Photo credit: The Fairfield Museum and History Center
The last trolley ride through Fairfield was 76 years ago this month, the Fairfield Museum and History Center's librarian Elizabeth Rose said Friday.
The last ride ended at 1:45 a.m. on May 2, 1937. For those unfamiliar with the history of transportation in Fairfield, the town had two lines running through it.
One line traveled down what is now Stratfield Road into Bridgeport, Rose said. Thanks to the trolley -- which began as horse-drawn carriages in 1866 before the electric railways were installed in 1893 -- places like the Brooklawn Country Club were founded along the route, Rose said.
The other trolley line has a bit more of a story to it. It ran along Main Street -- or what is now Old Post Road -- but it took some discussion to have the track laid out that thoroughfare.
There were some residents who felt that the trolley line should not run through a street like Main Street, adorned by the large, beautiful homes of the affluent. Those people felt that the trolley should run on Mechanic Street, which was a side street, per Rose.
That side street is now known as the Post Road.
The proponents of the Mechanic Street trolley lost their fight and the tracks were installed, taking riders from Southport and points west into Bridgeport, Rose said.
Some Fairfield residents were wary of the coming of the trolley because in other Connecticut towns, amusement parks and other attractions had been built along trolley routes to entice people to take that mode of transportation.
"Fairfield residents were anxious that not happen," Rose said.
Instead, the trolley became a way for people who worked in Bridgeport to live in Fairfield, and for Bridgeport residents to enjoy Fairfield's beaches for a nominal transportation fee.
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