OcTrolleyFest 2025

For 20 years, John & Jan Haigis have been celebrating the history and lore of the trolley in Darby and the Philadelphia region. For much of that time, the Philadelphia Hiking Meetup Group, through the auspices of Scott Maits, have been participating as well. For this year's event, there will be the option to ride a chartered bus (free to ride), which will run in parallel to anyone wishing to walk. The bus will leave from Darby Free Library (the oldest public library in the nation, operating continuously since 1743) around 10:45am.

The first stop will be historic Eden Cemetery, where many African-Americans active in early efforts to integrate the trolley system, obtain voting rights for African-Americans, and other civil rights, are interred.

The next stop will be across Springfield Road at Woodburne Plateau, for a reading of "A Streetcar named Freedom" tracing 400 years of transportation history on the plateau. The (native American) Great Minquas Path is believed to have crossed the plateau, & some of the earliest European settlers here were the Bartram family. More recently this area was known as the Scott Estate, which later became the Little Flower nursing home. It is now a Delaware County park.

There are plans to take a quick look at the 12th Street dam on Darby Creek, before continuing on to Bartram's Garden before returning to our starting point.

If you do choose to ride the chartered bus to Bartram's Garden, and wish to spend more time walking around there, you may need to catch SEPTA back to our starting point. A one-way fare on SEPTA is currently $2.90 cash; SEPTA Key Cards can also be used. Scott Maits will be on hand to assist in navigating SEPTA. Unfortunately I (Jed McKee) will not be able to attend this event due to other obligations.