Mystery Friday Foto #19 Solved; Old 16 Locomobile celebrating the 1908 Vanderbilt Cup Race victory in Bridgeport
Did you identify this celebration?
Identify;
- The car and driver
George Robertson with Glenn Ethridge in the Old 16 Locomobile
- The celebration/demonstration
Celebrating the winning of the 1908 Vanderbilt Cup Race with the first American-built racer.
- The city
Bridgeport, Connecticut- the home of the Locomobile Company.
- Date of the event
November 9, 1908
Kudos question: After this event, where did the driver and his team go for dinner?
Celebrated at the Hotel Stratfield in Bridgeport.
Comments (6):
Congrats and kudos to Steve Lucas, Dick Gorman, Art Kleiner, and Ken Parrotte for identifying George Robertson driving Old 16 in Bridgeport before banqueting at the Hotel Stratfield.
Enjoy,
Greg O. & Howard Kroplick
The day ended with a Locomobile Company of America banquet at the"The Stratfield" hotel. Built in 1902 on Main Street, the hotel spanned the entire block between Chapel Street and Golden Hill Street. The 8-story landmark hotel was one of Bridgeport's tallest buildings, and served as it's premier hotel for decades. It was renovated in 1979 for elderly and disabled housing, and is now known as Stratfield Apartments.
Three hundred men and apparently no women attended the banquet. Check out the Vanderbilt Cup Race trophy in the back row.
Comments
That’s George Robertson driving “Old 16”, the Locomobile racer that won the 1908 Vanderbilt Cup. A special victory celebration commemorating the race was held on the streets of Bridgeport, CT, home of the Locomobile factory, on November 9, 1908. Later that evening, Robertson and his team and other other invited guests dined at the Stratfield Hotel, also in Bridgeport.
This is the “Old 16” Locomobile driven by George Robertson. The trolley tracks in the street reminds me of Philadelphia, so I’m going to say that this was a celebratory drive in that city regarding his win on October 8th, 1908 in the Fairmount race. As for the Kudos question: I’m throwing out a guess that maybe the after party/dinner they went to was at the Clover Club in the Bellevue-Stratford hotel.
Mystery Foto #19… The car is the one and only Old 16 Locomobile racer as driven by George Robertson. And the crowd was there to celebrate Robertson’s victory of the 1908 Vanderbilt Cup Race in that car. They were in the city of Bridgeport CT, home of the Locomobile company, all this happening around November 9, 1908. After this event the driver and team went to dinner at The Stratfield Hotel along with more than 300 business and community leaders.
The 1908 Vanderbilt Cup Race winner, George Robertson and his Locomobile.
The celebration was held to honor the birthplace of the Locomobile, Bridgeport, CT.
Event was held on Main Street on November 9, 1908 which was closed to traffic in order to have Robertson perform speed tests for the crowd.
Afterwards a dinner was given at the Hotel Stratfield.
Additional documentation - this NY Times article from Nov. 6, 1908 describes the route to be taken by Robertson from the Locomobile showroom in NY to Bridgeport, with several stops along the way. The article in my previous response was from the Bridgeport Sunday Herald of November 1, 1908.
Car: Locomobile Driver: George Robertson City: Bridgeport, CT
Date: November 9, 1908 celebration of the team winning the 1908 Vanderbilt Cup Race.
A banquest was held at the Stratfield Hotel.