The Mystery of the North Hills Country Club “Vanderbilt Pkwy” Road Sign
Yes, another Motor Parkway unsolved mystery has surfaced! This road marker can be found near the 13th green of the North Hills Country Club in North Hills, located north of the service road of the Long Island Expressway.
However, as shown below, the Long Island Motor Parkway was located almost two miles south from the current location of the road marker. A club member believes the marker has been in this location since it opened in 1961.
Was this road sign originally placed at the North Hills Country Club location in Douglaston (1927-1960)? Does anyone have any insight into this road marker mystery?
Enjoy,
Howard Kroplick
The History of North Hills Country Club-Robert Trent Jones
March 30, 1961
To The Members of the North Hills Golf Club,
The location and accessibility of the new North Hills Golf Club are unsurpassed in the Metropolitan area. Natural flowing land has invited the creation of an exceptionally beautiful golf course with sweeping fairways, gently contoured greens and sparkling ponds.
The 6730 yard, par 72 golf course has been carved out of the rolling forest of the Allen-Boggs-Levitt Estates in the Village of North Hills. This virgin timber was cleared with great care to save the best of the stately tulip trees, oaks, sweet gums and birch for a beautiful arboreal setting. A screen of trees has been preserved along the borders of the property and will be augmented where necessary to insure privacy for the members.
The holes flow with the contour of the land and have been graded for easy walking. The contouring provided good target areas, natural green sites and large tees.
The sequence of the holes is such that no two succeeding holes are alike either in length or shot values, and each hole presents a fair challenge to both the low and high handicap golfers. The long tees and the generously proportioned undulating greens with their varied pin positions offer endless combinations of dynamic playing conditions to enjoyed by all the pros, the duffers, the women, the young and the old.
The fairway trapping has been located to place a premium on accuracy for the longer hitter and does not inflict an unfair penalty on the duffer. The trapping at the greens has been planned to provide a framework for the green with championship pin positions carefully guarded but the rest of the greens exposed as large targets for normal play.
The course provides a fair test of golf for everyone - fair pars for the experts and easy bogeys for the average players.
Sincerely,
63-20 Marathon Pkwy., Douglaston, NY
18 Hole Golf Course
Year Built: 1927
Description: Formerly North Hills Country Club, became a municipal course in the early 1960s. With beautiful wide rolling fairways and hilly terrain the course provides shots for all levels of golfers. Douglaston is situated at the highest point in the Borough of Queens, providing picturesque views of the Manhattan skyline. The signature hole is #18, a 550-yard par 5 requiring a precise drive and approach shot to a large well-bunkered green. Original golf course Architect Willie Tucker in 1927, and renovated by Stephen Kay in 2004.
Close-Ups
North Hills Country Club, North Hills, Nassau County Location (1961-Current)
The road marker is almost two mile north of the Motor Parkway right-of-way.
2000 Aerial
1926 Aerial
North Hills Country Club, Douglaston, Queens Location (1927-1960)
The Motor Parkway was much closer to the North Hills Country Club's location in Douglaston currently the Douglaston Golf Courses near the Queens County Farm Museum.
1937 Aerial
Motor Parkway and Union Turnpike (under construction) can be seen on the right.The North Hills Country Club in Douglaston is on left just north of Grand Central Parkway.
Comments
My first impression, this is an updated version of the original road marker. This sign doesn’t appear old.
Howard, Got the answer. When the Links Condominium complex was built, the post was ordered and was to be placed at the old Links Golf Club entrance from the Motor Parkway. FedEx mistakenly delivered it to the North Hills Country Club turning it over to the greens keeper. The greens keeper thought the sign maker made a mistake painting Links Club on it. So….he took upon his self and repainted it…North Hills CC. After the sign dried he put it in the back of is truck. He then called the club’s president where to place it. The president figured the club’s historian ordered it and told the greens keeper, o k,... put it in front of the club house. On the way to the club house, the sign,... without the greens keeper knowing it, fell out of the truck near the 13th green. The greens keeper assistant, who was following him in another cart and who was going to do the actual digging, not told where it was to be placed, saw the sign on the ground, said to himself….ooo kaa, I guess this is where it goes. The greens keeper,... figured there was a change in plans, shrugged his shoulders and muttered, OK by me. SOLVED.
_____________________________
Howard Kroplick
Al, nice try…very funny!
So the origins of this sign post isn’t related to the course in Douglaston at all. Better off the post found it’s home in North Hills, think it would’ve been forgotten/lost if delivered to the Links Complex. Say you set the all time record of solving a mystery here, Al : )
Call me gullible, and I’m usually last to get the joke. But is this mystery considered solved?
Brian, Got more on the post. Shortly after the post was placed at North Hills, a member of the Wheatley Golf Club played a round there and noticed the post. He told his club’s historian about it who I understand went ballistic screaming…. OMG,... who had a better connection with Vanderbilt and the Parkway than Wheatley! We must to do something !!!. Between the 9th and 10th holes at Wheatley they have a halfway house. Not wanting to be too obvious he decided to call it Kienzle’s Korner after the Motor Parkway’s general manager, A. J. Kienzle. who was a member of Wheatley. Kienzle was so very pleased showed his appreciation by having a hole in one the next time he played.
Has anyone physically examined this thing? From the photo it appears very modern, and made by using a router. Am I mistaken?
Actually, the post WAS on the LIMP RoW where they were trying a new rubberized macadam which shrank in the sun and pulled that leg of the RoW back south! [This story must have been left over from an April 1st blog.] Sam, III
Howard, I’ve often wondered,... when Moses was building the bridges for the Motor Parkway west of both Lakeville and New Hyde Park Rd.‘s, the Motor Parkway had to be closed at different times between Marcus Ave. and New Hyde Park Rd. I’m guessing a temporary exit was created at Marcus Ave. for east bound Motor Parkway traffic when the bridge west of Lakeville Rd. was being built and then accessing the Motor Parkway at the Great Neck Lodge. At New Hyde Park Rd., again, I’m guessing, a temporary exit was created for west bound Motor Parkway traffic, who would then go south to Marcus Ave., to Lakeville Rd. and then re-enter the Motor Parkway at the Great Neck Lodge. ( I’m assuming the Motor Parkway bridge west of Lakeville rd. was completed at this time.) Any thoughts, maybe some aerials would have clues Anybody else ?
If the noble Umberto has to guess, what hope is there for us ordinary mortals? Art, thou font of ancient info., HELP (please)! ACNY traffic bulletins or some such? Sam, III
What is the height of the sign?
5-6 feet.
I was superintendent of North Hills CC in Manhasset from 2002 to 2016. The post pictured is not original nor was the one it replaced. The road in question it marks out is too narrow to be the VMP. It is adjacent to the 13 fairway and it was an access road to an old dump that was abandoned when the Fairways condos were built. The club is about a mile north of the VMP.
My uncle, Ziggy Czarnecki with the GM in the early 40’s. One day while I was having lunch at the club (1946 or 47) he came in and got me. Come with me he said. We went outside the pro shop and he introduced me to, and I shoot hands with, Babe Ruth who played at the club. Babe gave me autographed baseball and I, being 9 years old traded it to my older cousin for his stamp album. Young and dumb as they say.