Vanderbilt Cup Races

 Reporter Rikki Massand has provided an excellent update on the construction over the Motor Parkway north of Stewart Field in today's Garden City News. The article includes comments from Al Velocci (my favorite co-author), Cyril Smith, Bill Bellmer and me.

I encourage everyone to leave comments on The Garden City News comments page at the end of the article.

Enjoy,

Howard Kroplick

Historians concerned about Village construction over Motor Parkway

August 20, 2020

By Rikki Massand

The Garden City News

Local historians have expressed dismay over a Village of Garden City project to build parking over the site of the historic Long Island Motor Parkway, adjacent to Stewart Field on the eastern border of the Village.

At an August 13th meeting, Village Trustee Brian C. Daughney updated the Board of Trustees regarding Garden City’s lease with Nassau County that will enable the village to construct the new parking spaces for Stewart Field, which will be accessed from Raymond Court, on the remnants of the historic Long Island Motor Parkway.

Parking spots atop gravel have been constructed along the remaining Garden City stretch of the parkway, which was the first roadway in America built exclusively for automobile use in 1908, part of the William K. Vanderbilt Jr. Cup Races courses on Long Island from 1908 to 1910. The old Garden City Hotel was the headquarters for the races during this period.

In 2019, the Village of Garden City leased this parcel from Nassau County, and a lease agreement was tied to constructing the parking for Stewart Field visitors/users.

Superintendent of Public Works Joseph DiFrancisco said “in all the excavating and work that is being done there, all that we’ve uncovered is this long stretch of concrete which extends from basically Raymond Court to the end of the work zone behind Stewart Field. From what I was being told that was from the original Motor Parkway — we have not found any asphalt or concrete from it during all the excavation that was done.”

“They (Coastal Contracting Corp. of Huntington Station) have found no remnants, very little remnants of the old highway. There’s a strip of concrete about three feet wide along one edge,” Trustee Daughney said on August 13.

“Other than that there’s no roadbed, there is barely anything or little of the guardrail monuments…we will be able to steal some from the other side (north side of the Parkway) that’s not being touched. They have not removed or destroyed anything and basically there is not much there. There is basically nothing there to preserve, although it will not change our plans at all as we’re (the village) is still going to highlight the old Parkway,” he added.

Upon DiFrancisco’s request at the meeting, the Village Board approved a $3,500 change order for the contractor August 13 (which was not on the Board’s agenda) to remove brush and vegetation at the base of two electrical towers along the Motor Parkway in the new parking vicinity, as DiFrancisco called the specific areas “unsightly” before removal.

The Village said it is committed to commemorating the iconic Long Island Motor Parkway, along with erecting interpretive signage and recognizing the Camp Mills and Camp Black historic sites also at Stewart Field. Camp Black was a large mobilization point for New York regiments that fought in the Spanish American War. And during World War I the area served as Camp Mills’ quarantine area and ambulance-loading zone for combat-wounded personnel and Spanish Flu casualties.

Garden City Mayor Theresa M. Trouvé reacted to the project update August 13 and stated “what is there will be preserved.” She and Trustee Daughney briefly exchanged comments on this, and the mayor suggested that there may be interest from the new Residence Inn by Marriott Hotel on Ring Road north of this parking field to commemorate or make use of parts of the Parkway “around the periphery,” with potential for a walking or jogging trail.

“The idea that there are parts of the Long Island Motor Parkway there is in the contract the village has. I know we are assigned to take care of it,” Trouvé said.

Hearing that, Trustee Daughney commented “That’s my point as there is nothing there; this concrete slab is it. We were hoping there was more but there is not….and the old Parkway does not run near the Marriott, it runs basically from Clinton Road, along the ballfield through and past Raymond Court, behind what is going to be 555 Stewart Avenue and the (Roosevelt Field) mall,” he stated.

The assessment was met with skepticism from scholars who’ve studied the Motor Parkway’s past. The parkway extended from what is today the Brooklyn-Queens Greenway bike and pedestrian trail 44 miles east to Lake Ronkonkoma. Former Town of North Hempstead Historian, president of the Roslyn Landmark Society and of the Long Island Motor Parkway Preservation Society Howard Kroplick emailed The Garden City News less than 24 hours after Daughney said there is scant evidence of the Parkway still existing. Kroplick sent in photographs indicating that during a tour exactly 40 months ago — on April 15, 2017 — he and a group of enthusiasts documented the 110-year-old pavement present in the stretch behind Stewart Field. The group walked the Motor Parkway’s route from Raymond Court all the way west to Clinton Road.

Kroplick told the News, “The Village’s plan to cover over the three-foot concrete extensions with bluestone gravel was ill-conceived. It doesn’t make sense to bury this historic part of the road which was added in the 1920s.”

Local historian and resident Cyril Smith said that several years ago U.S. Congresswoman Kathleen Rice, who lives in Garden City, sponsored a House of Representatives’ Resolution (Bill 4484) calling for the preservation and commemoration of Long Island’s unique place in American and global aviation history — with Roosevelt Field, Curtiss Field, and the U. S. Army Air Corps’ Mitchel Field tracing the first nonstop transatlantic flight (Charles Lindbergh’s May 1927 flight to Paris) and the takeoff spot for Amelia Earhardt, who in 1929 helped form the Ninety-Nines, an international organization for the advancement of licensed female pilots. Months ago, to no avail Smith also contacted County Executive Laura Curran’s office about this project.

Smith noted that when the County approval process ran into opposition, then-Mayor Daughney asked Village Historian Bill Bellmer and Smith to present a history synopsis of this area to the County Board.

“This meeting at Eisenhower Park outlined the wonderful and diverse history of this land parcel. It was apparent the committee members were impressed and the County Planning Commission gave its eventual approval,” he told the News.

During a Board of Trustees meeing in March, Mayor Trouvé noted, “the village is responsible for taking care of the property and creating a commemorative history park area.”  The mayor toured the Motor Parkway following that meeting and questioned what the exact plans were for the historic engineering at the site. She joined Village Administrator Ralph Suozzi, DPW Superintendent DiFrancisco, Cyril Smith, Bill Bellmer and Village of Hempstead Historian Reine Bethany on a walking tour of the Motor Parkway on Friday, March 6.

That morning Mayor Trouvé traversed to the Long Island Motor Parkway’s Clinton Road “cliff-like” end, which has century-old marker posts along its incline. She braved several trenches of tree branches, mud, debris and natural greenery atop and along the Parkway — which Smith says is partially regeneration of the Hempstead Plains, the largest prairie East of the Mississippi, lying underneath the now 113-year-old Motor Parkway stretch.

“The fact that this also could have demonstrated the Hempstead Plains was similarly ignored. Rather, the Garden City Board of Trustees opted to turn the area into an expensive parking lot with construction costs over $400,000, it’s one that will underperform. A wonderful opportunity to preserve history was squandered and New York State grants are available for these historical area projects but the Village did not explore them, they kept their parking blinders on,” he noted. Smith added that people will likely grow frustrated as they access the entryway to the parking atop the Motor Parkway of Raymond Court, and drivers trying to leave from Raymond Court and turn onto Stewart Avenue after a game or sports event finishes will soon consider better parking alternatives, including the Marine Base’s lot across Stewart Avenue.

“With the upcoming Lindbergh centennial, the Village has ruined an area well suited to have had a commemorative park honoring the histories that took place there,” Smith said.

Interest and concerns continue for the village’s stretch of this historic roadway. Another local history enthusiast and vice president of the Long Island Motor Parkway Preservation Society, Al Velocci, offered comments for the News in reaction to the trustees’ discussion on the project on August 13:

“Regarding the Motor Parkway project, very little has been said about that part of the Parkway right of way east of Raymond Court within Village limits. The concrete extension is still there plus some small sections of the pavement. My concern is that once construction begins on the (555 Stewart Avenue) complex, contractors will use Raymond Court and the Motor Parkway right-of-way in that area to access the rear of the parcel for construction. That will completely destroy what is left of the Motor Parkway. Residents on Raymond Court should be made aware of this possibility,” Velocci commented.

In his August 13 update, Trustee Daughney noted that portion of the old Parkway and said “we’re not touching that half.”