Vanderbilt Cup Races

Certainly is a familiar location and a unique car,which I have no idea what it is,but it does have a front grill like a Bagarrte,which I’ll check out and get back to ya.

Mystery Photo #34.
Looks like Roosevelt Field Mall, looking northward. Motor Parkway bridge crossing over Meadowbrook Parkway in the lower right hand corner of photo or that maybe a freight siding of the LIRR.
Not sure what oil company owned the large oil tank, but you can see the Long Island Railroad’s Central Extension right of way in the bottom of the picture.
Date of photo, looks like the early 1960’s?
One building on the bottom maybe a paper company served by the LIRR. or Double Day Publishers?
Neighborhood to the left of the photo with the curved streets is Mott Section.

Roosevelt Field and environs looking north-northwest.  LILCO gas holder, General Bronze, LIMP Toll House and Super’s house, George Dade’s building at LIMP on northeast side of Old Country Road where I worked ca. 1960, original open RF Mall.  Girl Scout HQ not yet built.  First houses on Raymond Court.  RF hangars.  Mitchel housing.  LIRR spur to Arma.  Macy’s opened in 1956 and Gimbel’s in 1962 so between the two dates.  Both lodge and Super’s house still there then.  Too much eyestrain for more.  Figoni and Falaschi body on ca. 1938 Delahaye 135 an I mistake me not.  Sam, III

-Identify the location and orientation of the aerial
Newly-built Roosevelt Field Mall looking North West

-Identify the significant buildings and structures

-Based on clues in the photo, what was the approximate date of the aerial? Provide your rationale.
Mall is new/Meadowbrook still not open- October 3, 1956

-What Long Island Motor Parkway structures in the aerial were still intact on this date?
LIMP Office, Manager’s house, Garden City Lodge

-Bonus: Gary Monti and Bill Barto need your help in identifying the below unique automobile
Unsure of the car…

Looking northwest at Roosevelt Field.
Meadowbrook Parkway Cloverleaf on right.
LILCO checkered silo on lower left.
Macy’s store at the new mall in center. Mall was “outdoor”.
Approximate date: 1956.
LIMP bridge to Roosevelt Raceway still there.
Automobile looks remarkably like a 1938 Hispano-Suiza
Also enjoyed the Newsday feature today on our favorite LI historian.

The photographer was over East Garden City looking northwest towards Mineola. In the center is the Roosevelt Field Shopping Center with the recently completed Meadowbrook Parkway to its right. Other points of interest are: remnants of the Meadow Brook Club polo fields; freight cars along the LIRR Central Branch; various Mitchel Field structures south of Stewart Avenue; possible remnants of the old golf course along Clinton Road; and maybe a few hangars left over from Roosevelt Field (airport) along Old Country Road. Since Meadowbrook Parkway looks completed but there are no cars on it and it officially opened on October 13, 1956 and Macy’s (grand opening August 22, 1956) appears to have customers’ cars parked in its lot, the date of the photo is probably between those two dates. LIMP structures still intact at this time were the bridge over the LIRR Mainline, the Old Country Road bridge, Garden City Lodge & adjacent office building, several roadway segments and possibly the Roosevelt Field access bridge from Stewart Ave. As to the mystery car, I’m not sure but it could be a 1938 or 1939 Delahaye type 165 (replica?). I do know where the photo was taken: at McCall’s Motorworks Revival 25th. anniversary exhibit at the Monterey Jet Center in California, probably last Wednesday or Thursday (partial credit?).

Between my bifocals and a real bad case of dry eyes, I’m not officially participating in this mystery foto. In short, I located this aerial within the 3/28/13 blog LIMP Bridge Series #33 “The Roosevelt Field Highway Bridge”. The aerial is dated 10/3/1956, with the former location of the Roosevelt Field and Meadowbrook Club Highway Bridges circled in red. ( They were just W/O Quentin Roosevelt Blvd, and the abandoned LIRR sidings look to follow both of these roads from Stewart Ave north to the LIMP. It’s a great aerial because it displays both the past and present. In the lower right corner of this aerial, to the left of the “shadow”; there’s a road that is runs north from Stewart Ave to the still visible LIMP. Where it deadends at the LIMP, it appears to sort of tunnel under the LIMP. This brings to mind the recent blog of bridges that were planned to be built, but some never came to be for financial reasons. A total of 4 bridges were to be built between Clinton Rd and Merrick Ave ( Sta# 267,320,331,341 all Highway type. Maybe this was a bridge that was in the process of becoming one? That automobile is a beauty, but my eyes need a long break. Good luck to all!

I’m back to clarify my previous comment. The road that runs north from Stewart Ave and deadened at the LIMP ( located on the aerial photo, lower right corner; left of the shadow).If there was going to be a bridge built here, it would have been a parkway type; based on how the road appears to sort of tunnel under the LIMP.

1955 Aerial looking north west at the Roosevelt Shopping Center (not quite the mall yet). The Meadowbrook Parkway has no cars yet so it is new and not yet used. The old Motor Parkway Turn still pronunced at Clinton Ave. It looks like the underpass at Old Country Road is still there and the Overpass at the LIRR is still intact. Too small to see north of that if the Westbury Ave Bridge is still in the picture. Sorry i dont know the car in the other photo but it looks nice and sleek.

Identify the location and orientation of the aerial:  Roosevelt Field, Garden City area, looking northeast

Identify the significant buildings and structures:  Roosevelt Field Shopping Mall (Macy’s), Nassau County Courthouse, Mineola Fairgrounds,  Garden City Hotel (obscured I believe), Meadowbrook Polo Fields remains, Mitchell Field buildings, Garden City water tower, Meadowbrook Parkway (unopened) and from a 1954 Hagstrom Atlas - General Bronze Corporation on Stewart Avenue and Equitable Life Assurance Society and LILCO across the street.

Based on clues in the photo, what was the approximate date of the aerial? Provide your rationale.: Prior to finding the exact date on a previous blog post, I theorized Sept. or Oct. of 1956 since Roosevelt Field opened in August of that year and there are cars in the parking lot and the Meadowbrook Parkways looks just about ready to be opened (no cars on it yet) and that opened in Oct. of 1956.  Exact date of the photo later found to be Oct. 3, 1956. 

What Long Island Motor Parkway structures in the aerial were still intact on this date? Garden City Lodge and General Managers house, Roslyn Lodge (possibly remains of the Motor Parkway Roosevelt Field Bridge).

Bonus: Gary Monti and Bill Barto need your help in identifying the below unique automobile.:  Alfa Romeo at the McCall’s 25th Anniversary Motorworks Revival held last week at the Montery Jet Center.

1955 Aerial looking north west at the Roosevelt Shopping Center (not quite the mall yet). The Meadowbrook Parkway has no cars yet so it is new and not yet used. The old Motor Parkway Turn still pronounced at Clinton Ave. It looks like the underpass at Old Country Road is still there and the Overpass at the LIRR is still intact. Too small to see north of that if the Westbury Ave Bridge is still in the picture. Sorry i dont know the car in the other photo but it looks nice and sleek.

Nice shot! Roosevelt Field (Mall), Garden City looking NW. Lots of stuff here including the South Street LIMP ROW and is that the ice skating rink once located on the mall parking lot? Also can’t see the Managers office but I know it’s there. Hope to return to this later for more. Summertime is calling for me once again :D

Me, again.  If the exact date of the pic is indeed 03 Oct 1956, readers may then wish to see the same features from the air only three years later on my LIMP Central Nassau page at: http://sbiii.com/limpcnas.html#roosvfld.  Immediately following that on the same page is Howard’s 1938 USAAC aerial photo of the same area, with enlarged details.  Did anyone note the Transverse Road bridge abutments?  You can’t make them out but they’re there!  Sam, III

It’s been a while since I perused your websites, Mr. Berliner. My eyes appreciate your large print and enlarged images.

Yet again - try as I might, I can’t find my old files but a friend’s father owned the big printing plant and I think it was further east.  It was on an insanely-tight curve at the end of an LIRR industrial spur somewhere around the Raceway entrance and they had a hell of a time getting the more modern 60’ boxcars of paper into the plant.  They had to use an industrial tractor to tow the cars in and out.  AHA - found the spur; it runs NNE to the east of Zeckendorf Blvd.  I’ll let this go unless requested to look further.  Sam, III

Hey - two of those added aerial views are mis-captioned!  “Another view (looking west) of Roosevelt Field Mall also taken on October 3, 1956” is looking north-northeast, while “Still another view looking east” is looking south over the then-new Franklin National Bank building on Old Country Road.  Sam, III
___________________________________________
From Howard Kroplick I

Sam, good catches!

Hello Howard, (and, by extension, all fellow Motor Parkway enthusiasts),

I’ve recently begun work on a documentary film about the Parkway and have been relying heavily upon your work as well as my own research.  I would very much like to meet with you to discuss the possibility of sitting down for an interview, either on camera or off.  Please feel free to email me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) to discuss.  Hope to hear from you soon.

Dean

From David Stephan:

Howard-
Just returning from a West Coast trip, where, ironically, I met an exhibitor from the McCall’s Motorworks Revival (who unbelievably parked his collectable Ferrari in a parking spot next to my rental car). 

I posted a comment suggesting the mystery car from the August 22nd post is a custom car. Here is additional information that may be of some use to Gary Monti and Bill Barto.

The mystery car does not have a Delahaye badge and its grille matches the stylized illustration mentioned in the comment (which is not a correct Delahaye grill).

From other videos of the McCall’s show and from LA Times reporting, one can see other custom cars on display. The 1939   Delahaye Model 165 (sometimes misidentified on the Internet as 1938 because it was introduced at the ’38 Paris auto show) is in the Mullin Museum and on the museum’s website one can find a summary of the car’s history and its link to the World’s Fair” (see http://www.mullinautomotivemuseum.com/#!/discovery/car/42 ).  On the web, one can find at least one replica Model 165 car shown being constructed.

The McCall’s theme this year was old and new—how the old shows up in the new. The ’39 Model 165 was introduced at the World’s Fair as a “Car of Tomorrow” and its full pontoon fenders can be seen as an antecedent to later designs, including those of some race cars that videos of the show reveal are positioned behind the man in the blue shirt in the mystery photo. Another custom car—perhaps inspired by a Bugatti roadster—sits “in front” of the mystery car (see https://www.facebook.com/MCCALLEVENTS ). That car shows the mid 30’s separate teardrop pontoon fenders. In a sense, walking into the hangar towards the America flag, one would see the evolution of this feature, with the connected pontoons of the ’39 Delahaye as an intermediate form and the exotic Koeningsegg and McLaren cars located deepest in the hangar, as the latest form.