Creedmoor or Creedmore?

[dbm]

I posted the following in the 'Trends in BPCR Long Range Shooting', in response to one mesage, but in hindsight a seperate thread on the history side of things may be more appropriate....

The miss-spelling of Creedmoor seems to be common place amongst shooters and manufactures marketing goods on the name, so perhaps some comnet on how the name was derived woudl help undersatnd the correct spelling.

The gentleman credited with coining the now famous appellation is Colonel Henry Glenville Shaw. A Civil War veteran, Shaw returned to New York City after being mustered out of the Union Army. In Jersey City he was elected Captain of Company E, 4th Regiment New Jersey National Guard, and soon attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Colonel Shaw was actively involved in the organisation of the National Rifle Association and was a member of the range committee. The first landowner’s name was Creed, in whose family the property had been for generations. Arriving at the site and observing the open, desolate field, with coarse, scanty grass and brambles – he declared it a veritable moor, Creed’s Moor. Hence by happy inspiration and coincidence “Creedmoor” became the name of the new range.

David

[dbm]

[b]Ray Newman[/b] posted the following in the Trends in BPCR Long Range Shooting. [i]Ray, hope you don't mind my quoting of your post![/i]


Creedmoor: presently the site is a NYS mental hospital for patients with chronic psychiatric disorders who are too unstable to be managed in an outpatient setting.

If memory serves me correctly, the butts we located in the approx. intersections of the Grand Central & Belt (??) Parkways. Around 1910, the range finally gave up the ghost & NYS took it over for the hospital.

If you look on a map of LI, NY, you’ll find Creedmoor State Hosp. The surrounding area has several interesting named streets: Gun Hill Road, Winchester Boulevard, Springfield Ave, etc. A very old map will show many more firearms-related names, which were later changed.

From what I can remember from reading local historical accounts, the site was chosen as a local railroad line (the LIRR??) was close by & the Flushing (Meadows?) Bay tidal flats were a part of Creed‘s farm & the land thought not to be very useful.

(My Dad owned a produce truck & we made numerous deliveries to delicatessens, restaurants, etc., in the area. Hard to believe that its been over 40 yrs since I last jumped down from the old White Superpower to make a delivery. Thanks for taking me back….)

[dbm]

With regards to the railway facility, the opportunity for the NRA to purchase land came via H.C. Poppenhusen, president of the Central and North Side Railroad of Long Island. The Railroad pierced an area of farmland formerly owned by the Creed family and but then owned by the railroad company. Poppenhusen was willing to sell the land at low cost to any group that was likely to stimulate rail travel. There was no village there, not even a station; but the railroad company agreed to make a stopping place, and it was finally resolved that there the range should be placed, so that the NRA should become an established institution. Seventy acres of land was purchased.

The land purchased for the new range was an oblong strip some 1200 yards long, running almost due north south. The firing lines ran across its 570 foot width, with the butts at the northern end. There was however no natural backstop. The NRA approached H.C. Poppenhusen and his railroad company for an estimate to bring suitable fill material to the site. As fortune would have it, the company was due to cut through a nearby hill and had been looking for somewhere to dispose of the spoil. A contract for the construction of the embankment was signed in August 1872, with the Association paying little more than the cost of hauling. Site clearance was undertaken by a detachment of Army engineers stationed a few miles north of Creedmoor, and under the command of Gen. Henry Abbot. Abbot’s men were inspired enough by the project to build their own range at their base.

David

[Mike Hansen]

I always wondered where the range used to be. I've scanned maps of Long Island with no results. It never occurred to me to look in modern day Queens.

For a map and aerial photo, see the web site below.

Mike

http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?t ... 7&z=18&w=2