The Port TIMES RECORD Port Jefferson • Belle terre • Port Jefferson station • terrYVille
Volume 29, No. 14
March 3, 2016
$1.00
631-9414300
’Godspell’ comes to Theatre Three
Also: ‘The Sainted’ book review, Theater Talk, Go Ape exhibit winners
PAGE B1
‘Neigh’borhood track to get some TLC BY elana Glowatz
Tale of the icewoman Skeleton racer from Comsewogue has season for the ages
PAGES A14-A15
Officials are on track to restore a piece of Long Island history, bringing an abandoned and forgotten horse-racing site back to life. Brookhaven Town finished purchasing a swath of wooded land off of Canal Road in Terryville at the end of 2013, after Cumsewogue Historical Society President Jack Smith discovered the faint outline of the horse track and dug up information about what was once called the Gentlemen’s Driving Park. The town now owns the entire 11acre site. Today it’s an overgrown path hidden among trees, but the Gentlemen’s Driving Park used to be a place where Victorian Era bettors watched men race around the half-mile loop — counterclockwise — behind horses in carts called sulkies. It was part of a circuit of harness racing tracks in the Northeast,
according to Smith, but likely fell into neglect with the rise of the automobile. But cars have also helped keep the track viable: Smith previously reported that at least through the mid-1950s, kids raced jalopies around the track, preventing it from becoming completely overgrown. Smith said on Monday the effort to restore and preserve the track is moving slowly, but there has been progress since the town finished acquiring the property. There are plans in place to clear the track to about 20 feet wide, although leaving larger trees in place, and to move up the southern curve of the oval, he said. Currently, a small PSEG Long Island facility cuts into that southern tip. Rather than moving the facility or leaving the track incomplete, the town would retrace that small section of track, slightly shortening the TRACK continued on page A11
Photos by Elana Glowatz
above, Jack smith takes a closer look at a wrecked car along the track around the time he first discovered the forgotten historical spot. at top, the Gentlemen’s Driving Park is currently overgrown and hidden, but will soon be restored.