1927 Redfield-Kendrick-Odell Folding Map of Long Island

An impressive 1927 map of Long Island printed by Redfield-Kendrick-Odell and White Way Maps for the Long Island Chamber of Commerce. It promotes the 'Sunrise Trail', an early named road traversing Long Island. The map, moreover, illustrates the suburbanization of Long Island through a new highway system and the Long Island Rail Road.

A Closer Look

Ranging from New Jersey to the tip of Long Island at Montauk Point, this map covers most of New York City, Long Island, and Long Island Sound, including the northern shore as far as Watch Hill Point in Rhode Island. Highways, parkways, and other major roads are denoted. Red triangles indicate golf courses and circled red numbers label state parks, both indexed on the verso. The network of the Long Island Rail Road is traced in black (as is the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad), with associated ferry lines in dotted black lines. Ferry services not associated with the L.I.R.R. are traced in white dotted lines. Long Island's early airfields, adjacent to each other, also appear: Curtis Field and Mitchell Field (both misspelled), the latter better known as Roosevelt Field. The same year this map was published, Roosevelt Field was the center of national attention when Charles Lindbergh took off from there in the Spirit of St. Louis on May 20, 1927, on his celebrated transatlantic flight.

The map is surrounded by an alphanumeric grid and two sets of numbers indicating distance (in 'air line miles') from Columbus Circle in Manhattan and Montauk Point, respectively. An evocative illustration appears at left, serving as the outside cover of the map when folded, displaying a Native American figure pointing from western Long Island in the direction of Montauk as the sun rises in the east and a car drives eastwards on the Montauk Highway. The verso includes a timetable for the Montauk Steamboat Company (owned by the L.I.R.R.), the aforementioned indexes of golf courses and state parks, promotional text describing Long Island as 'the automobilists' paradise', additional information on other ferry services, and a map prepared by Mixer's Motor Maps and Tours displaying automobile and ferry routes from Portland, Maine to Philadelphia and Cape May.

Before the LIE

The first express roadways for automobiles on Long Island opened in the years before this map's publication, most notably the Vanderbilt Parkway (here as 'Motor Parkway'), privately built by William Kissam Vanderbilt II in 1908 for racing purposes. The Jericho Turnpike (NY 25, also as the 'Northern Route' of the Sunrise Trail), Hempstead Turnpike (later designated as NY 24), and Montauk Highway (NY 27, also as the 'Southern Route' of the Sunrise Trail) are labeled here. By the 1920s and 1930s, a growing bureaucracy was required at the local, county, and state levels to manage the rapidly changing landscape of Long Island. Robert Moses was deeply involved in these efforts. Moses later became a famous (or infamous) urban planner who began his career as President of the Long Island State Park Commission. Among his greatest impacts on Long Island was the prioritization of automobile parkways, making the suburban sprawl of the mid-20th century possible.

Apex of the L.I.R.R.

Although the emphasis on automobile roads here hints at the eventual demise of passenger railroads, around the time of publication the Long Island Rail Road was near its apex. The company built tunnels to establish direct access into Manhattan, terminating at the 'old' Pennsylvania Station. It also expanded and upgraded its network on Long Island, double-tracking and electrifying previously single-track lines. In tandem with ferry services owned by the railroad, passengers were able to easily travel between Manhattan and most of the cities and towns on the island, birthing the daily commute and the suburb.

Publication History and Census

This folding map was prepared by White Way Maps. This may be their only production. It was printed by Redfield-Kendrick-Odell in 1927 for the Long Island Chamber of Commerce, with the verso map provided by Mixer's Motor Maps and Tours. The map is quite rare, with only a single example recorded in the OCLC, at Newberry Library.