New Lawrenceville’s Trolley Tours took its first ride of the season Sunday, May 1.

The trolley tours, organized by Lawrenceville locals and sponsored by New Lawrenceville businesses, serve a dual purpose, according to one of the organizers, Rodney Camren.

“Three years ago, the businesses here on the square said they weren’t getting any business on Sundays, so they closed shop on that day. We decided to try to put together an effort to try to get a little more traffic through here on Sundays,” Camren said.  

According to the magazine they distribute to passersby, New Lawrenceville gives ten percent of the profits of the trolley tours to support a local start-up business. The organization hopes the trolley tours will help boost the economy and promote trade and tourism in Lawrenceville.  

In addition to that effort by New Lawrenceville, the trolley tours also seek to educate visitors and residents about the rich past of The Crepe Myrtle City.

Mary Frazier Long, Georgia historian and author of the book About Lawrenceville, is the tour guide on board the trolley tours, and while wearing her trademark red overalls, she tells fascinating stories about the history of Gwinnett County and its county seat, Lawrenceville. “You can believe almost everything I say,” Long jokes about her historical accounts of her hometown.

During the ride, Mary Long tells the history of landmarks the trolley passes. Trolley riders will learn about the historic Gwinnett Courthouse, including the fact that it’s the only courthouse in the state of Georgia with soldiers buried on the grounds. Long also teaches the history of other Lawrenceville landmarks like the school on the hill, the train depot, Calaboose Alley, the Lawrenceville Female Seminary and many others.  Stops on the tour include the historic Baptist church and the historic cemetery, where the founding fathers of the city are buried. At the end of June, the trolley tours will include historic homes and stories about the families who lived in them.

The tours on Annabel, an open-air trolley that carries up to thirty people at a time, run at 1:00 and 3:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoons through June 26th. Each tour lasts approximately an hour and a half and costs $10 to ride. Children in laps ride for free. The trolley boards in front of the Historic Courthouse in the square.

One of the many interesting facts trolley riders learn on the tour is that Lawrenceville was named by the Maltbie family for James Lawrence, Commander of the USS Chesapeake in the War of 1812. Captain Lawrence’s famous last words were, “Don’t give up the ship!”

“When we were having a hard time getting business down here on the square, we took that same quote and said, ‘Don’t give up the ship!’ And that’s when we came up with the trolley tours,” said Camren.