Vintage Trolleys: Illustrated Articles

Tracks Towns Vintage Trolleys: Illustrated Articles

The Tucson Street Rail Road / Tucson Rapid Transit Company: 1897-1906. 
The Elysian Grove



Above: Placard in the Rosendo S. Perez Park, 420 South Main, Tucson, AZ. This Monument commemorates the Tucson Mule Drawn Trolley and the Elysian Grove, Edwardian Tucson’s idyllic entertainment destination. Photo Courtesy LensandPens, Tucson, AZ
Historic Royal Road

Travelling the Old Camino Real, (Royal Road) at the NW Corner of South Main and Simpson, at the Rosendo S. Perez Park, today you will find several Placards relating the significance of the Neighborhood and the Park, in English and Spanish.

The Placard above reads: “Mule Drawn Trolley July 1904”
“As you look East on Simpson toward Meyer, you can imagine the mule drawn trolley turning the corner to bring Tucson citizens to Elysian Grove for a barbeque, a dog race, an air show, or a picnic in the park.

On weekends that trolley would make the turn from Meyer onto the spur at Simpson and come 600 feet to deliver passengers to The Grove.”

Above: The SW Corner of Barrio Viejo, the Old Neighborhood. Map Detail from Historical Landmarks of Old Tucson, showing the location of Carrillo’s Gardens 1878-1903, and after, renamed the Elysian Grove 1903-1921.


Above: Carrillo Elementary, May 2013, located at the Corner of South Main and Simpson, Site of Carrillo’s Gardens, 1878-1903, and the Elysian Grove 1903-1921. 
Photo Courtesy LensandPens, Tucson, AZ.
Weekends at The Grove
The Grove, some 25 Acres in all, would have been the favorite local Tucson gathering place during the Edwardian Era, especially on Weekends. Various amusements like Vaudeville Shows, Baseball Games, Saloons, Band Concerts, Dance Halls, a Lake and a Skating Rink, would have attracted visitors by the thousands.


The Trolleys, Urban Mass-transit of the day, afforded Citizens and Tourists easy access the Grove from various parts of Tucson, and points far beyond.

Above: Interior Elysian Grove Market. Photo Courtesy LensandPens, Tucson, AZ.

Tucson Historic Time Capsule:
Elysian Grove, 1903-1921, formerly Carrillo’s Gardens, 1878-1903.



Above: Elysian Grove Market, Corner of West Simpson and Sanmaniego, May 2013. Photo Courtesy LensandPens, Tucson, AZ.
Trolley Service to The Grove



Above: Original Caption: “Trolley returning to town from Elysian Grove. The Grove had been renamed in 1903 by the new owner, Emanuel Drachman. Leopoldo Carrillo originally developed Carrillo's Gardens in 1878. A popular park and lake, the Grove served as the site for some of the University's [The University of Arizona’s] early athletic events.” 
Photo and Caption Courtesy Through Our Parents Eyes / Tom Marshall’s Tucson. 


 Above: Placard in the Rosendo S. Perez Park. Photo Courtesy LensandPens, Tucson, AZ

Above Left: Original Caption: “Vendor at Elysian Grove. Farms between the Santa Cruz River and the Elysian Grove Park produced vegetables. Vendors would bring their produce to town and to the gardens to sell.”

Above Right: Original Caption: “1906 celebration in Elysian Grove of Tucson’s first electric streetcars.”

Horse and Mule Power
Above: An Early Tucson Street Rail Scene on Congress and Stone, ca.1905.
Motive Power: The greatest problems with the Tucson Street Rail were the Mules and the Horses!
Photo Courtesy the Arizona Historical Museum.

 Said a Critic of the Day about the Tucson Street Railway of 1904:
“One of the reasons for the declining patronage starting in August of 1904 was the company's failure to provide the announced and promised 15 minute service on a consistent basis. The partial record of the daily usage of the cars reveals that utilization was sporadic. The public simply couldn't, on any given day, know how many cars would be running. For example in the 11 months between mid-August of 1903 and mid-July of 1904, the four required cars were operated on only 144 days, or 43% of the time.”

“One thing is clear. The problem continued beyond the point for which we have records. The Citizen for January 27, 1905, quoted Hoff as saying,
‘The trouble with the corporation is that it has been losing money lately, and as a matter of fact I have had to go out and borrow money to the extent of $3000 by selling some of my own property, and otherwise getting coin in order to carry things along. . . During the last two months our receipts have only been about $6 per day, and our expenses are about $16 daily, so you see that we are not making any very big money at that rate.’

The Tucson Post of January 14, 1905 wrote:
"The service of the Tucson street railway has reached the limit for irregularity. It appears now to be simply a question of holding the franchise. The manager doubtless has his trials, but it is a pity that the present obsolete system should stand in the road of an electric line."
Click to learn more: http://parentseyes.arizona.edu/hooves/


Draft Animals to Modern Electric Power


 Above: One of the First Two Tucson Electric Trolleys, University Bound. June 1, 1906. The Banner reads: “The Goods are Delivered L. H. M.” (Levi Howell Manning, then Mayor of Tucson). 
Photo Courtesy Hooves & Rails.


From its inception in 1897, the Tucson Street Railway played a crucial role, transporting Riders and their goods, to and from shops, and connecting the dusty frontier village of Tucson with the Southern Pacific Rail Line; and El Paso to the East, and Los Angeles to the West.

As progress and growing popularity placed increasing demands on the Street Railway, unreliability became the focus of Street Rail woes in the early 1900s, and Time was running out for Trolley Power by Draft Animal.

Reading from the Pages of Hooves & Rails...

“On June 1, 1906, the symbolic last horsecar and two electric cars proceeded from Stone and Congress to the carbarn on the northeast corner of Stone and Fifth Street where the mule car turned off into the barn. After a photograph was taken, the two electric cars continued to the University filled with invited guests. They then returned to the Elysian Grove for speeches and a banquet.

 The last reminder of the Tucson Street Railway in the press was a notice on July 3 to the bondholders to exchange their bonds for those of the Tucson Rapid Transit Company.”

Above: A Tucson Street Rail Stock Certificate owned by Louise Foucar, Wife of Tom Marshall, purchased in October 1903. 
Photo Courtesy Through Our Parents Eyes / The University Neighborhood.
Reading from the Pages of Through Our Parents Eyes / The University Neighborhood...
“Louise Foucar bought three shares for three hundred dollars in the Tucson Street Railway on October 17, 1903. An electric street car would be more reliable and keep to its schedule unlike its horse or mule-drawn predecessor. It would provide good service to the West University neighborhood.”

Click to learn more: http://parentseyes.arizona.edu/univneighborhood/newgate.htm



Above: The Car Barn at Stone and Fifth Street, ca. 1916. 
Photo Courtesy Arizona Historical Museum.



New Gates and New Trolleys

Above: Entrance to the University of Arizona, looking East from University Boulevard.
Original Caption: “New main entrance gate 1906 had brick pillars, low stone wall and white painted entrance gates with electric light globes on the pillars.”
Photo Courtesy Through Our Parents Eyes / The University Neighborhood.

Originally, the Tucson Rapid Transit Company, with an initial fleet of only Two Electric Streetcars in 1906, connected the fledgling, and otherwise isolated, University of Arizona, with the Elysian Grove to the South and West; where some early Collegiate Athletic Events took place.

Click to learn more: http://parentseyes.arizona.edu/univneighborhood/newgate.htm



Tucson Rapid Transit Company: The First Electric Streetcars

Reading from the Pages of Old Pueblo Trolley Transit History Home Page...


 “From 1898 to 1900 TSR ran a line from the Southern Pacific depot to the University of Arizona campus via Congress, Stone and 3rd Streets with a branch line west on Pennington. Service was expanded between 1902 and 1904 to include an extension along the north side of the University of Arizona and additional routes south of downtown including to Elysian Grove which was a 25 acre park noted for its floral displays, amusement park and man made lake. 

A 1904 TSR report showed an inventory of seven cars, 8 1/4 miles of track and 34 head of livestock. Horse cars ran in Tucson for eight years and were infamously unreliable, as schedules were seemingly at the mercy of the animals. 

Tucson Street Railway became Tucson Rapid Transit Company in June of 1905, a name which would be maintained in Tucson until 1967. TRT purchased five double truck, two man electric streetcars which had originally been used in Los Angeles. Painted green and yellow, and renumbered 1 to 5 each car could carry thirty passengers with room for standees. After heavier track was laid and overhead wire was strung, Tucson entered the electric streetcar era on June 1, 1906.”

Click to learn more: http://www.oldpueblotrolley.org/transhist.htm


Tucson Historic Transport Time Capsule:
Two Man Electric Tucson Trolley #2 1906 Poster. Lens&Pens Original Artwork.
Click to learn more: Tucson Trolley #2 Built Circa 1900



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