Vanderbilt Cup Races

Looking east at Spinney Hill during the 1906 race.
Blacksmith shop at the corner.
Vincenzo lanzia driver, Alissa the mechanician
No man without head covering

The photographer is facing east (maybe slightly northeast) on Northern Blvd. at Valley Road in Manhasset as Vincenzo Lancia in the #4 FIAT is about to go west up Spinney Hill in the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup Race. Lancia’s mechanician was Ajassa Batista (or possibly Batista Ajassa). I think I read somewhere that the building served as the local jail at the time. As near as I can tell, it looks like everyone is wearing some kind of head covering.

Driver:  Vincenzo Lanca and Mechanician Battista Ajassa.  Car is a Fiat.

No clues (as usual - although I’ve seen the pic before), and it’s a very-pixellated image, but one person (man?) clearly is bare-headed!  You can even see the part in his/her hair.  Sam, III

Need to see Painless Parker for my wisdom tooth….

#4 Fiat driven by Vincenzo Lancia, rounding Northern Boulevard and Valley Road in the 1906 VCR. The building on the right was a jail.

I don’t think I can spot anyone that’s not wearing any head coverings!

Identify the location of the Mystery Foto and the orientation of the photographer.
Manhasset Hill on North Hempstead Turnpike.  Car is coming up hill and going west, so I would say the photographer is looking east. 

Identify the Vanderbilt Cup Race, the race car, its driver and mechanician
1906 VCR, FIAT, Vincenzo Lancia

What services did the building on the right provide?  Communications back to race officials pertaining to race progress

How many men in the Mystery Foto are not wearing a hat or cap?  I would say all.

The Fiat #4 (120hp) driven by Vincenzo Lancia (crowd favorite) alongside mechanician Battista Ajassa during the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup Race on Long Island. This racer finished 2nd and taking a left turn where?. Hope to be back for more.

I’d say this is the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup Race with Fiat #4 being driven by Vincenzo Lancia. His mechanician was Battista Ajassa.  This is the stretch heading west into Manhasset Hill. (Today that would be the intersection of Northern Boulevard and East Shore Road/Community Drive.) The photographer is likely on the west side of the road looking east. The shop is most likely the blacksmith shop. Wasn’t a young boy killed at this intersection that year? Oh, no one is without a hat.

Forget about the men.  Although a bit fuzzy, it looks like there’s 1 woman among the spectators.  Also, is that dust that gives the vehicle a white appearance?

1906 Telephone Station Manhasset Hill

The newspaper article doesn’t finish the story about poor little Johnny’s fate…..

I saw that guy w/o a hat that Sam spotted, but I chose to ignore him for some reason.  Sorry spectator-from-the-past.

All this got me curious (after all these years).  Extrapolating from USGS Topo Maps, Spinney Hill starts at ~25’ above sea level at the turn by Marshall’s Pond-cum-Whitney Lake and rises westerly to ~205’ at the point where Spinney Hill Drive from the southeast meets No. Blvd. some 500’ east of So. Middle Neck-cum-Lakeville Rd.  That is a 180’ rise in ~4,000’ horizontally along the road for an *AVERAGE* 4½% grade.  In those 1906 “crates”, no less (sorry, Howard).  Yeeks!  By the way, I have driven every single “new” or new car I have ever owned, 1939 and up, even my current little FIAT, up Spinney Hill as soon as I got it, just to see, so I really know that grade well.  Sam, III

Wonder what the charge was for the telephone call, and local or long distance?

Interesting.  That blacksmith shop was owned and operated by my great grandfather Schneider.  It continued to operate (I was told) until the early 50’s by my father’s uncle.  I was born in 1950 so I have no recollection of it.  Dad ended up with a few old tools from the place and I ended up with a 16 lb. sledge hammer from my father.
I wonder if Johnny Brooks (the boy that was run over by one of the cars) was a relation, since my middle name is Brooks.  I never really understood why my folks named me Brooks; going through our family tree there was a Brooks who was a stone mason in Great Neck (in the mid-1800’s as I recall) who married an Allen or whose daughter married an Allen.  But apparently my folks just like the name and didn’t have very clear feelings about Brooks.
So thank you Howard and friends for all this interesting material you put out.
Robert Brooks Allen - Bob
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Howard Kroplick

Bob, that is so neat!

O. K.  I well remember using crank phones and party lines out on the East End and upstate and in New England but I sure have no idea how one paid for a call pre-plastic, before coin-op. public phones were commonplace.  Anyone?  Mayhap the LIMP or Willie K. paid for that system.  Sam, III

Agreed. Your recollection’s and others are always deeply appreciated, Bob! Thought my 12 pound sledgehammer was a beast, extra 4 lbs makes a BIG difference.