Mystery Foto #4 Solved: A View of #54 Lancia Crashing at the Massapequa-Hicksville Road Turn in 1910
Chuck Rudy, Jr. challenged you to identify this panoramic view of an accident from a Long Island Motor Parkway bridge.
Answers to Mystery Foto questions:
- Identify the location of the photo and the Long Island Motor Parkway bridge.
The photo was taken from the Massapequa-Hicksville Motor Parkway Bridge looking north at the "Massapequa Turn." A banked temporary road was built to connect the Motor Parkway and the Massapequa-Hicksville Road seen in the middle of the photo.
- Identify the date of the photo and the race Hint: The caption on the back of the photo reads: "the crowd running over to the accident of the 54".
The photo was taken on October 1, 1910 during the Massapequa Sweepstakes, which was run concurrently with the Vanderbilt Cup Race. The spectators were running to the #54 Lancia driven by William Knipper and mechanician August Disher. They had just crashed into a telegraph pole at the Massapequa Turn.
Comments (7)
Congrats to Tim Ivers, Dick Gorman, Steve Lucas, Art Kleiner (see Kleiner's Korner), Frank Femenias (see Femenias' Findings), Greg O., and Ariejan Bos for identifying the Massapequa-Hicksville Motor Parkway Bridge and the Massapequa Turn for the 1910 Vanderbilt Cup Race course.
Kudos to Tim Ivers, Dick Gorman, Steve Lucas, Art Kleiner, Frank Femenias, and Ariejan Bos for identifying the accident involving #54 Lancia driven by William Knipper.
Enjoy,
Howard Kroplick
Close-Ups
"The crowd running over to the accident of the 54."
There was not one person in the photo who was not wearing a hat or cap.
Massapequa-Hicksville Road Motor Parkway Bridge
Robert Burman driving the #27 Marquette-Buick off the temporary road during the 1910 Vanderbilt Cup Race. William Knipper crashed into the same telegraph pole.
A view looking south to the Massapequa-Hicksville Road Motor Parkway Bridge at the 1909 or 1910 Vanderbilt Cup Race.
A view from the same bridge during the 1909 Vanderbilt Cup Race.
#54 Lancia driven by William Knipper
The Lancia after crashing into a telegraph pole.
One spectator, Morris Levinson of Manhattan, was hit by the Lanica and suffered a broken leg. This photo may have captured Levinson being taking away by an ambulance. Submitted by Chuck Rudy, Jr.
Kleiner's Korner (Submitted by Art Kleiner)
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 30, 1910
From Detroit Public Library
Motor Age, October 6, 1910
The New York Times, October 2, 1910
Washington Evening Star, October 1, 1910
Femenias' Findings (Submitted by Frank Femenias)
Mount Corona (see below comment)
Comments
Looking southwest from the Hicksville Road bridge during the 1910 Massapequa
Sweepstakes. Billy Knipper in the #54 Lancia overshot the turn near the Massapequa
Lodge and went over the embankment and crashed.
Mystery Foto #4… The photo was taken at the Massapequa turn of the Motor Parkway in Plainedge. Photo shot from the Massapequa-Hicksville Motor Parkway bridge.
This was on October 1, 1910 during the Massapequa Sweepstakes. The car (#54) was a Lancia. The driver was William Knipper with mechanician August Disher. As a result of the crash driver Knipper sustained a broken leg but mechanician Disher was uninjured.
I believe the photo shows spectators standing on the Massapequa-Hicksville Road bridge at the place where a temporary turn-off was built for the racers to leave the parkway and head north on today’s Route 107. This was the site of the Massapequa Lodge, which appears to be faintly visible on the right hand side of the un-cropped photo. The date would be October 1, 1910 when the #54 Lancia (driver = William Knipper; mechanician = August Guishard) crashed into a telephone pole during the Massapequa Sweepstakes.
Identify the location of the photo and the Long Island Motor Parkway bridge.
Hicksville- Massapequa Road and the Wantagh Avenue Bridge.
Identify the date of the photo and the race Hint: The caption on the back of the photo reads: “the crowd running over to the accident of the 54”.
October 1, 1910 as part of the Massapequa Sweepstakes. Car 54 was a Lancia driven by Willie Knipper with mechanician Guishard. The car was wrecked in the 7th lap. Lancia at the time was entered by the Hol-Tan company which for one year previously manufactured autos but later ended selling other makes, including the Lancia and Delaunay-Belleville.
Impossible without the hint but this could be the Oct 1, 1910 Massapequa Sweepstakes-6 car race with Bill Knipper driving the #54 Lancia, and after overshooting the Massapequa Turn, struck a telephone pole fracturing his leg. A spectator also suffered a fractured leg. If true that would make the highway bridge in the photo the Massapequa/Hicksville Rd bridge (Rt 107) in Bethpage. Photo would be looking NW. The Massapequa Lodge should be in view here, about 3 blocks down on the right side of the road, but I don’t see it.
In the larger panoramic photo on the right side in the distance appears the shape of Mount Corona ash dump (future site of ’39 Worlds Fair and later Flushing Meadow Park). That would be a whopping 18mi away, and the mound I think should be on the left side of photo. Any clues what it is? It’s definitely not a LIMP bridge. Thank you Chuck for a challenging mystery.
Not feeling too confident with my guess, but I’ll go with this was taken from on top of the Massapequa-Hicksville Road Bridge looking at the Massapequa turn just after the Massapequa lodge. Massapequa Sweepstakes Oct 1 1910
This is about the crash of William Knipper with mechanician August Disher in their Lancia during the 1910 Massapequa Sweepstakes on October 1, 1910. For seven laps he was far in the lead driving well over 1 mile a minute, when “he met his Waterloo”. As reported further in Motor Age of October 6: “He swung into the Massepequa lodge turn at a terrific clip, failed to hold it, and went into the sand pile that was the graveyard of so may hopes. This accident stopped the car.” Apparently neither driver nor mechanician were seriously hurt. The race was won by Endicott in a Cole.
Good mystery, but I just wasn’t up for it.
Frank….the mound that’s NE could be the landfill that is now capped off W/O Claremont St, just S/O the tower line. Or maybe the then Nassau County Brickworks between Round Swamp Rd and Winding Rd, both locations in Old Bethpage.
Correction…. The mound that Frank pointed out could be the capped off landfill between Claremont St and Winding Rd, which is N/O the then Nassau County Brickworks. There’s also a recycling center E/O Winding Rd, just N/O of a Horse Stable. But I think this recycling center is a newer facility.
Brian - the Winding Rd fill is 2.7 miles from the mystery photo, more reasonable than Mt. Corona’s 18mi distance. And it still stands tall at ~100 feet. But neither fill lines slightly west of the Massapequa/Hicksville Rd bridge (Rt. 107) as seen in the mystery photo. Back then, one could see far distances as the view was unobstructed and the island still undeveloped. This mound is a tough one.
OK. I figured since the crowd on the bridge was viewing North at present day Rte. 107, then the mound would be to the NorthEast. And like you said, Frank; there wasn’t enough development yet to block anything in the distance. We all exchange more information with these comments than we do in person LOL. It’s all good.