Neighbors

Getting a glimpse of Wantagh's past

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The Wantagh Preservation Society offered residents a glimpse of the community’s past at their 50th anniversary celebration on Saturday. 

The preservation group was born when the Wantagh Long Island Rail Road station was moved to another location in the community in September 1966. To mark the milestone, members of the organization invited residents to take a look at the station — which is now the Wantagh Museum — a historic train car and Wantagh’s original post office.

The old station, which was built in 1885, was slated for destruction when the Babylon branch was being elevated throughout the mid-20th century. But because of Margaret Aiken — whose civic group, the earliest incarnation of the Preservation Society that was colloquially referred to as Margy and her Steamrollers — the station was donated to the new nonprofit and moved a few blocks north to 1700 Wantagh Ave. 

The station, which was opened as a museum in 1982, was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 30, 1983.  It houses hundreds of photographs and artifacts that the Preservation Society curated over the course of five decades. Residents perused these items, listened to guest speakers and looked at the inside of the 1912 parlor car that was once part of the Long Island Rail Road’s Cannonball Express, which once ran from Penn Station to Montauk. 

Preservation Society Vice President Bob Meagher has been restoring the train car, which was donated to the group in 1972, for several years. Scouts, who have donated their time to the group by helping Meagher and cleaning up the museum grounds, were excited to climb aboard. 

Each room in the car was set up with antique furniture and trinkets to resemble what the kitchen, sleeping area and more would look like when the train was operational.  Meagher said he was pleasantly surprised that many young people in the community were interested in the train. 

For more information about the Wantagh Preservation Society, call (516) 826-8767 or find the group on Facebook.