Former location of Coram Airport. I had wanted to place a cache down the trail (and still may, at some point), but it seems the whole area is a popular hangout for the homeless.
Anyway... The remains of the runways can still be seen in modern-day aerial imagery. The airport opened just south of this location in 1959 when Lester Davis plowed a path through the middle of his family's cornfield, creating the first runway.
By the early 1960s, he had laid out a dedicated turf/dirt runway oriented east/west.
This facility came to be known as the Coram Airpark.
In the early 1960s, Lester invited Tom Murphy to base his three Piper Cubs (2 PA-11s & 1 PA-18) at the field & operate a flight school. Tom also had a Waco UPF-7 for hopping rides to visitors, and was a well-known flight instructor on Long Island, had been an AT-6 military instructor during WW2.
By the end of the 1960s, Lester Davis had added a southeast/northeast runway. Three of the runways had 90' trees at their approach ends.
Tom operated his flight school at Coram Airpark for about 20 years. Lester saw to it that all 3 of his sons (Randy, Lee, and Whitney Davis) learned to fly under Tom Murphy at the Coram Airpark. Tom’s brother, Harry Murphy, a sign painter, would usually come out from Brooklyn & help out on weekends. Tom was quite the character & philosopher, and his only shelter at Coram was a small building without electricity, in which he would use hand tools to work on his planes & a small gas stove to make hot water for tea & coffee. He also had several old chairs on which he would sit & share his thoughts with the many flight students who were drawn to him.
The Davis boys all remember many of Tom’s sayings & admonishments, such as:
'Pal, if you can learn to fly this thing out of this place, you will always be able to fly anything out of anywhere.'
'Pal, don’t be afraid of any airplane. Just give them full power, and they all take off.'
'Pal, some pilots who learn how to fly at big airports in modern planes simply have not been taught properly.
They try to land here at Coram sometimes, but it's clear that they do not have any background.'
'It does not have to be difficult, Pal (to fly a certain maneuver that he was teaching) - your grandmother could do it.'