298 The Trotting and the Pacing Horse 



by the legislature authorizing the construction 

 of such a driveway; but the opposition was so 

 violent that the vote was reconsidered and the 

 measure defeated. When Thomas F. Gilroy 

 succeeded Mr. Grant as mayor, a bill for a speed- 

 way on the west bank of Harlem River was 

 prepared and passed by the legislature and 

 signed by the governor. In the interest of this 

 measure the Road Horse Association of the 

 State of New York was formed, in 1892, with 

 Frederic P. Olcott, president; C. J. Hamlin, 

 vice-president ; J. C. De la Vergne, treasurer ; 

 and Hamilton Busbey, secretary. Among mem- 

 bers of the Executive Committee were Lawrence 

 Kip, H. M. Whitehead, W. M. V. Hoffman, 

 A. B. Darling, Jacob Ruppert, John H. Shults, 

 Charles Backman, Henry C. Jewett, W. B. Dick- 

 erman, George W. Archer, and I. V. Baker, Jr. 

 The association gave moral support to the 

 members of the Park Board, who favored the 

 speedway A. B. Tappen, Paul Dana, Nathan 

 Straus, S. Van Rensselaer Cruger, and George C. 

 Clausen; and the work was pushed during the 

 administration of Mayor William L. Strong, and 

 thrown open to the public in the early part of the 

 administration of Mayor Robert A. Van Wyck. 



