OUR NEXT MEETING:
Germans on Long Island
Our guest speaker will be Paul Van Der Wye. We will discuss plans also for our upcoming Winter Social, as well.
Tuesday, November 26, 2019 at Hicksville Public Library 7:15 p.m. All are welcome. Refreshments served.
PRESERVING THE HISTORY OF HICKSVILLE:
Hicksville Historical Society 
February 5, 2016 at 3:33 pm
Do you have any photos of the L.I. Country Club Airport and the Vanderbilt Motor Pkwy grandstand? I am looking for aerial shots taken around 1949, just before it was replaced by Levitt homes. I’m trying to pinpoint EXACT locs. of both. I will visit the Levittown Mus., as well. Purpose:– groundwork towards trying to get the Town of Hempstead and any other organizations i(like you, perhaps?) interested in getting together to have an historical marker — a good one — placed as nr. as poss. to the airport’s clubhouse, on Blacksmith Rd. (That would be near the intersection with Topper or Crocus Lanes. (Technically, the airfield was in Hicksville.)
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February 21, 2016 at 11:58 pm
Sorry for the delay in responding. I didn’t realize you made a post. I am very interested your inquiry. I do not have photos of the grandstand but you want to have a look at the aerial photos that the library has online (http://cdm16373.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p16373coll80). The Levittown Historical Society may have some on display in their museum as well. I will see what I can dig up. Please keep me posted. We would like be involved in this marker and would help to get it up. Sorry again for the long delay. Derek
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March 23, 2016 at 3:30 am
I finally figured out the footprint of the L.I. Cuntry Club Airport was, laterally E and W, that is. Julia Blum, an archivist at the Cradle of Aviation Museum was the first to help, by sending me a couple of old aerial photos and giving me information about a movement that was begun a few months ago to publicize L.I.’s role in aviation history. I was stymied about the airport’s N/S footprint, tho, which could only be ascertained by knowing for certain the loc. of the Motor Pkwy in that area. (The airport was 88 feet north of the old Pkwy.) Paul Manton was keenly interested but couldn’t help me much with detective work. He did, though, provide some publications that provided me with good material on the airport’s history. A volunteer at the Levittow Museum had a helpful clue, tho! Virginia Carew of the Levittown Library cme in with some good tidbits, as well. Howard Kroplick, the acknowledged expert on the Motor Pkwy was extremely helpful, and just last night (3/21) he came up with an old aerial photo (yet to be published or presented online) that finally enabled me to figure out the N/S angle. (Within hours, a fellow by the name of Frank Femenia finessed it.) Now I am ready to fill out the application for the marker and submit it to the Town of Hempstead. I’d rather see one of those blue and yellow heavy signs erected near the site,like the four markers in the Town that point out four locations along the Motor Pkwy. last week I passed by a yellow and blue marker in the Town pointing out an altogether different historic site having to do with Geo. Washington. The bottom of the sign sign reads “Landmark Preservation Commission.” But I just learned that the COmmission is part of the Town of Hemsptead government. So I will now submit my application (along with pictures that document my findings, and which also relate the airport’s history and its significance. I’ll also submit a covering letter stating briefly why I think this has merit. I have a feeling this is going to be a long haul, with lost of red tape. If you would like to help, I have no idea what you could do, and I really thank you for saying you’d like to assist!. Have you any ideas? I am going to try to get the application sent in by March 31st. It may be a good idea to CC the covering letter to County officials and legislators in the district that covers the airport site. Here’s my email address: emma1231@optonline.net
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December 24, 2016 at 3:09 pm
For Derek: After too much delay (but necc. addt’l research and good advice from others), last month I spoke to the Town of Hempstead’s Landmark Preservation Commission on behalf of my quest for a sign to denote the location of the L.I. Country Club Airport (1929-1948). The Commission unanimously approved the project, pending their review. Next step — they would recommend it to the Town. No telling how long i will take. I have to just sit tight and wait to see what happens next. I have observed that noteworthy signs the Town has erected to mark other historic sites are tasteful, informative, but light in color, land light in thickness. The letters are small, making it easy for pedestrians to read them, but not the case for people driving by in their cars. The signs seem to be able to stand up to weather — so far. I would love a sign for the LICC Airport to be of the thick yellow and blue style, but those were manufactured by such firms as the Cat
skill Csting Corporation, which charges $1,300. That does not include the actual posting, either. The Town of North Hempstead seems to have money and to raise funds) for their signs (like those denoting some old Motor Parkway locations.) I fear that the Town of Hempstead doesn’t have the financial resource for theirs. However, should they decide to plant their own standard marker for the airport site, I assure you it will be greatly appreciated! I would think that If and when they approve it, organizations and individuals willing to chip in to get a better sign could be accomplished, sort of like making it a gift to the Town! Of course, the names of the organizations and any major private contributors who chipped in should be mentioned at the bottom of the sign!
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December 28, 2016 at 2:45 pm
Derek — I can’t get to that site to see the aerial pictures. DO you pay speakers for presentations to your society? The ms. to my presentation about the LICCA is about 23 mins. long (I had been advised by the Pres. of the Valley Stream Hist. Soc. to keep it down to 12-15 ins., but that was impossible, and the Landmark Preservation Commission did not mind in the least. The head of the Commission ws extremely complimentary.) I held up about a dozen 11 x 17 pictures. I bet could easily expand it by about five or ten minutes, add about ten pictures, and put them on powerpoint. (I’d need about a month to leisurely prepare this.) Then I could solicit it to local Libraries. The Levittown Public Library seems like a natural for it. Let me know.
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May 23, 2017 at 7:29 am
Hello, I am writing from Germany where I have lived for almost 50 years. I was born on the outskirts of Hicksville at 357 New Bridge Road, then my parents rented a house on the right side of New Bridge Rd when one drives south toward Hempstead Turnpike. We lived there from late summer 1939 to 1944. The house was located about 100 yards north of the motor parkway and owned by the Metzger Family which evidently had a nursery. There were only three houses in this area–first that of the Metzgers, then our rented house and the last one–just before the parkway, was owned by a Mrs. Gaenger. Once, around 1943 my father took me for a walk on the plaines and we could see the airport from a distance.
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May 23, 2017 at 3:40 pm
Thanks for sharing. As you know, the area looks very different right now compared with the 1940s.
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May 23, 2017 at 4:45 pm
I made my favorable pitch about a L.I. Country Club Airport historical marker to the Town of Hempstead’s Landmarks Preservation Commission. That was six months ago. I have left messages asking for a progress report but haven’t heard a thing, so I’ll just keep waiting. (Someone told me even before I made my presentation that it would take a very long time!) (As the saying goes,”Good things are worth waiting for!”
Yesterday, in person, I told Charles Lindbergh’s daughter Reeve all about my quest for the marker. I informed her that her father was a charter member; that he flew there often, and that he taught her mother how to fly there shortly after they got married. ) She had not known about the airport or her parents’ connections to it. She wants to see my documentation. (Wouldn’t it be neat if the marker becomes a reality and she would participate in a little ceremony ?!)
She now has my address and phone number (I don’t have hers.) I hope she’ll get back to me and ask me to send her my paper with its many footnotes. She was nice to talk with. I was very impressed. (This was just minutes before she participated in a discussion at the Cradle of Aviation with the museum’s curator, and then answered about a dozen questions. Just fascinating.)
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August 10, 2017 at 5:27 pm
I feel its very important to preserve our history, acurately. I am proud to become a part of this.
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December 31, 2017 at 4:30 am
The Town of Hempstead approved their Landmarks Preservation Commission’s recommendation for the L.I. Aviation Country Club roadside historic marker. I then submitted 3 sample texts to the Commission, and they selected one. I also suggested 2 spots on public propty for the sign’s erection. The next steps are for them to pick the spot and get the sign maker to design it. I was told that I will be given the oppty to see the design and to give my input. The Commission has been great to work with.
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February 8, 2021 at 4:28 pm
Someone spoke to one of the Landmark Preserv. Commissioners last week and he said that the marker would be erected some time this year (2021). The text may have to be re-worked. The Commission still hasn’t seen the spot I picked for themselves. I just found out that not only did Lindy teach his wife how to fly there — she took her pilot’s license test therein June of 1931 and passed, as her husband wathed.
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May 11, 2021 at 3:55 pm
Two months ago NEWSDAY ran a full-length article about the airport’s history, and as a sidebar did a little piece about my crusade to get the marker erected. It contained a color photo of me standing beneath an intersection sign — Pilot Lane and Blacksmith Road. That spot was selected by the writer of the article because “pilot” is the only hint that there was once an airport on the site.
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