Efforts Are Being Made To Preserve The Historical Long Island Motor Parkway

Efforts to Preserve Long Island Motor Parkway Legacy

The legacy of the Long Island Motor Parkway is being kept alive after The Long Island Motor Parkway Preservation Society has been working to establish historical landmarks and markers across Long Island.

On March 18, with backing from the preservation society, the Town of North Hempstead’s Historic Landmarks Preservation Commission voted that a Motor Parkway bridge on Old Courthouse Road showed characteristics to become a historical landmark. Three members of the preservation society spoke in front of the Commission sharing their opinions and personal stories. The bridge is one of two Motor Parkway bridges left in Nassau County. The Town Board will now vote on the finalization of the landmark during a Board meeting that has yet to be scheduled.

“The Motor Parkway is kind of a piece of history that has been forgotten over the years and we’re trying to revive it,” said Howard Kroplick, president of the Long Island Motor Parkway Preservation Society.

Kroplick founded the Preservation Society in 2011, beginning with eight members. In four years the preservation society multiplied and now includes over 280 members. Their objective is to promote and preserve the history of the Long Island Motor Parkway.

“It was the first parkway built exclusively for automobiles in the world,” said Kroplick, “But many people don’t even know what it was.”

The Motor Parkway was built in 1907 to accommodate the famous Long Island Vanderbilt Cup races. The automobile race was held on Long Island from 1904 to 1910 and drew in crowds from of up to 250,000 spectators. The Vanderbilt Cup was America’s first major automobile racing trophy. The Motor Parkway’s purpose was to stop the races from occurring on public roads after the death of a bystander. The Motor Parkway ran from Queens to Lake Ronkonkoma and was the start of paved roads for automobiles.

“It was a lot of firsts,” said Steve Lucas, member of the Preservation Society. “So many people don’t realize that it is really important to the history and development of Long Island,” he said. “Everyone knows the development of the automobile is what led to suburbia. This road was the first one that allowed for eastern access by car in a convenient way.”

Today the Motor Parkway has seen turned into bike paths, paved over into new roadways or is being used for utility lines. “The rest are in people’s backyards,” Kroplick said.

“There’s so much history on Long Island that people don’t know,” said Art Kleiner, member of the preservation society.  “It’s just that unfortunately every couple of years you see another piece of history getting buried away.”

The historical society has been active with the Nassau County Department of Public Works in a project called the Motor Parkway Trail, which is a pilot program in East Meadow to redevelop parts of the Motor Parkway for recreational uses. Plans are underway for historical markers to be placed alongside the trail.

“I had 12 signs fabricated for now and the intention right now is to install ten of them in the East Meadow and Levittown area,” said Brian Schneider of the Nassau County Department of Public Works.

These markers will briefly inform citizens of the history of the Motor Parkway as well as the Vanderbilt Cup races.

“Moving forward we would like to put more descriptive markers at more educational interpretive places,” said Schneider.

Over the next couple of months, if the Town Of North Hempstead Board declares the Old Courthouse Bridge a historical landmark, the preservation society plans to create a maker beside the bridge.
“I think we are definitely promoting what the Motor Parkway was and by putting out historical markers I think the Motor Parkway will always have a legacy,” Kroplick said.