You've Missed the Last Trolley

Just Waiting for a Street Car?

By Earle Lutz

Richmond's long boast that this city had the first commercial electric streetcar line in America is purely historical now that the trolley cars have made their final runs to the barns--and oblivion.

The electric street railway industry was born in Richmond only 62 years ago. At the rate of transition to buses and other forms of trackless transportation here and elsewhere it is doubtful if the once potent industry will reach man's alloted life span of three score and 10.

There are still many Richmond men and women who remember the advent of the electric car here. There is many a nostalgic recollection of the transition period during which the new-fangled contraptions gradually drove the more leisurely animal-drawn vehicles off the streets. With chuckles there are recollections of "Hairless Mary," one of the horses upon which the uppity newcomer had to rely for extra power to pull the steep Ninth Street hill. Many persons remember when animal-drawn and electric-driven vehicles were in competition on Broad Street, which was cluttered with four sets of tracks.

Many, too, will recall the brilliantly illuminated trolley cars that were chartered by gay parties for outings on hot Summer nights and the welcome breezes on the open cars with the full length side step on which the overflow passengers rode precariously. The inevitable wetting of rainy days also cannot be forgotten, but it is more pleasant to remember how many a hot night was made enjoyable as the singing, larking youths and misses made a circuit of the city by trolley.

Another recollection is of the low fare, 5 cents or six tickets for a quarter, with the additional concession of a 2 1/2-cent "labor" ticket, good for a trip starting between 6 and 7 A. M. every day except Sunday. Think of riding from Westhampton to Seven Pines for 2 1/2 cents, which was possible for some 25 or 30 years.

To the electric car Richmond is indebted for much of its growth, its three viaducts--First, Fifth and Marshall--and for many of its most beautiful parks. Some of the most populous sections of the city were developed entirely by the trolley. Forest Hill, Highland Park, Ginter Park, Fairmount and Westhampton are a few examples of areas whose development was coincident with the new type of cheap and comparatively rapid transportation. Seven Pines was reached on cars hauled by diminutive locomotives before electric power was substituted.

Life was much more simple in the early days of the trolley, when the chief diversion on Sundays and holidays was a ride to one of the parks, usually reached after traveling through several miles of almost virgin suburban territory. The parks, located at the terminals of the suburban lines, created business until the sections through which they passed were built up sufficiently to make the playgrounds no longer necessary as traffic originators. Picnic pavilions at Westhampton and Seven Pines, the zoo at Lakeside, and amusement resorts in Forest Hill Park and old Reservoir Park were pleasureable as well as profitable. Many yet have happy recollections of these places and some even recall the old fellow who sat with a pet owl at Reservoir Park and invited picnickers to "come and get your peanuts and see Bawkie."

The electric street railway was Richmond's second type of fixed transportation. The electric cars started supplanting the original horse-drawn cars in 1887 when a trial run was made on what was designated as the Clay Street line. The animal-drawn vehicles had monopolized the streets since 1860 and some remained in service as late as 1901, when a city ordinance imposing a stiff daily fine forced a discontinuance.

Ninety years ago Richmond had no street transportation system. Hotels and inns had omnibuses, some drawn by four horses, to serve patrons to and from the railroad and canal depots, but townsmen used their mounts or carriages if disinclined to walk the uneven streets.

Richmond's pioneer streetcar promoter was George L. Earnest, who started a company to operate omnibuses from Brook Road to Rocketts in 1860 "for the convenience of the public." The fare was 10 cents or 12 tickets for $1. On March 29, 1860, the Legislature granted this pioneer, the Richmond Railway Company, a charter and laying of tracks of flat strips of iron attached to wooden cross ties was started from Jefferson to Rocketts on Main Street and from Brook Road to Ninth on Broad Street and on Ninth from Broad to Main Street. Two cars started operating in August. Later when more cars operated they were surmounted by a rod on which there was a black ball to indicate those for Negroes.

Newspapers in 1863 reported that the railway tracks had been torn up and were piled along the right of way. Eventually the metal was used in constructing the ironclads Virginia II, Richmond and Fredericksburg, built on the Manchester side of the James River in the Confederate Navy Yard. Earnest is mentioned in the official "War of the Rebellion" publications as a Federal informer following his flight from Richmond.

Shortly after the end of the Civil War the Richmond Railway Company's franchise was revived and extended. The reorganized company headed by Joseph Jackson, Jr., ran its first car on January 28, 1866. Main and Broad Streets were double-tracked and there were single tracks on Eighth and Ninth Streets between Broad and Main Streets. The pioneer company subsequently failed and the Richmond City Railway Company purchased the lines in March 15, 1881. The Legislature confirmed the transfer on March 17, 1884 and on March 1, 1888, a new charter was granted authorizing the use of the electricity as the motive power.

Meanwhile, railroad trains pulled by wood burners were still operating on Broad Street as far east as Eighth Street. The Locomotive caused many horses to run away and there were some fatalities. In 1875 the city was upheld in a ban on the use of locomotives on the streets and until 1880 the R F & P used horse-drawn cars.

Well into the 1900's the railroad operated decorated flat cars with length-wise seats back to back to haul passengers from Elba to the new State Fair Grounds on the Boulevard.

The Richmond Union Passenger Railway Company, of which J. Thompson Brown was president, was chartered on March 23, 1887, and broke ground for an electric railway to Church Hill. The trial run was made on November 7. The slogan "no danger, no noise, no smoke" found many skeptics. The regular run started in January, 1888, the line being on Clay, Seventh, Franklin, Ninth, Bank, Twelfth and Franklin Streets from Harrison to Twenty-first Streets. The first trolleys had no vestibules and the operators were unprotected from the weather. The cars were referred to as "cheese-boxes."

Before the electric line was established the Manchester Street Railway and Improvement Company was chartered and a horse-drawn car service from Ninth and Main Streets to Clopton and Hull Streets was inaugurated. The initial car on December 23, 1885, jumped the tracks at three different places. Two years later a company with a similar name received a franchise to run on Fourteenth Street from Main Street to Broad Street and along College Street to Marshall Street and westerly along Marshall Street to Seventh Street.

Initially mule power was used. This line was discontinued in 1897. The Manchester Street Railway and Improvement Company later had opposition from a rural line which operated south from Main Street across Mayo's Bridge and along Hull Street to Seventh and Decatur to Twenty-first Street. One prominent South Side woman always made the motorman on the Decatur Street line wait while she picked a flower to wear to town.

Numerous street railway and light and power projects were launched shortly after the first electric car line was inaugurated. The Richmond Railway and Electric Company, which was chartered on February 20, 1890, consolidated the most important of these into a single system. Included in the merger were the Richmond Union Passenger Railway Company, the Richmond City Railway Company, the Virginia Electric Light and Power Company, the Old dominion Electric Light and Power Company and the Richmond-Schuyler Electric Lighting Company.

Other lines subsequently chartered were the Richmond City and Seven Pines Railway Company, February 3, 1888; the Riverview Railway Company, March 3, 1890; the Fairmount Traction Company, February 25, 1896; the Richmond and Manchester Railway Company, April 21, 1882; Southside Land and Improvement Company, June 21, 1889; the Northside Railway Company, March 20, 1890; The Highland Park Company, June 11, 1890; Manchester Railway and Improvement Company, April 11, 1887; and the Richmond Traction Company, August 25, 1895.

Another consolidation was now perfected. The Richmond Passenger and Power Company, chartered March 2, 1900, acquired all the lines except the Richmond Traction Company under simultaneous deeds dated April 13, 1900.

The Westhampton Park Railway Company was chartered March 7, 1900. It operated from Robinson Street and Floyd Avenue to Westhampton Park with its terminal on the present University of Richmond campus. This line opened in 1901.

Another consolidation was brought about eventually as the Virginia Passenger and Power Company originally chartered on February 9, 1901, under a different name. In 1902 various lines were brought into one system and a large majority of stock of the rival Richmond Traction Company was acquired. On July 1, 1904, the Virginia Passenger and Power Company and Richmond Traction Company defaulted in payments of interest. Under a court order on June 30, 1909, the Virginia Railway and Power Company acquired the bankrupt properties, including the Richmond and Petersburg Electric Railway Company, chartered March, 3, 1898.

A new company was launched on November 5, 1906, under the name of the Richmond and Henrico Railway Company which on June 11, 1911, was give a franchise to construct a line which necessitated the building of the Marshall Street viaduct. In June, 1913, this company defaulted and was eventually acquired by the Virginia Railway and Power Company.

During the years other pretentious interurban railway lines were started. One was the Richmond-Ashland line and another a projected railroad from Richmond to the Northern Neck. This latter road was built as far as the Pamunkey River, in 1915 but soon stopped operations.

From 1909 until 1945 the Richmond Transportation system was operated with slight changes in names, being transferred in the latter year to interests which formed the Virginia Transit Company under whose ownership the clanging trolley gong has been replaced by the motor bus honk.