Historic Landmarks Preservation Commission Recommends Landmarking of a Motor Parkway Bridge
I am pleased to report that the Historic Landmarks Preservation Commission of the Town of North Hempstead voted unamiously 5-0 on Wednesday night to recommend to the Town Board that they consider designating the Old Courthouse Road Motor Parkway Bridge as a Town of North Hempstead landmark. The application was supported by 15 town residents and members of the Long Island Motor Parkway Preservation Society through in-person presentations and emails.
The Commission determined that the bridge met the definition of “Historic landmark” by its association with the historic growth and development of the Town and Long Island by its association with the development of the Long Island Motor Parkway, the first road built exclusively for automotive transportation on Long Island.The bridge is one of only two Motor Parkway bridges that remain standing in Nassau County and the only one in the Town of North Hempstead. Overall, there are only eight Motor Parkway bridges of the original 65 bridges remain intact: Queens (5), Nassau (2) and Suffolk (1).
The Town Board will now decide within 90 days at a public hearing to follow the Commission's recommendation and declare the bridge the 18th landmark of the Town of North Hempstead.
Enjoy,
Howard Kroplick
Meeting of the Historic Landmarks Preservation Commission of the Town of North Hempstead, March 18, 2015
The Town Historian gave a brief overview of the history of the Long Island Motor Parkway and its bridges.
Al Velocci, Vice-President of the Long Island Motor Parkway Preservation Society and resident of Manhasset Hills, discussed the significance of the Old Courthouse Road Bridge.
Walt Gosden, Village Historian of Floral Park, presented the importance of preserving Long Island's history.
Art Kleiner of Levittown discussed the importance of preserving remnants of the first parkway built exclusively for automobiles.
Steve Lucas of Patchoque recalled fond childhood memories of discovering the Motor Parkway and the Old Courthouse Road Bridge.
The Old Courthouse Road Motor Parkway Bridge
Circa 1920s
1972. Courtesy of Margaret and George Vitale.
2003
2008
2010
2014
Comments
Hi Howard:
The best on this venture and I certainly there in spirit for all of our LIMP people !!!
Cheers and Best !!!!! Ron
Enjoyed the photo history. Glad to see another landmark preserved.
I sure will try to come to support the landmark of this historic site
_______________________________________
From Howard Kroplick
Ted, thanks. It is likely there will be some people opposing the landmarking.
The folks in the apartment complex to the north pressed really hard to have the bridge demolished ca. 1999; it took a lot of effort to prevent that! I just realized that my LIMP Page 4 was never restored; it is now and has my 13 and 14 Oct 1999 photos of the bridge and surrounds. Go to <http://sbiii.com/limpkwy4.html#oldcthrd>. The thumbnails are poor for the nonce (I’ll get to them one of these days) but the linked images are sharp. Sam, III
Great job guys,well done,putting the point across to them,why it should be a landmark.
Nice work gentlemen! I missed the blog post on this so unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to send you an email of support Howard. I’m very happy that you prevailed and since you were probably very articulate in presenting the case the outcome was a good one.
Thank you all for voicing your comments during the public hearings comment to ensure the permanent Landmark Status. Bravo
Andrew Ward, Mineola
Hats off to all involved here.
Great write up in Newsday today. Thought a lot we’re going to oppose it, surprisingly you were wrong.
Stand by Ted. I believe the fireworks are about to begin. I hope I’m wrong.
Two young girls of high school age attended the meeting, both apparently were writing reports about the bridge and effort that night to save it. After the meeting out in the hall each one approached some of us who spoke up about our positive feelings that the bridge should be preserved. I was interviewed by one of them. The questions were were intelligent and they were sincerely interested in hearing the answers. I mentioned that it was always good to have an actual structure that could be visited and experienced in person - especially by younger generations . Period photographs are great but to actually place you hand on something that was built 100+ years ago and still survives despite total neglect and being out in all kinds of weather perhaps can give the person a real sense of history.
Walt - the two young girls were from Hofstra University and were communications majors, writing a story for a school on-line publication named The Long Island Report. They were both very interested in the Motor Parkway; their next step is to prepare the articles and pitch them to their editor. I’ll keep checking the website to see if the bridge articles appear. By the way, they weren’t Long Island residents - one is from Colorado and the other Minnesota!
From Frank F.:
Thrilled to see first step success in its long journey towards landmark status. Hoping it goes as smooth all the way home. Congratulations to all for a fine job thus far. Stay
I agree with Walt, once demolished it’s gone forever. Landmark status is the way to go.