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Preservation Society preparing for 50th anniversary

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Ellen Cook, one of the Wantagh Preservation Society’s trustees and program chairwoman, was 26 years old in September of 1966 when the Wantagh Long Island Rail Road station was moved to another location in the community. The little red house, built in 1885, was slated for destruction when the Babylon branch was being elevated throughout the mid-20th century. But thanks to 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 group and moved a few blocks north to 1700 Wantagh Ave. 

Cook can be seen in a photo hanging in the house, which is now the Wantagh Museum. Noting that her now 51-year-old son Bobby is pictured in a stroller, she recalled that the peculiar sight of a building being driven on the back of truck interested everyone in Wantagh, 

“It was just pure Mayberry,” she said. “Everyone came out and stood on the corner to watch it go by ... I’m just so glad that we saved it.” 

The station, which was opened as a museum in 1982, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. But the structure itself isn’t the only piece of history on the property. The Preservation Society is inviting the community to explore the grounds at its 50th anniversary celebration on Saturday. 

The event, which will be held between 1 and 3 p.m., will feature guest speakers and tours of the museum, a historic train car and Wantagh’s original post office. Admission is free, and refreshments will also be served 

Carol Poulos, the organization’s curator, said the Preservation Society has been preparing for the event for months. Additional artifacts, which are now in storage, will be on display alongside the dozens of old photographs, trinkets, maps and structures found in different areas of the community in the past 50 years.

Poulos said that every item in the museum is significant, and many residents may find personal connections to them. For her, the Fire Department memorabilia is especially significant because her grandfather helped build Wantagh’s first pumper — a horse-drawn vehicle constructed in 1910 after the local lumberyard caught fire.

Theodore Wiebel collected many of the oldest photographs, dating back more than 100 years. Throughout the 60s and 70s, Poulos said he visited Wantagh’s oldest residents and took pictures of their pictures with a 35-millimeter camera; many of them will be shown in a special video screened at Saturday’s celebration. 

Today, Poulos said, social media has helped the group track down artifacts, with computers allowing them to digitally preserve documents and photographs. But the Preservation Society is always looking for donations, including more contemporary pieces that reflect recent historical events like Hurricane Sandy. 

“It’s lovely when people donate these items, because if they hadn’t, they might’ve been lost forever,” she said. “Even if you just have one or two things, every little piece helps tell the story.” 

Poulos and Cook hope people will enjoy exploring the museum at the anniversary, as well as the inside of the 1912 parlor car, once part of the Long Island Rail Road’s Cannonball Express that ran from Penn Station to Montauk. Preservation Society Vice President Bob Meagher has been working to restore the train, which was donated to the group in 1972, for several years. 

Thanks to a $24,000 grant from Nassau County, a new retaining wall around the 80-foot-long, 50-ton train was installed in October 2015.  A 200-foot-long concrete wall was built, replacing old, rotting railroad ties. 

While Nicolino Construction, of Freeport, was responsible for this portion of the project, Meagher has painted and fixed many different sections of the train himself. He also had some help from local Boy Scouts, who helped beautify the grounds.

Michael Silverman, 14, wanted to restore an outhouse on the site by repainting it, build a new bench, paint a new sign by the gate that says, ‘This Way to the Wantagh Bicycle Path,’ and dig out a small pedestrian path. He was drawn to helping the Preservation Society to attain the rank of Eagle Scout because he has always loved trains, and of course, the parlor car.

“I used to come here a lot as a kid, and I used to go on the train and explore,” Silverman said. “It’s really close to home, and I figured it would be an interesting idea.”

Meagher said he was pleasantly surprised that many young people in the community were interested in the train. “Although the museum receives grant money, we also rely on scouting projects to keep the museum looking beautiful,” he said. “This was a perfect idea before the 50th celebration.”

For more information about the anniversary celebration, call (516) 826-8767. Cook noted that residents should bring a lawn chair to the event. 

Rebecca Anderson contributed to this story.