Vanderbilt Cup Races

Intersection of Old Country Road and Barnum (Whaleneck, Merrick) Avenues in Westbury.  Looking west down OCR on the right side, south looking down Barnum Ave. on the left. 

Identify the building in the Mystery Foto? Name one or more restaurants that were located in this corner over the last 112 years?

Schmidt’s Meadow Brook Hotel (Henry and then Carl prop.); Baci.  There was another Meadowbrook Hotel in Hempstead near the Belmont estate (Front Street) in the 20s.

The course was changed so that racers would not have to use Whaleneck Avenue to get to the Motor Parkway part of the course.  It was moved a little west to Ellison Avenue.  Is that a Motor Parkway bridge further to the south behind the hotel?

Three more docs.

those were the days !!!!!

I’m aware of 3 eating establishments that previously occupied this corner. Schmidt’s Meadowbrook Hotel/restaurant was there during the VCR races time frame,  Felice’s restaurant late 1930’s-mid 1960’s ( basically same building) and presently Baci’s .

Looking southwest at Felice’s Restaurant Old Country Rd at Merrick (on left) Avenue and Old Country west to the right.  The building looks similar to the match cover picture.

Admiring all the open spaces in this early 20th century Long Island photo. Henry Schmidt’s Meadow Brook Hotel. I believe photo is looking NW but where in Meadow Brook? -This location could be intersection of Old Country Rd and Glen Cove Rd looking NW, with Roosevelt Airfield directly behind photographer. The bend in OCR westbound could be a match to the present day thoroughfare, though much wider today and loaded with red light cameras. Cannot locate any hints of the LIMP underpass just 1/4 mi down the OCR road. Also any sign of LIRR RoW just to the north cannot be seen as well. Wish I could spend just a day here. Take me back, please.  Looking forward to this weeks answers!

If I’m correct, I may have spotted both the LIMP OCR underpass walls, and LIRR RoW, after opening the last zoomed photo in the Microsoft Paint application. Photo below

Zoom photo cropped below

Pre-Baci’s restaurant! And excellent sleuthing Art. Great information relating to the hotel’s original location and related incidences. Always learning something new here. On the left, part of the original Salisbury Plains still intact, now home to Eisenhower Park’s golf course, just south of Old Country Rd., the same area Dave mentioned just last week. An amazing shot Howard. Thank you Al, Howard, and Garden City Archives for sharing these photos of old Long Island to all.

I’m embarrassed that I didn’t have a clue about any of the questions, because I traveled the Merrick Ave./Post Ave. route many times as a youngster, from our home in Merrick to relatives in Locust Valley, and have eaten in the Baci restaurant.

Now that I see the pictures, I recognize the Felice restaurant, where I never ate. The area has changed extensively even in my lifetime. One thing that did not change from my youth to today, I always remember the intersection as being busy. But not in 1908!

Facebook Page: People who grew up in East Meadow

Howard Kroplick: Does anyone remember the restaurant Felice on the corner of Merrick Avenue and Old Country Road?
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Jacqueline Rubin: I had dinner there in the early 60’s. Nice place.

Adam Schaefer: Cafe Bacci on the corner of Merrick Ave and Old Country Rd, used to be a quick serve Chinese place called Rickshaw.

Myk Mäyo: Adam Schaefer my dad used to take us there all the time in the mid 80’s. The Baci sign in front still has a decidedly Asian look to it.

Richie Shor I remember it as a young kid going with my parents for dinner.

Gene Scheinberg: Sure my dad’s favorite…garlic bread knots in little paper bags

Julie Standish Mangano: My parents favorite when they were flush with cash, which wasn’t often.

One more pic from a 1927 map of Westbury.

Excellent observation Howard. That looks like the LIMP approach to the Merrick Av bridge, most definitely. I missed it.

Felice’s?  OMG!  I’d forgotten all about it.  Wonder if the Greentree, up Post Avenue, wasn’t also used by the sporting set?  Seems to me that Whaleneck Road and Merrick Avenue were two different roads, with WR just west of MA, as shown on my Central Nassau page <http://sbiii.com/limpcns1.html>.  See also George Thane’s aerial on my VCR page <http://sbiii.com/limpvcup.html> (where I conflated them in the text).  Other images are lost so HELP, please!  Sam, III

Let’s spend a few days at the Meadow Brook Hotel, I hear they have good rates.