People young and old lined up on the great pier at Rye Playland to board the Adm. Richard E. Bennis on Saturday, Aug. 17, stepping onto a brand new historical ferry tour.
A picture-perfect day, with a slight breeze and calm waters, the local ferry, nearly at capacity, “sailed” along Westchester’s Sound Shore.
Barbara Davis, co-director of the Westchester County Historical Society and city historian for New Rochelle, served as tour guide on the one-hour journey into the past. She set a scene of an almost mythical time, beginning in the 1640s when Rye was acquired by Native Americans.
The former proprietor of “Waterfront Tours,” Davis invited her listeners to imagine the lush forest and vegetation of the land before the Dutch settlers first sailed into the “American Mediterranean,” or the Long Island Sound.
Pods of dolphins and whales greeted them, and the oysters were said to have been 11 inches wide, with lobsters so plentiful that they were used as compost.
As the Bennis continued its voyage from Playland to Mamaroneck and Larchmont and then back again, Davis told of James Fenimore Cooper, author of “The Last of the Mohicans,” who married the daughter of a wealthy loyalist during the Revolutionary War in Mamaroneck, and penned many of his books in the Mamaroneck parks.
Photo Justine Pascutti
John Jay, who would become the first U.S. Supreme Court justice, grew up in Rye in his father’s ancestral home with the curious name of “The Locusts.”
Stately mansions erected in America’s Gilded Age dot the shore, as do numerous yacht clubs and estates. One, known as the All View, was where C. Oliver Iselin, five-time defender of the America’s Cup, docked his yachts.
Also highlighted on the tour was one of America’s earliest film studios, purchased by D.W. Griffith in 1919. Down by Glen Island, one of the country’s first amusement parks and recreational resort areas was developed.
And, finally, over by the shipping channel, Davis described a lighthouse known by the sinister name of Execution Lighthouse, because of the many shipwrecks there.
Passengers were joined for this maiden voyage by Mount Vernon’s City Historian, Larry H. Spruill, and longtime Mount Vernon community member Leslie Alpert.
Photo Justine Pascutti
At the conclusion of the boat ride, many of the passengers thanked Davis for her tour and, eager to learn more, signed up to receive more information about the Westchester County Historical Society, now 150 years old.
“We are surrounded by two important bodies of water and we can often forget how important those bodies of water are historically, environmentally, by commerce,” Davis said in an interview after the tour. “I think that the more you get people out on the water, the more they’ll appreciate the water, the Long Island Sound in this case. It’s just a really good way to bring history to life.
“You can’t beat a boat trip, and to hear about the community that way while the wind is in your face. It’s a really nice way to promote our very important history in Rye, the oldest community, and then we passed by Larchmont, one of the newest. And then, it being Playland, with its great heritage and architecture and history. There’s just so much here.”
Operated by NY Waterway, the remaining roundtrip tours will run twice on Aug. 31, with departures from Playland Pier at 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. (boarding begins 15 minutes before).
Tickets cost $15 and can be purchased at https://playland.com.