Roosevelt Raceway: Westbury's Harness-Racing Legacy

Long before it became the primarily residential village it is today, Westbury was home to Roosevelt Raceway, a major harness-racing track that operated from 1940 to 1988. That 48-year run matters for a practical reason beyond trivia: it marks the exact window when most of the housing immediately surrounding the site was built out to support the raceway's staff, visitors, and the broader postwar growth happening alongside it, and homes from that specific window carry a predictable set of plumbing and infrastructure traits.

What A 1940s-To-1980s Build Window Means For Your Home

Housing and infrastructure built to support a major mid-century venue like Roosevelt Raceway typically went in fast, and it tied into whatever utility and drainage infrastructure existed at the time rather than waiting for a full modern buildout. Homes from this specific era commonly have galvanized or early copper plumbing now 45 to 85 years old, stormwater drainage sized for 1940s-to-1960s rainfall expectations rather than today's heavier storm events, and, in some cases, original electrical panels well past their practical service life. If your home sits in the neighborhoods that grew up around the former raceway site, treat any of these three systems as reasonable candidates for a professional inspection if they haven't been updated or checked recently.

The Raceway Itself, Briefly

The raceway hosted the Vanderbilt Cup and, notably, a Crosby, Stills & Nash concert on September 8, 1974, drawing crowds that made it one of the more significant local landmarks of its era before closing in 1988 as harness racing's national popularity declined. The site has been redeveloped since, but the surrounding residential infrastructure from that build-out era is still largely in place, which is the part that actually matters for a restoration assessment today.

Signs Your Home Dates To This Era

• Original galvanized or copper plumbing with no record of a partial or full repipe.
• A basement or crawl space with visible original construction materials rather than modern updates.
• An electrical panel with a visible manufacture date or style consistent with 1940s-1980s construction.
• Persistent stormwater pooling during heavy rain that newer homes on the same street don't experience.

What To Do If You Spot One Of These Warning Signs

• Schedule a plumbing and electrical inspection proactively rather than waiting for a failure.
• If a pipe has already failed, shut off the main water valve and cut power to the affected area if it's safe to do so.
• Photograph any damage before moving belongings, for your own insurance documentation.
• Don't ignore repeated stormwater pooling, it's usually a drainage or grading issue that gets more expensive to fix the longer it's left alone.

Our water damage extraction and drying process follows IICRC S500 guidelines regardless of a home's age, though older infrastructure often means a more involved scope once we're on site.

If you live in a home from this era of Westbury's development and you're dealing with water damage, aging plumbing, or drainage issues, we understand the specific patterns that come with this housing stock. Call Westbury Restoration Pros at (516) 283-1188 for a 24/7 assessment.