:
Native American Honored
In Woodsburgh (between Woodmere and Hewlett),
Long Island, is a granite monument (a small
obelisk on a plinth) to an old native Sachem,
Culluloo Telawana, which I used to visit
as a teen. I went there on 21 Mar 98 and
transcribed the inscription:
HERE LIVED AND DIED
CULLULOO TELAWANA
ca. 1818
THE LAST OF THE ROCKAWAY
IROQUOIS INDIANS,
WHO WAS PERSONALLY
KNOWN TO ME
IN MY BOYHOOD
I OWNING THE LAND HAVE
ERECTED THIS MONUMENT
TO HONOR HIS TRIBE.
-----*-----
ABRAHAM HEWLETT
1888
CULLULOO
[Note the spelling on the obelisk; the name has been alternatively
spelled (even by me) "Cullulloo Telawanna" and other ways.]
(29 Sep 07)
In Robert Arbib's evocative book, "The Lord's Woods", noted on my Long
Island Continuation Page 1, in the section
of that name, this story, monument, and inscription are presented (I'd
completely forgotten) and Arbib relates that Cullulloo's "little house was in
Woodmere, where Linden Street now crosses Broadway, the old footpath"
{presumably in the Lord's Woods} and Arbib goes on to say "It is the only
memorial to a 7,000 year history to be found anywhere". How sad!
On 04 Nov 2000, I took my trusty digital camera down to Woodsburgh and found
my way inerrantly (not bad after many years and not having that map with me)
and shot the obelisk under lowering skies (actually, the pictures
which follow are substitutes shot with a cell phone on 26 Aug 2007 to
replace the 2000 pix lost):
(29 Sep 07)
(26 Aug 2007 pictures by and © 2007 S. Berliner, III - All Rights Reserved)
I also shot photos of a regular jet and a jumbo jet low over the
obelisk just to the west, over Cedarhurst, heading in to JFK on a
flight path appropriately dubbed Cedarhurst Alley (there was a
book by that name); I took what I could get on 26 Aug 2007:
(29 Sep 07)
(Picture 26 Aug 07 by and © 2007 S. Berliner, III - All Rights Reserved)
Cedarhurst Alley is an area of upscale homes beseiged by noise and
kerosene from planes roaring in overhead all day and night on 2 minute
headings (some times two nearly abreast for two parallel runways)!
Inisfada - St. Ignatius Retreat House
(Moved from the LI continuation page 1 on 17 Mar 2004)
One of the many surviving "Gold Coast" mansions is that of Nicholas and
Genevieve Garvan Brady in Manhasset, Inisfada, meaning "Long
Island" in Gaelic. Here are some views at poor sun angles of the front
of the house from the north, looking at the center left, the center, and the right
end (the left end was totally obscured by trees and shrubbery), and of the
serenely beautiful meditation maze:
(Pictures Oct 01 by and © 2001 S. Berliner, III - All Rights Reserved)
[Thumbnail images; click on pictures for larger images.]
{to be reshot at better sun angles}
Unlike so many other surviving mansions, which are put to commercial or
entertainment uses, Inisfada (built ca. 1916-20) was given to the Society of
Jesus (the Jesuits) by Mrs. Brady in 1937 and now serves as the
St. Ignatius Retreat House.
It remains largely as it was at that time and is a wonderful and inspirational
venue; a place of peace and beauty. The house and grounds are open
to the public and I heartily recommend a visit (and I personally ask that you
not forget the donation box in the lobby before you leave). It is a nice
place to get a mass card for the sick or bereaved and has a lovely gift shop,
where you can purchase an inexpensive, well-illustrated brochure on the full
history of the house.
Gould Gatehouse - another architectural gem of Long Island history is the
gatehouse to the Gould estate in Dix Hills (not the Gold Coast one in Sands Point); it
is at 495 Wolf Hill Road and the hunting lodge is still there as well (but completely
invisible from the street), about ¾ of a mile away on the south side of Caledonia
Road, west of Dix Hills Road [just look for the electrified split rail fence (to keep the
horses in the paddock)]. The gatehouse is for sale again at only
$1,275,000 (I think I'll pass) and John Chiarella was kind enough to offer these
exterior and interior shots of the gatehouse (received 05 Jan 2006):
(Jan 2006 pictures courtesy of J. Chiarella - all rights reserved)
L - Right Front | R - Front
[Because the front of the gatehouse was heavily shaded,
these two pictures have been artificially lightened.]
L - Living Room | R - Dining Room
L - Den | R - Bedroom
(Jan 2006 pictures courtesy of J. Chiarella - all rights reserved)
L - Kitchen | R - Back Yard
Thanks, John!
Bella Vista
(moved from LI page 2 on 10 Jan 2006 because of space limitations)
Raimund Corssen is (or was) the name of the BMW dealer in Oyster Bay (I finally
remembered that and verified it) but what was the name of the old Grand Prix race
car driver who became a restaurateur on Route 25A in Centerport just south of the
harbor? His place, which I thought was the Mill Pond Inn (now
the Mill Pond House), at 437 East Main Street (they say no) or next door to the east
in the Bella Vista (later the Casa del Mare, etc., etc.*), 441 East Main
Street (where they know nothing about it, nor does the Greenlawn-Centerport
Historical Society). As I recall rather vividly, the restaurant was the one to
the west and it was owned ca. 1960-70 by a race-car driver, Belgian I believe, who
had a Bugatti and one or more other of his old cars hung upside-down above the bar,
which was to the left (west) as one walked in (north) from 25A.
(22 Aug 07)
(The more I think about it, the more certain I am that it was
the Bella Vista,
by name, and the Mill Pond Inn by the look and location of it!
That's really useful! For locals, the Thatched Cottage is at 445.)
Here's where it actually was/is:
(Map by and © 2006 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
Stony Hollow Road is almost certainly the "twisty back road" referred to below;
it very much still is just that, although no longer so "empty"!
Now (23 Sep 02) to further clarify AND muddy the waters, a gentleman from East
Hampton writes as follows (slightly edited):
-
"Back in the 1960's an entire generation of college students would use the Bella Vista
for drinks and dating. The owner was a man named John Buzzeta. - - - The
building was NOT the Mill Pond Inn. The Mill Pond Inn was next door to the
west.
There were never any automobiles hanging from the ceiling of the bar, but the ceiling
was festooned with license plates from all over the world. Wall hangings were
photographs and general automobile memorabilia.
The Bella Vista building had been so modified, renovated {etc.} as to make the
original structure unrecognizable.several years ago. The original was a hip
roofed building with a lovely second floor porch which looked out over the mill pond.
I remember that various sports car clubs and organizations would design their rally
competitions to end at what we all called the 'BV'. On weekend afternoons
the parking lot was packed with foreign cars of every description.
I was told that the building many years previous had belonged to the Mr.
Vanderbilt whose mansion Eagles Nest became the Vanderbilt Museum in
Centerport. It was rumored that it was some sort of gate house, because
Vanderbilt owned all the property between the Bella Vista and the estate.
I have no idea if this story is true."
On 11 Dec 05, I heard from the West Coast:
-
"wanted to elaborate on the Bella Vista. The Bella Vista was indeed
owned by John Buzzetta in the early sixties and was 'festooned' with
automobilia.
The reason for this was that in those days, the restaurant (formerly a
Whitney summer home) lay at the terminus of a rather empty and twisty back
road. Because of this, local sports car clubs would hold rallies on
Sunday afternoons that would finish at the restaurant just in time for a
few martinis and a nice dinner.
This activity got John's son Joe interested in sports cars and Joe became a
quite accomplished racing driver, usually competing in Porsches. On his
time off he would tend bar at the Bella Vista."
Thanks. Belgian, eh? Mill Pond Inn, eh? So much for
what I remember!
However, I definitely remember an old Bugatti and one or more other
racers hanging upside down from the ceiling; the more I think about that detail,
the more certain I am of it.
Well, more old Bella Vista habituées have checked in; Tom Householder, now
out in Ohio (where he keeps track of the 200 old Doretti sports cars
still known to exist (of the less than 300 built) and involved with vintage
Triumphs, advised 09 Jan 2006: "The Long Island Sports car club hung
out there a lot and started a lot of their rally's there." He verifies the
location and will be sending an old article about the place.
(10 Jan 06)
The old Bella Vista's mantle as a hangout for car buffs has been largely
assumed by The Shack, just to the
east at 1 Stony Hollow Road (the southeast corner of 25A and Stony Hollow).
* - As of Jul 2007 (at least), the Bella Vista-cum-Casa del
Mare-cum-Silver Swan at 441 East Main Street had become the
Viva Juan but on 22 Aug 2007 Ken Harris tells me that it is now
the ¡Ay Caramba!
Restaurant [gotta keep movin' to keep current]! Can't
argue with this:
(18 Aug 07) and
(22 Aug 07)
(¡Ay Caramba! Restaurant - Aug 2007)
[picture from ¡Ay Caramba! site]
Glen Head
I lived in a house in the hamlet of Glen Head (in the Town of Oyster Bay) on a City of
Glen Cove street with property in both jurisdictions; that makes for all sorts of fun.
We have a realtor there with the clever name of
Sherlock Homes and they sent me this advertising postcard, itself a reproduction of
an older postcard of the Glen Head station on the Oyster Bay Branch of the
Long Island Rail Road:
(31 Dec 06)
(Postcard from Sherlock Homes - Jan 2006)
[Thumbnail image; click on picture for larger image]
I tried artificially lightening the dark image to draw out more detail but had to stop
here because everything was washing out. We appear to be looking south.
You can make out the handsome old station building (long gone) with its colonnaded
shed, two ca. 1925-29 cars, a low platform on the eastbound (northbound here) side
and a high platform with a shed on the westbound (southbound here) side.
Note the two elegant benches for people waiting; what a nice touch, missing today.
Then see the trash on the single track (double now) and maybe not so much has
changed, after all, except that the area is all built up, now.
This is also posted on the LIRR page 9,
where many questions are posed.
Nassau Brick Works
When A(lexander). T(unney). Stewart, the mercantile king, decided to build his dream
city (actually just a residential community that to this day remains, administratively, a
village), Garden City, he built the Central Railroad of
Long Island to service it and he also built the Nassau Brick Works in
Central Park (now Bethpage), near the junction of the Central RR and the
Long Island Rail Road for the bricks to build his vision. The brick works,
begun in 1872, survived well towards the end of the 20th Century but
has now disappeared into the rubble of a concrete plant. Now and then, a
brick turns up here and there; I found mine alongside the right-of-way of the old
Long Island Motor Parkway in Bethpage:
(22 Nov 2005 photo by and © 2005 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
It is a "new" brick, slightly battered and dirty, to be sure, but unused; I have no clue
how old it might be.
Motor Parkway Panel Friend Frank Smith seems to have
uncovered a veritable trove of Nassau Bricks in Bethpage State Park, in the
crook of Round Swamp Road, just opposite the southern end of Winding
Road and the location of the old Nassau Brick Works:
(29 Dec 2006 map by and © 2006 S. berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed image - click on map for bigger image.]
The brick pile is also just north-west of the old
Central RR turntable pit. So much history in one small patch of land!
Here are reductions of some of Frank's Sep 2006 photos of the brick piles:
(reduced from Sep 2006 pictures by F. Smith - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed pictures - click on images for bigger pictures.]
"GARDEN CITY CO"
See also the Fairchild Aerial Survey page.
Stay tuned!
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S. Berliner, III
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