dropping beyond the house down to Roslyn Road.

(27 Sep 04)

Here is the scene in 1937 (photo and text from LIMP History Page 3), showing Roslyn Road, N/B, looking from just south of today's Robbins Drive [on the right (E)], with a concrete or block wall along the W side of Roslyn Road and tall gate posts at the break in the wall immediately S of the bridge where the entry ramp came down to grade, apparently inside retaining walls. The Roslyn Toll Lodge is out of sight about 150' to the left of the posts. There appears to be a less-dramatic wall on the right (E) with an opening and ramp opposite the posts and which ramp is still there today (please bear in mind that the houses along Robbins are private property and the residents claim to OWN the RoW north of their houses!) {restored 17 Nov 03}:

The reverse is marked:

Roslyn Road -

Looking north -

Bridge of old Motor Pkway.

About -

1937

Note the LILCO transmission tower (new, then) at the far right. Now, back to the present, and crossing Roslyn Road and standing in front of the driveway, looking N, there are the LIPA lines and that same tower on the E side of the road:

Not happy to discover that the shot I took didn't line up at all with the 1937 view, I went back on 13 May 2002 to reshoot it, standing, during a rare lull in traffic, in the spot where the old photo was taken (the road's been widened quite a bit since):

But - that didn't show the fence well or the tower at all (the trees grew quite a bit since 1937!), so I went further N for this shot of the fence which ends just S of the driveway:

and then crossed the street for this shot, which is taken from a fencepost looking NNE at the tower:

Moving N to the RoW, this is looking SW up at the embankment (where there is a well-worn dirt path up to the top):

The old LILCO wall across the RoW up on the embankment, looking SW:

From the N end of the wall, you are looking W at the original pavement (left) under a carpet of maple pollynoses and the concrete verge added to widen the Parkway (center):

This picture just didn't work; the brilliant, white patches are sunlight dappling the pollynoses. Buried under all that is original paving:

The wall, again, this time the W side, looking SE:

Looking W at the N post just W of the wall, then NE at that N post, then SE at the S post, and looking due W along the RoW:

100 yards W and there's the first glimpse of the Lodge through dense growth, looking SW:

The N side of the E end of the house with the entry portico (since rebuilt - note the concrete pad in front): re-

(27 Sep 04)

A little further W along the RoW and turning back SE towards the house; the room to the right (S) and the deck were added:

Now, the pièce de résistance, the W face of the house (from the far NW end of the property)

(this one is so beautiful that I thumbnailed it):

A dislodged piece of the added macadam road surfacing just sitting on the RoW N of the house:

Another view (SE) of the entry portico area and that concrete pad:

(27 Sep 04)

One last view to the W before climbing back down to the road; the raw end of the added concete verge from the N end of the wall:

[ - all current photos of lodge taken from RoW
and restored and thumbnailed 08 Nov 03.
Click on pictures for larger images.]

Please remember that this is PRIVATE PROPERTY!

Do not TRESPASS!

Please remember that this house is a PRIVATE HOME!

Do NOT INTRUDE!

Thanks to Panel Asociate Howard Kroplick and the Vanderbilt Museum in Centerport, we have this old photo, ca. 1920{?}, taken from the LIRR Bridge looking E to the Roslyn Road bridge and the lodge's W face:

(27 Sep 04)

The property to the left (the NW corner of the LIMP and Roslyn Road), with the house and neat windmill, was owned in 1923 by Adrian Iselin, II, and through the 1940s by the Iselin family.

Excerpting the area of primary interest to LIMP fans:

The access ramp was clearly on the E side of the lodge, making for a very sharp curving climb up from Roslyn Road, and you can readily make out the 50' fences and the bridge railings on either side of the RoW. The shed-cum-garage on the right appears to remain on the property today.

John Russell Pope

The Motor Parkway was noted for its twelve unique little toll lodges, the Super's house in Garden City, and the Petit Trianon Restaurant and adjoining workers dorm out at Ronkonkoma, which were/are architectural gems. The lodges included rather nice living quarters with two bedrooms for the toll takers and their families. The original toll lodge from the Garden City (Clinton Street/Glen Cove Road/Guinea Woods Road) entry is preserved in Garden City (on Seventh Street, across from the AAA/ACNY office) as the headquarters of the Garden City Chamber of Commerce, having been moved to its present location in March, 1989.

These buildings were designed by John Russell Pope, who also designed Manhattan's American Museum of Natural History, Baltimore's Museum of Art, and Washington's National Gallery, National Archives, and Constitution Hall (DAR).

Just by coincidence, the name John Russell Pope came up in connection with a little research LIMP afficionado Ken Harris was doing recently about the original owner of the property on which his housing development stands. The development was built in 1952-54 in Dix Hills in the area between the LIMP and Northern State Parkway and west from Deer Park Avenue on what was called the Gould estate. It turns out that all that property was owned by Charles A. Gould (who may or may not have been related to Jay Gould and his son Howard Gould). Charles Gould commissioned John Russell Pope to design a chateau for him, which he named Chateauiver {?? - Chateau d'Hiver (Winter House), more likely - SB,III}. The estate was sold in 1928 and resold later for development. The chateau was torn down in 1954 when the development was completed. On Wolf Hill Road, a bit west of Deer Park Avenue, the original estate's stone gardener's cottage, built in the same style in 1909, and fully restored, still stands (at 495 Wolf Hill Road in Dix Hills) and was advertised for sale in our local paper, NEWSDAY. [My thanks to Ken Harris for this information - SB,III]

Well, I ran out there on 18 Aug 02 and found this absolute gem (the present owner was kind enough to allow me on the property for the up-close photos):

This was the gardener's cottage and, somewhat like a gatehouse, it faced the driveway, not the street, such that the front of the house is on the west side, with the road to the south. The first shot is looking ENE, the second ESE, the third NE, and the fourth is looking over the roadside fence slightly W of N at the wonderful roof detail. The rear and far side of the house were expanded and modified; the front and small wings are original. The last photo is the realtor's sign out front, just in case you want to snap up this jewel (I somehow doubt it's being given away, nor should it be).

Round Swamp Road Revisited

Being in the area on my way back from the Pope cottage (above), I ran down Round Swamp Road in Bethpage to show my friend the RoW at the Firehouse and realized, to my chagrin, that it is NOT just N of the firehouse, but rather just N of the maintenance garage immediately N of the firehouse, with the embankment still clearly visible, looking W! Having thus re-oriented myself, I looked E across RSR and there was the little trail up the embankment exactly where it was supposed to be and exactly where my Panel friends told me it was!

3 - Climbing up the path a few steps, we see various chunks of paving lying on the ground and can barely make out a raw edge of pavement at the top. 4 - Looking down at a chunk on the way up.

5 - Standing on the path with the camera slightly above the RoW, there's the raw edge, looking E (not T/N), and then, 6, standing on top and turning around, looking W over the edge and down toward RSR:

Motor La at Fairway 8

7 - on the way back down another view of the big chunk looking W. 8 - Back in the car, touring behind the firehouse/garage on Fairway Drive, which cuts diagonally SE from Haypath Road to RSR; here's Motor Lane, which runs out NE to Old Bethpage Road (not T/N).

9 - Further NW along Fairway, we come to Vanderbilt Court (not T/N) and then, turning R on Haypath and R again on OBR, 10, there's the other end of Motor Lane. 11 - Not having a map handy (naturally) and knowing Toll Place had to be there somewhere, I turned back into Fairway and there it was, between the W end of Motor and Haypath (the latter two were shot through the windshield; thus the reflections):

12 - Driving around under the wires, we come to the corner of Schoolhouse Lane and JoAnn Drive where the RoW runs off SSW into brush in Bethpage State Park. 13 - Packing it in for this visit (in 95°F heat), back on RSR, here's the LIPA (ex-LILCO) RoW of the power line that diverges E in BSP (where the LIMP RoW heads N), running E through Town of Oyster Bay senior citizens housing.

Lastly, running W from DMC, S of the RoW, there is Motor Lane (a different one, photographed at Whaley Avenue, one short block W of Stewart Avenue), BUT it sure seems to be S of the old Central RR of LI RoW, with Albergo Court, the LIMP RoW and Crestline Avenue N of this (gotta study up on this alignment!):

This just about does it for my coverage of the Long Island Motor Parkway, so far. There is no map (yet) on Mike Natale's fascinating " The Toll Road Map Master List" site; he refers you back to my site.

Because the Main Page overloaded, please visit the many Continuation Pages noted on the LIMP Index page.