Half Hollow Hills Area - revisited.
This is yet another (11 Aug 00) page to cover additional information and
photographs of this interesting old highway; see also my
Automotive, Chrysler,
Dudgeon (really!), Mercedes, and
SS and JAGUAR car pages and other related pages.
A Motor Parkway Panel has been convened to keep the
LIMP alive in situ and in minds and museums.
There is also a lot of automotive material on my ORDNANCE
and HISTORY pages.
Also, if you like automotive history, see the links on the
Automotive page.
RoW = Right-of-Way.
LONG ISLAND MOTOR PARKWAY -
Suffolk County
EASTERN TERMINUS
of the
LONG ISLAND MOTOR PARKWAY
at
LAKE RONKONKOMA
On 10 Aug 00, I took my digital camera out to Rosevale Avenue at the
far end of the Motor Parkway, also known from Half Hollow Road to
there (incorrectly) as Vanderbilt Parkway and Vanderbilt Motor Parkway.
There is no "Petit Trianon Inn" left out there but I knew there was a
dormitory for the Inn workers that still stood as a nursing home.
Well, a few days before, I'd been out there and found it for myself, and I went back to
record the following (this is in tour format - not the order in which I took the photos).
First, coming east from Harned Road, shortly after passing a sign (on the
right - S) for the "VILLAGE OF LAKE HILLS -
RONKONKOMA", we approach the eastern end of the LIMP on the
14-mile extant segment, cresting the road a few hundred yards west of the end and
see Rosevale Avenue and the Petit Trianon driveway ahead and
then, driving down the hill to Rosevale, both views to the east:
(All photos taken 10 Aug 00 by and © 2000 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail images; click on the pictures for larger images.]
Please notice that gas station sign on the left, at the station driveway; it roughly
marks the site of the toll barrier, which stretched across the LIMP there from a central
island and obelisk-like gatepost.
Next, we drive across Rosevale onto the driveway, now called "Lake
Drive", take a view, and proceed (avoiding the elderly resident of
the home) up the slight grade to the (east) end, again both views to
the east:
(25 Jan 08)
Note that the cross street at the east end of lake is named "North Washington
Street. It is less than a block beyond to the western shore of Lake
Ronkonkoma.
That area where the blue van (with camper top) and the shed beyond the stub fence
sit is roughly where the front steps of the Petit Trianon Inn were located.
The 1990 Suffolk Hagstrom's (pp. 12 and 13) shows a North Drive and a
South Drive, flanking the Petit Trianon site, extending E one very short block
to Beach Road (which runs N-S between them behind where the Inn was)
and then a short stub of Lake running E from Beach to the water's edge; I saw no
such but will have to return with my camera and hoof it in there.
Turning the car around to face west, there is the nursing home, the "Park Lake
Rest Home", on our left, all that remains of John Russell Pope's
magnificent Petit Trianon workers dormitory (Vanderbilt always took excellent care of
his staff), seen first looking SW and then SSW:
It is so overgrown with heavy trees that I'd have to get permission to enter the
grounds to get unobstructed views, but - - -. Here's the Rest Home's
"un-welcome" sign:
{no thumbnail}
Here are the Rosevale/Lake street signs (two sets!) and the N. Washington/Lake
street signs:
{no thumbnails}
Moving westward along Lake a little further and turning SSE, here is another view of
the dormitory/rest home. Now, drive back to the light at Rosevale and make a
left and then turn left again, immediately, onto Browns Boulevard (that's a
laugh - it's a driveway!); the road is rough and overgrown but it gves you a view of
the back of the dorm.:
Venturing further in on Browns, there is this view NE of the garage (which may or may
not be original, but matches nicely) and then, looking back NNW, of the garage and
what little can be made out of the dorm. beyond (that foliage is lush!), with the
Browns Blvd. street sign in the middle (WSW):
{no thumbnail on center picture}
If you venture all the way in on Browns, you can see a bit of the lakefront (don't
bother). Notice also that Rosevale Avenue becomes Lakeshore Drive
immediately south of Browns and can take you around the lake, the largest inland
body of water (and the largest "kettle pond") on Long Island.
Lastly, as our ship sinks slowly in the west (oops, wrong travelog),
we return to Lake Drive and face the setting sun (if it were visible) in the west and show you the LIMP
RoW (Motor Parkway) in the distance from directly N of the dorm./home gate, from the
crest of Lake about halfway back (west) toward Rosevale, and a similar view from the
bottom of the small hill down at Rosevale:
(25 Jan 08)
(All photos taken 10 Aug 00 by and © 2000 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail images; click on the pictures for larger images.]
Now, notice that gas station sign on the right, at the station driveway? It's the
other side of the one I noted up above and it is roughly the site of the toll barrier,
which stretched across the LIMP there from a central island and obelisk-like gatepost
(as noted).
The Ronkonkoma Toll Lodge, where Eric Ericson was the keeper and lived with his wife,
Rose, and daughter, Evelyn, was uphill to the right and has been moved even further
in that direction (NW) since 1938 but I am not sure which house it is (if it can even be
seen from the road); there is a nursery school off the road which might be a logical
candidate.
That small green blob above and to the right of the station sign, would, if not so
heavily pixelated, read:
VILLAGE OF
LAKE HILLS
RONKONKOMA
Well, like Penn Station, it's all GONE! Town of Islip
officialdom, having no regard whatsoever for history, allowed a builder to tear down
John Russell Pope's noble edifice ca. 17 Feb 2006; here are Panelist Howard Kroplick's
before and after pictures:
(photos by, and courtesy of, H. Kroplick - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail images; click on the pictures for larger images]
On the May 1925 property map of the sub-division to the N, Lake Ronkonkoma
Heights, the dormitory is noted as the "ANNEX":
(map courtesy of H. Kroplick - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail image; click on the picture for larger image]
There are also positive things to report as well, from the eastern terminus; out in
Lakeland, just W of the far end, Pat Masterson found, and Howard Kroplick
photographed, a string of barrier posts, many still with twisted ribbon wire in place
(these photos are all in the sequence received except for #3):
01 | 02 | 04
05 | 06 | 07
(photos courtesy of H. Kroplick - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail images; click on the pictures for larger images]
You can see the LIMP RoW (Suffolk County Route 67) in the backgound of picture #5.
08 | 09 | 10
11 | 12
(photos courtesy of H. Kroplick - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail images; click on the pictures for larger images]
03 | 13 | 14
(photos courtesy of H. Kroplick - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail images; click on the pictures for larger images]
It's incredible to find such artifacts intact after nearly 100 years, especially since
they've been abandoned for some 70 of those years, and in the middle of one of the
world's most heavily-developed suburbs!
[I should have noted that these posts are on the S side of 67, just
W of the crest, on VERY PRIVATE property (as the irate
owner made eminently clear to us!).]
(25 Jan 08)
Half Hollow Hills Area - revisited
Now, shifting gears (well - venue, anyway - you may be shiftless), let's jump back to
the Wheatley Heights/Half Hollow Hills area, where Dr. David Eisenberg trekked with
camera on Thursday 04 Apr 2002; he sent along these great shots with explanations
I have transcribed almost verbatim:
As a reference, if you look at the bottom of page 7
of my LIMP website, there are two photos of the LIPA right of way both east and west
of Bagatelle. The photo on the left, i.e. the west of Bagatelle greensward,
shows a plateau traveling N-S just below the power line; here they are again for
ease of reference:
["Just S of the LIE, between Threepence ('Thruppence') and Wilmington Drives (as
I recall),
the RoW crosses Bagatelle, here viewed WSW and ENE:"]
(Both photos 01 Apr 00 by and © 2000 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail images; click on pictures for larger images.]
That plateau IS the Parkway. With that in mind, photo number 6 is
taken from atop that plateau looking down the greensward toward Bagatelle:
(Following photos taken 04 Apr 02 by D. Eisenberg - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail images; click on the pictures for larger images.
Cropped or altered by SB,III as noted.]
Turning to the right from where Dr. E. stood in photo 6, he faced south along the LIMP
Row towards a fence in the distance:
Walking south, Dr. E. found a patch of LIMP pavement.
Looking through the slats in the fence, into private property,
one can see a good amount of original pavement headed southward
{heavily cropped photo}:
Turning left or north along LIMP Row from the location of the original photo {one sees
the the RoW climbing away}:
Just south of the LIPA row, west of Bagatelle, you can see the parkway running as a
ridge in the north-south direction beyond the fence and before the house:
Distant and close-up shots {the latter has been cropped} of an fallen post on
the eastern downslope of the ridge carrying the parkway in the woods north of the
LIPA Row:
It's hard to see, but under the stick in the middle of the following photos is one of
several drainage pipes Dr. E. had mentioned to me previously. This is also
taken north of the LIPA Row. Unfortunately, he did not get to photograph a
more visible pipe in the woods east of Bagatelle and north of Threepence (maybe next
time). I added arrows to show the pipe better:
(Preceding photos taken 04 Apr 02 by D. Eisenberg - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail images; click on the pictures for larger images.
Cropped or altered by SB,III as noted.]
In addition to all this on both sides of Bagatelle Road, Mike Abbey has a photo of a
drainage grate near Francis Lewis Boulevard on his site (click
here to jump there - but hurry back, y'heah?). I'm glad some of us have
eagle eyes!
Because of space limitations, additional information on the Bagatelle area and NE'rly
to Half Hollow Road and the extant 14-mile segment (County Route 67) is now on
LIMP page A.
Talking of the Wheatley Heights area reminded me that I have an unprovenanced
photo of the rural crossing of the LIMP over Colonial Springs Road (perhaps ca. 1950):
{Unprovenanced photo taken ca. 1950{?}.}
If anyone can identify this most-bucolic photo or provide more information about it; I
will make whatever amends or amendations are appropriate (if it's already up on
my site, please tell me where).
Well, Dr. Eisenberg was back around there again with his camera ca. 13 Apr 02:
South of Colonial Springs Road in Wheatley Heights are wooded areas
(behind the stores) where torn up pavement exists. In the left photo (1) you
can see one slab on the left with grey/black macadam present. In the right
photo (2), no obvious pavement was left in place on the ground:
(Following photos taken ca. 13 Apr 2002 by D. Eisenberg - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail images; click on the pictures for larger images (all images reduced by SB,III).]
This is the LIMP pavement behind the VFW hall north of CSR. Left photo (3) is looking NNE and right photo (4) is looking SSW; at the distant end of the pavement in the right photo (4) is a mound of dirt beyond which you are looking over CSR to the top of the stores (hard to
see) on the south side of CSR:
This is a view (left - 5) looking west along CSR; the building with the columns on the right (north) is the VFW hall and the store parking lot on the left with the parked cars is to the south. This is probably the location of that 1950 bridge over CSR that I have pictured above. Right (6) - looking toward the wooded area on the west side of Bagatelle where the LIMP crossed Bagatelle:
Left (7) and right (8) are the eastern Bagatelle equivalent with photo 8 just a camera's turn north of photo 7:
Left (9) and right (10) - about 40 yards into the woods on the eastern side of Bagatelle, one finds the LIMP ridge with a shot of the more visible drainage pipe and it's closeup shot:
11 - About 10 yards north of the drainpipe on the ridge is this post:
(Preceding photos taken ca. 13 Apr 2002 by D. Eisenberg - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail images; click on the pictures for larger images (all images reduced by SB,III).]
Because the Main Page overloaded, please visit
Continuation Pages 1A, up, as shown on the
Index Page.
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S. Berliner, III
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of this series of Long Island Motor Parkway pages.
© Copyright S. Berliner, III -
2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006,
2008
- All rights reserved.
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