Art's Long Island Motor Parkway Site
This page shows the Motor Parkway (in blue on map) between Shelter Rock Road on the west and just below I.U. Willets Road further east. The Parkway ran between what is today Carriage Road on its north and Shrub Hollow Road on its south. The area is fenced in and borders backyards on both sides; the only access point is up a small hill on the west side of the entrance to the rear of Herricks High School (shown at the east end of the blue line). The road which acts as the entrance is off of I.U. Willets Road, just west of Reed Lane (also not shown on this 1950 Hagtstrom map); the high school (built in 1958) now occupies the 80 acres of land shown to be owned by the F.& C. Dev. Corp. Earlier this land was a burial plot for a founding family of the area, the Pearsalls and was called Watermelon Hill.
On the map I've drawn in a LIPA substation on the east side of Shelter Rock Road where it intersects with the Motor Parkway. There is a driveway leading behind the substation, but further access is blocked by a fence. Hence, the need to enter the area on the east side as mentioned above. The substation is shown on the last picture of the previous page, named North Hills.
Click on these links to view the above area from the air in 1966 and 2006. The Herricks High School complex is evident in both pictures, but the 1966 one doesn't show the homes north of the Motor Parkway roadway. Only the homes south of it, on Shrub Hollow Road were built at this time. Click on the overlay tab at the top of each pic to insert the names of the streets.
Willie K. Vanderbilt Jr., must not have been able to secure the rights of way in order to have the parkway routed straight through this property. As such the Parkway crosses Shelter Rock Road, heads northeast towards I.U. Willets Road, and then back down again towards today's Searingtown Road (the map shows this as Manhasset Ave.). As shown on the map, the property north of the Parkway was owned by the Boy Scouts of America and the area south by housing developers. As mentioned ealier, a school now resides on part of the south side, with all other areas being homes, including the Boys Scouts property.
I'll try to locate additional maps of the property prior to 1950 and will post when available.
The area is overgrown with bushes and shrubs and at certain points a bit murky and swampy with the ground soft with pools of rainwater. At least at the time when I took this exploration, there were no thorns to hassle with.
Unfortunately no relics of the Motor Parkway were to be found, however additional trips will be made when the area is not so overgrown with vegetation. As with other areas I've explored, going back in different seasons sometimes yields what I'm looking for (posts, evidence of the actual roadway, etc.). However, check out the picture on this page of an auto found during my travels. The poor driver obviously made a wrong turn while looking for the Motor Parkway! Now to the pictures.
Here's the picture of the car that made a wrong turn looking for the Motor Parkway. Amazing its been here all these years!
Here's the picture of the car that made a wrong turn looking for the Motor Parkway. Amazing its been here all these years!
