Vanderbilt Cup Races

The ticket kiosk was built in 1911 and was located on the southwest corner of the Motor Parkway and Washington Avenue. Looking east, the man standing on the unpaved Motor Parkway was toll collector Thomas O'Rourke. Al Velocci, my favorite co-author, commented on this lodge:

The fact is the Parkway placed the Brentwood Lodge here simply because they had an obligation to do so. In November 1907 the Brentwood Park Land Improvement Company had donated a strip of land one hundred feet wide and almost a half-mile in length to the Parkway to be used as the right-of-way. The gift, however, was subject to several conditions. The most prominent of these required the Parkway to provide an entrance from Washington Avenue and a lodge with the Brentwood designation..

Note the large STOP sign and oval signs offering gasoline and oil at the kiosk.

This "lodge" location was closed down in 1915. In 1922, the kiosk was moved to Commack Road and confusingly kept the name Brentwood Lodge, even though it was not a lodge and was not located in Brentwood. Al Velocci notes:
 
The location was always known as the Brentwood Lodge; in Parkway correspondence it was usually more accurately described as the Brentwood Lodge at Commack Road... Why not call it the Commack Lodge? Because, the Parkway had a legal obligation to maintain the Brentwood Lodge designation.. Evidently the language of the Brentwood Park Land Improvement convenant was such that ...the Brentwood Lodge designation could be separated from the actual Washington Avenue entrance.
 

Current View

Looking east on the Motor Parkway at Washington Avenue.

Check out Wayne Consolla's online Motor Parkway map to find the Brentwood Lodges at Washington Avenue and Commack Road.