Vanderbilt Cup Races

Edith, when Al Velocci and I wrote The Long Island Motor Parkway, we wanted to include many photos which have never been published before. Just one month prior to our deadline, we discovered this rare 1935 photo of the Broad Hollow Bridge looking north in the archives of the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum.

The narrow section on the right was built to accomodate the trolley line that once ran between Babylon and Huntington Village and ceased operations in 1927. The sign on the bridge points to the parkway entrance at the Huntington Lodge.

In her email to VanderbiltCupRaces.com, Edith related her memories of the Motor Parkway:

I grew up on a small farm on the Easty side of Broad Hollow Road just South of Ruland Road, next to what was then the St. Rose Industrial Home for Girls. Although the LIMP was abandoned in the late forties, the bridges in our area were still there and we would ride our bicycles generally from the Broad Hollow Road bridge East to and over the junction of Duryea, Bayliss, Pinelawn and another road, but being some 59 years ago my memory is a bit foggy.

Houses and buildings in the area around St. Rose were then given names. As I recall, our home was one of the much older buildings in the area, to us an old farm house, whose origins and expansion from the 1800s could clearly be seen, was the "Green House", being shingled in that colour. The main building at St. Rose was naturally the Big House (bell and all), the Big Barn, the Yellow Barn, and so it went. The women's residence at the Aggie School (not the Agricultural and Technical College), the Mott House was close to the foot of the Melville and Broad Hollow Roads, and it was a big day the Mott House was moved to its final location near the City of Glass on the Melville Road.

Edith, thanks for the memories! In appreciation, tomorrow I will post an aerial that shows your Melville home in 1951.