HISTORY TOPICS
Streetcars
When Minnesota's first electric streetcars were introduced in 1888, hundreds of people lined up to try them. The electric streetcars delivered both passengers and mail quickly and efficiently. The streetcars were a symbol of the boom that the Twin Cities were experiencing at the end of the 19th century: wherever new tracks were built, new land was developed, and the cities expanded. The remarkable success of the electric streetcar in urban service led to its use in rural and intercity operation. The term "interurban" was first used in 1890 to designate the intercity streetcar line between Minneapolis and Saint Paul, and came to be used nationwide to denote intercity operations in general. Streetcars were an elegant and non-polluting form of public transportation that brought the upper and lower classes of Minnesota together for almost seventy years, until they were finally displaced by the rise of the automobile in the 1950s.
GET STARTED WITH SECONDARY SOURCES:
- "And Then There Was One," by Andrew Young.
In Locomotive & Railway Preservation, no. 35 (Nov.-Dec. 1991): pp. 34-44.
MHS call number: TF725.M5 Y68 1991. - The Electric Railways of Minnesota, by Russell
L. Olson.
Hopkins, Minn.: Minnesota Transportation Museum, 1976; a supplement was published in 1990.
MHS call number: Reading Room HE4487.M6 O48; for the 1990 supplement, add "Suppl." to the end of the call number. - Rails to the North Star, by Richard S. Prosser.
Minneapolis, Minn.: Dillon Press, 1966.
MHS call number: Reading Room HE2771.M6 P962. - Trolley Car Treasury: A Century of American Streetcars,
Horsecars, Cable Cars, Interurbans, and Trolleys, by Frank
Rowsome, technical editor Stephen D. Maguire.
New York: McGraw-Hill, [1956].
MHS call number: HE4471 .R88.
PRIMARY RESOURCES:
- An Historical Account of the Street Railways of Minneapolis
and St. Paul.
An account by Edson Newton Tuckey of the development of the Twin Cities streetcar network (1850s-1890s), providing data on the organization and consolidation of several early companies, construction and extension of the consolidated system, financial investment and employee relations within the St. Paul City Railway Company and the Minneapolis Street Railway Company, the financial condition (1898) of the Twin Cities Rapid Transit Company, and municipal ownership possibilities. An appendix gives construction and equipment costs of the network.
MHS call number: FHE4491/.T98T8; see the green Manuscripts Notebooks for more details (there is only 1 item). - Como-Harriet Streetcar Drawing.
Crayon on paper art original by Vernon Howe Bailey.
MHS call number: A-V Collection Art; see the Visual Resources Database for further information. - Duluth Street Traffic Motion Picture, by Monroe
P. Killy.
Film footage, 1937, of traffic congested streets in Duluth in the winter. Includes automobiles, trucks, streetcars, pedestrians, and an accident scene.
MHS call number: Film no. D-88 (in the A-V Collection; 1 14-minute 16 mm. black-and-white film). - Laying Railroad Track, Northern Pacific Locomotive, and
Views of Stillwater Motion Picture, photographed by John
Runk.
Views, ca. 1956, of streetcars in Minneapolis and Stillwater, and a Northern Pacific passenger train at Stillwater.
MHS call number: Film no. C-14 (in the A-V Collection; 1 30-minute 16 mm. color film). - Minnesota State Fair and Twin Cities Streetcars Motion Picture,
photographed by John Runk.
This archival collection consists of views, 1953, of a streetcar and the bus stop near the state fairgrounds, the state fairgrounds and grandstand shows, and streetcars in downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul.
MHS call number: Film no. C-6 (in the A-V Collection; 1 30-minute 16 mm. color film). - Minnesota Vignettes Motion Picture, by Monroe P.
Killy.
Includes "End of an Era, Streetcars, 1953."
MHS call number: Film no. B-82 (in the A-V Collection; 1 30-minute 16 mm. black-and-white film).
Also available on videotape: Videotape no. 181 (in the A-V Collection; 1 25-minute videocassette). - Phillips Community Television Presents History of the Phillips
Neighborhood: Transportation.
Program examines how the development of transportation corridors for the railroad, streetcars, buses, and automobiles has affected the growth and development of an inner city neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis.
MHS call number: Videotape no. 649 (in the A-V Collection; 1 29-minute videocassette). - Twin City Rapid Transit Company Photograph Collection.
This archival collection consists of views of streetcars and work equipment operated by the company (and its subsidiaries), most dated from 1915-1940. Includes exterior and interior views of cars, company shops and yards, Lake Minnetonka express boats, and Wildwood Park.
MHS call number: I.196 (in the A-V Collection); see the navy blue Collection Container List Notebooks for a detailed list of photographs (there are 776 black-and-white photographs). - Twin City Rapid Transit Company Corporate Records.
This archival collection consists of records of the company (and its subsidiaries and successors) that operated the streetcar and local bus system in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area from 1891 until 1970. Included are minute books, annual reports, employment records, valuation reports, comptroller's files, construction records, mechanical and architectural drawings, maps, and employee retirement plan and pension records. There is information about company finances, payrolls, and rate increases; streetcars, stations, and shops; the construction and maintenance of streetcar lines; predecessor horsecar lines; bus purchases; and the conversion from streetcars to buses (streetcars ceased operating in 1954).
MHS call number: See the green Manuscripts Alpha Notebooks — filed under Twin City Rapid Transit Company — for a detailed list of boxes and locator number (there are 60 boxes); or use an electronic version of the inventory. - Russell L. Olson Street Railway Research Files.
Olson, a lifelong street-railroad enthusiast, apparently compiled this material in the course of his work on an article about the TCRT for Interurbans magazine (11:2, Dec. 1953) and a book about electric railways in Minnesota. Research notes, background information, compilations of statistical and financial data, and other material pertaining to the Twin City Rapid Transit Company (TCRT) and to more than 25 other street railway systems in Minnesota and adjacent states. Also includes maps, mechanical drawings, clippings, timetables, photographs, advertising literature, and some correspondence. There is information about company finances and operations; streetcars, horsecars, and other equipment; steamboats operated by the TCRT; a monorail system in South Saint Paul, Minnesota; buses; and streetcars in foreign countries.
MHS call number: See the green Manuscripts Alpha Notebooks — filed under Olson, Russell L. — for a detailed list of boxes and locator numbers (there are 3 boxes). - Visual Resources Database subjects that may be useful for this topic:
- Check the library catalog for other materials.
