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Forward is the Motto of Today Street Railways in Charlottesville Virginia 1866-1
Forward is the Motto of Today Street Railways in Charlottesville Virginia 1866-1936 By Jefferson Randolph Kean
Soft Cover
Copyright 1984
80 pages.
Table Of Contents
Introduction, Acknowledgements And Sources3
1. Location And Background5
2. "We Are To Have A City Railroad!"7
3. The Street Railway Is Built9
4. Land Companies And The Boom12
5. The Proposed Extension20
6. Competition23
7. The New Electric Railway28
8. Power, Light And Ice35
9. Consolidation, Then Bankruptcy40
10. Street Paving And Other Improvements47
11. The Embezzled Extension51
12. "Making A Small Company Pay"53
13. A Paying Proposition61
14. The End Of The Line71
15. Conclusions75
Roster Of Cars78
Though historical studies of the effects of street railways on urban growth have been written for a number of larger cities, few have been concerned with smaller communities. Charlottesville's experience with its street railway is typical of that of many small localities. In the decades following the Civil War many local businessmen chose to channel their profits into public utility projects which, despite being organized as profit-making companies, really were expressions of the owners' civic pride. As such, profit was less important than seeing one's home town become preeminent over its neighboring rivals. Animal-powered railway lines were cheap to build, as experienced railroad contractors were numerous, and small secondhand cars were readily available from the large northern cities. When in the 1890's the larger cities converted their street railways to electric power, the smaller cities and towns, copying their example, sought to do likewise, but often lacked sufficient capital. Some were able to attract enough outside capital to build efficient electric railways, but many were able to build only a marginal system, as they lacked financial resources sufficient both for adequate initial construction and equipage of the railway and for its maintenance and repair. Charlottesville's situation fell into this latter category. Entrepreneurs of the 1890's often attempted to link the construction of a street railway and the promotion of a land development scheme into one project. When these failed, as they often did (especially during the depression of 1893), because of underestimation of costs or of overestimation of profits, the street railway had to struggle for existence. Bankruptcy often followed within a few years.
Electric power, the way out of this dismal downward spiral, was both good and bad for street railways. Often the only assets of small bankrupt street railways were their franchises to sell electricity, which their local management sold to a limited number of homes and businesses for lighting and power. Attracted by this, outside interests sought and gained control of local companies; soon the street railway was transformed from the reason for a company's existence to merely one additional user of electricity. As the superior worth of alternating current technology became obvious over that of direct current in the early 20th century, especially in small cities and towns, street railways became more and more an unwanted user, as only direct current could be used for their operation. Faced with this situation the electric power companies usually made no effort to extend their railway lines into the developing suburbs. When these lines, which served an ever diminishing percentage of the city's population, ceased to generate sufficient income to pay their operating expenses, their electric power company owners, who often lacked the intense civic pride of the lines' founders, usually were quick to abandon them.
Charlottesville's local public transportation was provided by street railway for forty-eight years--from 1887 to 1935. As recently as 1922, as many as a million and a half passengers a year rode its street cars, but today they are mostly forgotten. Yet this period is an important one in its history. Charlottesville's street railways reflected the hopes and hard work of these business men. In the early years of the street railways the business activity most closely associated with them was the promotion of suburban real estate developments. In later years, the production of electricity was also associated with street railway development and promotion; in fact, in the last years of Charlottesville's street railway the situation was reversed, to the point where operation of the city's public transportation system became only a small part of the electric power business. It is with these themes that the present account is concerned.
The first six chapters of this book are an extensively rewriten and expanded version of the author's article, "Early Street Railways and the Development of Charlottesville," published in The Magazine of Albemarle County History, volume 33-34, 1975-76. The remaining chapters are mostly a reprint of volume 37-38, 1979-80, of the same magazine. (A few chapters have been condensed, and different photographs have been used in this book.) (Both volumes copyright by the Albemarle County Historical Society, Charlottesville, Virginia.)
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