Long Island Motor Parkway

The Long Island Motor Parkway, (also known as the Vanderbilt Motor Parkway) is the world’s first limited-access highway. It was the brainchild of William Kissam Vanderbilt Jr. He was a car enthusiast at a time when few people owned cars. He ran Vanderbilt Cup Races beginning in 1904 were the idea for creating a smooth, safe road.

He wanted to create a seventy-mile road through central Long Island from near the Queens/Nassau border all the way to Riverhead. One of the bigger challenges was obtaining the right of way to build the parkway.

The parkway was envisioned mainly as a highway for the wealthy. The prospectus for the parkway stated, “The numerous golf, fishing, yachting, and shooting clubs will be speedily reached and can be more fully made use of by their members.”

Besides being the country’s first concrete highway, one of the other unique features was its grade separation from other roads. On June 7, 1908, the first shovelful of dirt was turned over. Work progressed at a moderate ace. In 1908, a race-car driver tested the completed portions and was able to reach sixty miles per hours on the turns and one hundred miles per hour over a straight stretch.

By the end of 1908, nine miles were complete, from Westbury to Bethpage.  The parkway extended from Westbury to Mineola and Bethpage to Dix Hills in 1909 and from Bethpage to Lake Ronkonkoma in 1910. The highway itself was a toll road, with the price originally being $2.00.

Long Island’s population increased in the years following and the Northern State Parkway was constructed in the 1930’s. It made the Long Island Motor Parkway quickly obsolete and it was sold to New York State for $80,000 in 1938.  Most of the highway was demolished over the years, but there are a number of remnants left. A major section has been preserved as a walking trail and bike path within Alley Park and Cunningham Park in Queens. The best preserved segment in Nassau County lies in Alberston/Williston Park, on either side of Willis Avenue. On the east side is an access road for parking lots and the only drivable section of the original Parkway left.

Sone of the original toll lodges still exist. Most have been converted into private homes and altered. The Garden City lodge was moved and is now the headquarters for the Garden City Chamber of Commerce.

Source:

Panchyk, Richard. Hidden History of Long Island. The History Press, 2016.

OHEKA Castle

Otto Kahn was born in Germany and moved to America in 1893. He met his wife Addie quickly after. He took a year off work to tour Europe with her. During their year abroad, they acquired an extensive collections of paintings, statuary, and other object d’art. By the time of his death, his collection would be considered one of the finest in the United States. They settled into an estate in Morristown, New Jersey.

In 1914, Kahn purchased a lot located on Fifth Avenue and Ninety-First Street in Manhattan and a 443 acre tract of land in Cold Spring Harbor. The building in Manhattan was listed in the 1919 edition of The Architectural Record. This became his legal residence for the remainder of his life.

As a lover of symbolism, he used his own initials to name his estate on Long Island, calling it OHEKA. He employed hundreds of workmen to create a man-made mountain on which to build his great home. He envisioned his home to be one of the largest, grandest, and most complete estates on the Northeastern Seaboard. He hired the architectural firm of Delano and Aldrich to construct it. 

Otto and his wife Addie both were passionate about gardening. In addition to areas for formal and informal gardens, the created a greenhouse complex, which became one of the larger private nurseries of its kind in the United States. In order to make sure the gardens didn’t overshadow the building, he hired America’s foremost landscaping architects; Olmstead Brothers of Massachusetts. The Olmstead Brothers were responsible for Central Park, the Capitol Grounds in Washington D.C., and more.

From early childhood, Kahn was an accomplished equestrian and plans were drawn up to include bridle paths that would weave through the entire estate.  A twenty-two acre sanctuary was also created for Addie. Otto also commissioned an eighteen-hole golf course to be built on the estate. It ranked as one of the finest golf course in the United States at the time.

With the involvement of America in World War I, the construction of the estate came to a complete halt in 1917. It re-started a year later. Otto and his family moved into the state in 1919. Upon driving through an Entrance Tower, an over a mile long driveway opened onto the main courtyard. The estate itself consists of three floors which included an indoor swimming pool, approximately one hundred thirty rooms, an two story high entrance room, reception hall, a library with hidden room, ballroom, dining room, sitting room, and a billiards room to name a few.

Otto Kahn died on March 29, 1934 of a massive heart attack. The state remained vacant for years until it was purchased by the Department of Sanitation of the City of New York to be used as a weekend retreat. The neighbors were horrified and the resort was quickly shut down. It was leased in 1934 as a training center for radio operators of the Merchant Marine. In 1948, the estate and 23 acres were sold to a military school as its Long Island branch. The school closed in 1978 and the estate was abandoned.

In 1983, the Castle was sold to developer Gary Melius. He began planning restoring the estate to its former glory. It opened in 1987 and is listed on the national Register for Historic Places.

Source:

King, Robert B.  Raising a Fallen Treasure: The Otto H. Kahn Home, Huntington, Long Island. Robert B. King, 1985

Bethpage - A Brief History

In 1687, Thomas Powell Sr. bought more than 15 square miles from local Native American tribes in a transaction known as the Bethpage Purchase. Powell named Bethpage because it was situated between the towns of Jericho and Jerusalem, just as the biblical town of the same name was situated. In 1699, Powell made a second purchase, the Rim of the Woods Purchase, which includes most of present-day Bethpage.

Thomas Powell’s son Richard and his wife Sarah owned and lived on a farm in Old Bethpage. Today, this is the only building that was originally located on land that is now part of the Old Bethpage Village Restoration.

Rowland Pearsall was one of the first settlers who bought his farmland from the Powell family. In addition to the Pearsall family, the noted families of the late 170’s were the Bedells, Whistons, Powells, and Stymuses. Joshua Hubbs came to Bethpage with his wife in the 1800s. The Hubbs House was constructed in 1820 and his one of the oldest homes in Bethpage. The Belle family are responsible for establishing the district’s first school which was built in 1858 on the grounds of the Pearsall farm. Powell Avenue School was constructed around 1911. It was given two additional sections in 1915 and 1923.

By 1859, large numbers of people settled the land and growth continued through the rest of the 19^th Century. At that time, most of the people made their living by farming. The central railroad of Long Island extended into Bethpage in 1841, an important event in the history of the town. The first statin was built near Stewart Avenue and a local post office was opened in 1857. Land speculators began to purchase large sections of land near the tracks and began building. That section was called Central Park.

Alexander McConochie could easily be called the “Land Baron of Bethpage.” He and his family controlled almost all of Central Bethpage for 40 years.  He owned property south of the LIRR between Stewart Avenue and Broadway and bought more east of Broadway and 70 acres of woodland.

The village’s first factory, Feuschel’s Pickle Works was established in the early 1880’s. About the same time, Central Park’s first hotel was built. It is still standing on Broadway, just north of the tracks.

In 1911, the Central Park Fire Company was organized and incorporated. In 912, Benjamin Yoakum purchased 1,368 acres of land and hired Deveraux Emmet to design and build an 18-hole golf course which opened in 1923. In 1931, the Long Island Park Commission purchased the Yoakum Estate and other area farms to create Bethpage State Park.

Bethpage was officially re-named from Central Park on October 1, 1936. In September 1989, the first Saturday of October was officially designated as Bethpage Day. Grumman Aircraft opened its first plant in Bethpage in 1936. It became the largest employer for Bethpage and Long Island at that time.

In 1940, the Zorn Bethpage farm was born. The Zorn family raised live chickens and sold them wholesale to various vendors. Zorn’s still stands today on Hempstead Turnpike. In 1951, William Nunley opened a 5.5 acres amusement park and restaurant. It would remain open until 1978. The renowned carousel housed there can now be found at the Long Island Children’s Museum in Garden City.

Sources:

Hunt, Terence S. Bethpage: The Years of Development, 1840-1910. Oakdale Press, 1976.

Logerfo, John. Bethpage. Arcadia Publishing, 2015.

56th Fighter Group Restaurant

The 56^th Fighter Group Restaurant opened approximately in 1984 on the grounds of Republic Airport.  The 1917 French Style Allied Headquarters Farmhouse sat on the site where the P47 fighter aircraft was built during WWII. The restaurant was part of the Specialty Restaurants Corp. John D. Tallichet, president and chairman of the company, said his father, David C. Tallichet Jr., was a pilot who flew more than 20 missions in a B-17 over Europe in World War II, before founding his first restaurant in the late 1950s. The company has about 25 restaurants around the country.

The restaurant was named for an Army Air Forces unit that relied on P-47s, built by Republic Aviation, to achieve a high rate of air-to-air kills in World War II. The 56th was one of three P-47 groups in England, and the only one to previously train on the Thunderbolt. The 56th Fighter Group won a Distinguished Unit Citation for a series of missions flown between 20 February and 9 March 1944. The campaign opened with Operation Argument, better known as "the Big Week", a sustained attempt to destroy the Luftwaffe in the air while attacking aircraft factories with strategic bombing.

The restaurant had rustic timbered ceilings and cozy dining rooms that boasted seven fireplaces and a view of the runway of Republic Airport. It housed an extensive collection of aviation and WWII memorabilia. At one point, the restaurant offered headphones at select booths so people could listen to the air tower.

It closed down in 2012 due to issues with the lease agreement with the airport.

Sources:

“56th Operations Group.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Oct. 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/56th_Operations_Group.

Robinson, Pam. “56th Fighter Group Restaurant's Nod to LI.” Farmingdale, NY Patch, Patch, 21 July 2012, patch.com/new-york/farmingdale/56th-fighter-group-restaurant-s-nod-to-li.

Robinson, Pam. “56^th Fighter Group Restaurant to Shut Down.” Farmingdale, NY Patch, Patch, 19 July 2012, patch.com/new-york/farmingdale/56th-fighter-group-restaurant-to-shut-down-bed9ef5f.

Adventureland

Adventureland opened in 1962 as Adventures 110 Playland. Alvin H. Cohen and Herbert Budin purchased the land in 1960, on the site of a six-acre chicken farm. The first roller coaster was an Allan Herschell Little Dipper model and was built in 1964. It’s first Crazy Caterpillar-style attraction, titled the Jolly Caterpillar, was built in August 1965. An updated version was added in 2001.

The park opened a miniature golf course in 1965. The park began its first of three incarnations of antique-car rides with the original Antique Autos in October of 1965. Its first Helicopters attraction opened the same month, which existed at the park until 1994. The Adventureland Train has circled the park since 1962 with the name Frontier Train. A ride on the train cost 25 cents at the time. The William Dentzel Carousel was introduced in 1962. Each horse, animal, and chariot was carved from wood and then hand painted. This carousel would leave the park in 1979.

The kiddie speedboats were the oldest surviving opening-day attraction. Children would “captain” their own boats on a small ride. It was removed in 2002.

In the 1970’s, Alvin Cohen doubled the park’s size from six acres to twelve. In 1972, Cohen sold the park to Willy Miller. Miller would own the park from 1977 to 1987. He brought ride expert Udo Storck and James “Chip” Cleary onboard his team. Udo introduced many new ideas and Chip’s contribution can b seen through the addition of the iconic 1313 Cemetery Way dark ride, the Bavarian Village, and Pirate’s Plaza.

The Toboggan roller coaster opened in 1973 and lasted until 1979. This ride was a fan favorite. Guests boarded caged, single-bench cars before beginning a vertical ascent up a lift hill located inside of the center tower and spiral down and around the 45 foot-tall tower itself. The Wave Swinger, one of the first of its kind brought in from Germany, opened in 1974 and is still a staple today. The original mode provided over 30 years of service. In the late 1970’s, Adventureland would premiere its first big roller coaster, the Galaxi. It featured 1,099 feet of track and reached speeds up to 31 miles per hour.

Cap’n Wild Willy’s Bumper Boats, one of Adventureland’s most beloved and most missed attractions was built in 1982. A 100,000 galloon pool was built to house the ride. In 1987, Wily Miller sold his interest of Adventureland to Tony Gentile. The brand, under the guiding vision of Chip Cleary and Udo Storck would expand to include the creation of the Splish Splash water park in Riverhead in the 1990s.

When the Galaxi was sold to a location in Brazil, the Hurricane erected in 1990. With the success of the Bavarian Village, Germantown and Western Town was added in 1997. The Venetian Double-Decker carouse was introduced to the park in 1999. In 2001, Adventure Falls Log Flume was constructed. In 2001, the Parachuter and Looping Star were both retired. In 2009, 1313 Cemetery way was removed and replaced by Ghost House.

Source:

Mercaldo, Christopher. Adventureland. Arcadia Publishing, 2014.

Slavery & the Underground Railroad on Long Island

The earliest organized opposition to slavery in the American colonies came from the Society of Friends, commonly called Quakers. Between 1754 and 1776, Friends throughout the colonies strengthened their commitment to pacifism and began to denounce slavery. John Woolman, a Quaker minister, traveled throughout New York preaching that slavery was against the beliefs of the Society of Friends. He was also the first to argue that the use of goods produced by slaves was as bad as slave holding itself.  The slave population on Long Island had gown to one slave for every five settlers by 1773. In 1773, the members of the Flushing Monthly Meeting urged members not to purchase slaves. Elisa Hicks attended that meeting and reminded members that the Quaker community would disown anyone who continued to buy or sell slaves.

In 1776, the Long Island Quakers freed one hundred fifty-four slaves. By 1791, 154 slaves freedom were recorded in Queens County. The antislavery movement achieved significant momentum in 1831 with the publication of the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator. The formal founding of the abolitionist movement came with the inauguration of the American Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia in 1833.

Newspaper notices for runaways began to appear as soon as newspapers became regular publications in the early 1700s. From 1750 to 1770, notices for runaways were very common and they were usually clustered in small paragraphs with a notice for a reward.

One well used route on the Underground Railroad for New York was the home of George Jackson. Jackson was born in Bethpage in 1781 and purchased a farm in White Pot (which is now Forest Hills). Small boats traveled out of Flushing Creek to Westchester County, were the connections could be made. Another stop was the home of Valentine and Abigail Hicks in Jericho, which is now the Maine Maid Inn. Between 1815 and 1865, at least five families in Jericho assisted escaped slaves to their freedom. It was a custom for slaves to come to Long Island, especially Westbury, because it contained a sizable community of freed Africans.

In 1835, twenty-seven fugitives were sent to New York from North Carolina. They were brought to Jericho under the care of Valentine Hicks. There were so many of them that Valentine decided to separate the family members into different homes until connections were made. One of these homes was the Thomas Powell farm, now located in the Old Bethpage Restoration Village. The most detailed accounts of Quaker assistance to fugitive slaves on Long Island come from the writings about the Mott family. The Sands-Willet house is reported to be a stop. The Plandome Manor estate had an ice house and was observed to have a secret escape tunnel. There are also frequent references to Motts Point as a station.

In 1878, Isaac T. Hopper settled in Philadelphia and began to develop a program for the systematic assistance of slaves escaping from the South. The clandestine nature of the Underground Railroad prevents any accurate estimate of the number of slaves who found their way to freedom. Estimates fall between 50,000 to 100,000.

Sources:

Driscoll, James. Angels of Deliverance: The Underground Railroad in Queens, Long Island, and Beyond. The Queens Historical Society, 1999.

Vahey, Mary Feeney. A Hidden History: Slavery, Abolition, and the Underground Railroad in Cow Neck and on Long Island. Cow Neck Peninsula Historical Society, 1998.

Velsor, Kathleen G. The Underground Railroad on Long Island: Friends in Freedom. The History Press, 2013.

Liberty Products Corporation

Liberty Products was originally established as the Kirkman Engineering and Manufacturing Corporation in 1932. In 1936, the plant operations were moved to the former Sperry plant on Motor Avenue in Farmingdale. The aircraft division was established in 1938. This division fabricated wings, control surfaces, pontoons, and strut assemblies for Grumman.

In 1940, the firm became Liberty Aircraft Products Corporation. Liberty became the prime subcontractor in the East making aircraft parts for Grumman, Republic, Martin, Curtiss, Fairchild, Brewster, Vought, Skirorsky, and others.

In 1941, Liberty acquired stock control of the Autocar Company of Philadelphia. After Pearl Harbor, Liberty produced the parts for the world famous Wildcats, Hellcats, Bearcats, and Avengers planes. During the war, they were the first plant in Nassau County to subscribe one hundred percent for payroll participation of war bond purchases. Once the war ended, Liberty acquired the Highway Trailer Company of Wisconsin and the Davisbilt Company of Cincinnati. The company designed the Phillips Starting Gate for the Roosevelt Raceway.

The company changed names once again, in 1947, becoming the Liberty Products Corporation. Liberty Aircraft had its last year of independent operation in 1954. Penn-Texas acquired Liberty in 1955 and sold “certain assets” in 1958. Metal plating and fiberglass product manufacturing were carried out from 1957 to 1984.

Sources:

Long Island: A History of Two Great Counties: Nassau and Suffolk. Volume III. Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1949

“Penn-Texas Sells Liberty Aircraft.” New York Times. January 2, 1958