This is one of my favorite and saddest investigations since I started this blog a little over a year ago. The Grumman Bethpage facility was not on my radar at all, I just happened upon it one day by chance surfing through the Internet. I learned that here in Bethpage once existed one of the best aerospace companies in the world producing great airplanes such as the Hellcat, Bearcat, The Avenger, Albatross, Goose, and F14 Tomcat among many others and my favorite thing of all time, the LEM, or Lunar Excursion Module. As great as these machines are, this blog is not about the glories of aerospace but about the improvement and exposing the horrors of suburbia and the cancer like effect it has when it runs amok. Unfortunately the Grumman Bethpage plant is good case study in exactly that. A place that once created jobs, local pride and changed the world with building a moon machine is being slowly dismantled, gobbled up and integrated into the faceless non descript' unimpressive fabric of over development, strip mall condominium living of Long Island suburbia. One day only a plaque will remain stating "here was built the LEM, the only space craft to land man on the moon" If you don't believe me just look at what "they" did with Lindbergh and his infamous airfield which is not too far from this Bethpage site; it's gone, not a trace remains, I'm not sure even a plaque marks the place, however a freeway and mall now grace that historical site. |
| The old Grumman runway, no more. |
OK so you may be reading this and getting pretty upset since Grumman itself decided to leave Long Island and it's not our fault that they did (which is a debatable topic) what else were we to do? I hear you and it's too late as the economic machine has pressed forward but we can preserve what's left, and grant Landmark Historical status to what's remaining.
The Building where the LEM was manufactured is now "Grumman Studios" where some Hollywood type movies are being made like Salt, and the recent TV special remake of The Sound of Music. This adaptive reuse of the facility I have to say is a good one. The building itself is still intact lending its cavernous spaces to the shooting of movies. So it's an ideal situation for the time being. As I was photographing on this cold but sunny winter day a man in his car rolled down his window to give me the finger well not that finger but the thumbs up followed by, "we used to build great things here..." That sums up my visit as he sped away and I looked around at the immediate encroachment of Suburbia.
Finally I would like to add, anyone visiting the site should be careful not to enter Grumman Road East. I made a wrong turn while I was looking for the site and assumed from my map that this was a continuous road and proceeded down not wanting to miss anything-Nope go down Grumman Road East and there you will find blocks of solid condo and a contrived dead end which stops you from proceeding to Grumman Road West where the actual famed Grumman buildings are located. This whole experience bothered me in a profound way. It seems to me our generation is leaving no legacy for our kids - No classic cars do we build worthy to restore, no good products that will later be antiques to hunt for, no historical sites to visit and finally no decent architecture to preserve. Maybe I am being harsh, maybe I just don't see things right.
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| When I took this photo I did not notice the little fellow to the left until now. In any case his gaze says it all... (LEM on display at the Cradle of Aviation, one of my favorite places to visit in the world) |
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