Old-time trolley takes visitors through Babylon

Long Islanders took a trip back in time Friday, riding through the town of Babylon on an old-time trolley in celebration of the now-defunct trolley line that crisscrossed the town 100 years ago.

The rides were part of the anniversary of the Babylon Railroad line, which ran from 1910 to 1920, as well as the unveiling of a new town museum in Babylon's Old Town Hall.

Sitting on red vinyl-covered benches in a small wooden trolley car, dozens of history-seekers took a ride from the Old Town Hall in Babylon Village to the Amityville railroad station. Along the way, Babylon historian Tom Smith gave a guided tour, sharing the various threads of fact and legend that, woven together, form the fabric of the town's history.

There was the spot on Great Neck Road where a school house once stood in which Walt Whitman is said to have taught. Then there was the former Montauk Highway location of a tulip farm, an industry that thrived in the area during the Depression. And the former site of a Lindenhurst restaurant where Babe Ruth liked to dine after boating.

Pointing, contorting necks and sharing their own memories, riders reveled in the history lesson laid out before them.

Terry Cunnane, 67, came from her home in Valley Stream. She said she first visited Babylon in 1965 while living in Brooklyn and remembers it being "really country" back then. "I was surprised there was so much history."

Betty and Barry Finn traveled from Huntington. After celebrating their 50th anniversary, Betty said, she and her husband decided to designate a weekly "date." The trolley tour served as their date this week, she said.

"Up in Huntington . . . we have Walt Whitman's house," Barry said. "So we have that end and it's nice that we now get to see this end of things."

A later tour saw town and village officials make stops in Amityville, Copiague, Lindenhurst and the Babylon Docks to dedicate historic markers. Later, hundreds gathered at Old Town Hall for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the museum opening. Visitors can tour the facility Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Even those who call Babylon their hometown discovered a few surprise nuggets of history. Elaine Jurs, 65, has lived in Babylon Village for 42 years, but on the tour she learned the location of the famed Argyle Hotel, on whose grounds the Cuban Giants - the nation's first professional black baseball team - once played.

"I've lived here all these years and I'm still learning things," she said.