A great-grandson recalls his family’s Bulls Head Hotel, Auto & Wagon Shed located in Bulls Head (North Roslyn, Greenvale)
On the roslynlandmarks.org website, Fred Blumlein fondly recalls Bulls Head Hotel, his great-grandfather's hotel and auto and wagon shed, which was located on the corner of Glen Cove Road and Northern Boulevard in Bulls Head (later North Roslyn and now Greenvale). Fred's information is reposted here.
Enjoy,
Howard Kroplick
On the 1905 and 1906 courses of the Vanderbilt Cup Races
Greenvale’s Bulls Head Hotel, located smack-dab on the corner of that tough turn, played an important role in the 1905 race. Aloysius Huwer, proprietor of the hotel (and the writer’s great-grandfather), rented his “Auto & Wagon Shed,” to race driver and car owner, Walter C. White. White and his mechanics bunked in the Hotel and used Huwer’s Shed to ready his steam-driven racer for the event. White’s machine was the only steam racer ever to be driven in the Vanderbilt Cup Races. He received an “A” for trying, but had to abandon his car in the fifth lap because of engine and tire troubles.
The move from the intersection
Regarding the below 1936 photo with the police officer standing on the corner, take a look at the long row of first-floor windows of the hotel that is facing us. These windows enclosed the hotel’s old front porch and, in 1932, housed the first post office in Greenvale. In later years, one of the building’s storefronts facing Northern Blvd. housed Dr. Cavoti’s original Greenvale Pharmacy, the first drug store in the hamlet. That pharmacy still operates today as the Greenvale Pharmacy near the original Bulls Head Hotel location and under different management.
The New York Times, May 1986
The demolition of the Huwer's buildings
In 1999, the then developer/owner of these properties gave permission to the Roslyn Fire Department to practice venting (cutting through) its roof to allow practice smoke to escape from the house. Interestingly, this was the house that Aloysius Huwer, a veteran of the Civil War, built and moved into in the late teens after he sold the hotel and its corner property.
The bull at Bulls Head Hotel
An interesting family story was told by my grandmother, Louisa Huwer Blumlein, Aloysius’ daughter. When her father was offered to buy the land directly across Northern Blvd. where Ben’s restaurant exists today, he said, and I paraphrase, “what do I want more property for?”
Today: The original site of Bulls Head Hotel
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