Vanderbilt Cup Races

Hi Howard
Interesting paintings by Harvey Kidder. In one of them I see lampposts on an upper roadway. I’m assuming the LIMP there is running the underpass (perhaps Old Courthouse Rd) since I believe the LIMP had no lighting. Is there any info on lighting of the LIMP? How did they power the toll booths on the ROW? I’ve never noticed lamposts in any of the LIMP accident photos at night. Those night pics give the impression of dark, nightmarish times but in daytime, I’m sure it was wide open paradise!

The painting depicts the old motor parkway crossing over the Northern state parkway just about 1000 ft. west of New Hyde Park road, before the Northern state was widened in the 1950s.  I had many bag lunches on my bicycle wanderings as a young boy on that bridge.  That bridge was built by the state when it was building Northern state pkwy.  The eastbound exit ramp of the Northern Pkwy.  marks the spot today.        The painting of the Great Neck lodge depicts   the Lakeville Road bridge on the Nassau/Queens border which was closed (as it is in the painting)  The building was a private residence in the 50s…gone…or not recognizable any more with many homes now there..  I also had lunches there as well as a long, banked curve about a mile or so to the west…where Glen Oaks apartments was built in the mid-50s.
    As far as lighting on the motor parkway…as far as I know..it did not have any. Lodges probably got power from the cross streets.  That was a grand old road!  I rode my bicycle from the start in Flushing, to what is now route 110 in Huntington, as well as the closed sections going east of that in later years…and drove to Ronkonkoma many many times in the 40s and 50s.  My mother rode with her uncle on the parkway the last day it was open.

Frank, The toll lodges were electrified when there were power lines on the closest street. Parkway was required to put up and pay the poles on private property if necessary.  Prior to that the lodges were issued two lanterns which were hung on the exterior at dark. Interior lighting was by candle and lanterns, responsibility of the lodge keepers’

Thanks Al, your LIMP details are always amazing! The photo below shows the two gas lanterns (supplied by Motor Parkway Inc) hanging on top of this early porte cochere (no electricity yet), and a different style lantern in the driveway for toll collector use (likely installed by the toll keeper). I’m envisioning driving up to this lodge at night in the darkness, with just the gas lanterns emitting light,  and maybe a subtle light coming from within the lodge house, to help light up this toll plaza. What a sight that must’ve been!

Howard - Harvey Kidder was not kidding! His paintings prove it. The Great Neck lodge is indeed so. It’s the only south-facing Pope lodge with a slight left on the roadway heading eastward. Kidder added bright white paint (lighting) on the front of the lodge facade, as he saw it while painting. Thank god it was a sunny day to help with orientation. This was the western terminus at the time of painting. As Harold Sauter commented, the fenced-off Lakeville Rd bridge (not yet built) can be seen in the foreground!

Harold Sauter - Your input is always welcomed. If I had the capability to bike ride from Nassau Blvd to Rt 110, without interruption, on the abandoned parkway,  I would have done the same as you did. Any kid would’ve! Thank you for your experience on the Motor Pkwy and please feel free to share your experiences that you had on your journeys on the old parkway.

Howard - I forgot to mention regarding the revised caption for Ruland Rd bridge, the bridge in the painting has the “No Parking” sign intended for LIMPers. This likely to be a highway bridge under demolition, as (Powell Ave?) above temporarily truncated for the bridge’s removal. The Jericho Tpke and Old Country Rd bridges in Mineola had dips that would’ve shown more hill in the painting.