MASS TRANSIT
Streetcars and Buses

As indicated, these are only highlights in the history of the modes of mass transit that affected residents of St. Louis Park. Please contact us with additions and corrections. Information in this document relies heavily on the books Transit in the Twins by Stephen A. Kieffer, published by the Twin City Rapid Transit Company in 1958 and Twin Cities by Trolley by John W. Diers and Aaron Isaacs, U of M Press, 2007.

1872

The first Horsecar trod the mud streets of St. Paul on July 15. The first route was two miles long. Capacity was 14 passengers. The St. Paul City Railway Company had six cars (dubbed “cracker boxes on wheels) and 30 horses, operated by 14 men.

1875

Streetcar service opened in Minneapolis on September 2, 1875. The Minneapolis Street Railway, under the leadership of Thomas Lowry (an emigrant lawyer from Illinois) built 4.37 miles of track that started at Hennepin and Washington Aves. The ten cars, which were sometimes referred to as “Tom Lowreys,” were drawn by horses.

1878

On July 1, the Minneapolis, Lyndale, and Lake Calhoun Railroad was incorporated by several Minneapolis and Columbus, Ohio businessmen, including Colonel William C. McCrory, whose farm was called Lyndale. The Lyndale Railway Co. started to construct a single, three foot gauge line, starting at Nicollet Ave. and First Street (Bridge Square) to 34th Street at Lake Calhoun.

1879
The Minneapolis, Lyndale, and Lake Calhoun Railway opened in May 1879.  Trains were pulled by two steam engines, which were camouflaged to look like cars.. The line was known as "McCroary’s Motor Line.” The line was extended to Lake Harriet in 1880. The company’s name was changed to the Minneapolis, Lyndale, and Minnetonka Railway Co. in February 1881. The line was extended to Lake Minnetonka in July 1882. This was the first line to travel parallel to 44th Street, just south of St. Louis Park in Edina. The line was primarily a shuttle between Minneapolis and Lake Minnetonka, and the mode of transportation that working people in Brookside would have traveled to work.

The Motor Line stop on Brookside Ave. (which is apparently labeled Main Ave. on an1898 map) was named Emma Abbott, and the area on both sides of 44th Street was known as Emma Abbott Park. Emma’s father, Seth Abbott, had purchased the 127 acre farm of Jehu and Belinda Rutledge and platted the land. He named it after his daughter, a singer and guitar player who toured the world. The land passed to Emma, but she died young, and the dream of Abbott Park was never realized.

1881
The formal name of the Motor Line was changed to the Minneapolis, Lyndale, and Minnetonka, reflecting its ultimate destination.

1883

Thomas Edison exhibited the first electric locomotive in the world.

The first electric railway line, the Chicago El, had begun operation in 1883.

1884

Thomas Lowry and his partners took over the St. Paul City Railway Company.

The first overhead electric streetcar line was installed in Kansas City.

1885

McCrory's Motor Line suffered financial losses due to overly ambitious extensions, and fell into the hands of Charles A. Pillsbury and James J. Hill.

1886

Thomas Lowrey and associates merged the Minneapolis and St. Paul lines as the Twin City Rapid Transit Company (TCRT).

1887

McCrory’s Motor Line was sold to the Minneapolis Street Railway Company on April 1. The tracks from Lake Harriet to Lake Minnetonka were abandoned. The demise was said to be due to lack of business.

1889

Over 15 months, Minneapolis converted from steam to the electric streetcar, running first on December 24. Frank Sprague had figured out to electrify the cars in 1887.

1890

The Interurban horsecar line was completed between the loops of Minneapolis and St. Paul, running down University Ave. through the Midway.


1892

On May 8, T.B. Walker received permission from the village council to build the Lake Street Streetcar that ran from 29th Street, followed the Lake Calhoun shoreline, down Minnetonka Blvd. and then down Lake Street to Walker Street, where it turned around in a wye. Fares were five cents, and a maximum speed was set at 25 miles per hour. It took 20 minutes to get downtown.  The line became operational in the spring [December] 1892. opening with 3-4 Pullman cars that were rented from the Minneapolis Street Railway Co.  It started frrom 29th Street (Lagoon) and Hennepin.   Maps in Walker's newspaper ads for the area indicated several extensions of the line that were planned but never built.

The line was a venture of the Minneapolis Land and Investment Co., which acquired  franchise for St. Louis Park to build a streetcar line.  Members of that corporation, which was organized in 1890, include:

TB. Walker
Calvin Goodrich
Thomas Lowry
Charles Pillsbury
Louis Menage (local promoter and developer - eventually went broke and fled to Guademala)

Starting in August 1897, the “Black Mariah” of the Lake Street line extended into Hopkins. Once through the St. Louis Park business section, it continued on Lake Street to Monk (or Blake) Ave. Then to Excelsior Avenue and west to the end, just east of 6th Avenue and Excelsior Avenue, where the Minneapolis and St. Louis tracks crossed Excelsior Ave. The streetcar was not allowed the cross the Minneapolis and St. Louis tracks. There are a couple of stories about the line to Hopkins. One is that when it became apparent that Park residents were using it to patronize Hopkins businesses, local Park businessmen prevailed upon Walker to rip up the western extension. A second story is that Walker operated a horse-drawn carriage between the Brick Block and Hopkins.

The last one concerns Walker's sale of the Lake Street line to the Twin City Rapid Transit Company in November 1906, which made it a part of the Minneapolis and St. Paul Suburban Company. The Twin City Rapid Transit Company also bought a line that went to Robbinsdale, and since both went to Hopkins and Hopkins was being served by the Lake Minnetonka line, the St. Louis Park segment to Hopkins was torn up in 1906-7.

Streetcars had a great deal to do with population trends in the young Village. In the days before automobiles, those who worked in town depended on the trains and streetcars to get to work. Walker's streetcar made it possible for businesses to carry on along its tracks and fostered construction of homes in the area. In an interview in 1913, Walker said that another purpose of the streetcar was to encourage truck farmers in the Park to bring their produce to Minneapolis, thereby increasing the supply and lowering the cost of living for city dwellers. (Walker was first and foremost a Minneapolis booster.) Even after the advent of private cars, the streetcar was well used until it ended its run on August 28, 1938, to be replaced by buses.

On January 2, 1892, the Minneapolis Street Railway and the St. Paul City Railway consolidated to become the Twin City Rapid Transit Company, generally known as Twin City Lines or TRTC. [Incorporated in June 1891 in New Jersey].

1893

Bicycles (velocipedes) became an overnight sensation and put up stiff competition for the roadways til the fad cooled in 1897.

1898

The first part of the Lake Minnetonka line, the Como-Harriet interurban line, was opened on July 1, 1898. It started at 34th Street, east of Lake Calhoun.

1899
An extension of the Lake Street line to Hopkins opened in 1899.  It moved south along Monk Ave. to Excelsior Blvd., then west.  Cars were leased from the TCRT.

1902

The St. Louis Park and Hopkins Electric Line Car Barn at Brownlow was destroyed by fire from lightning on October 7. The carhouse and one car burned.  The carhouse was rebuilt, but was damaged by the tornado of 1904 when the storm blew a car into the waiting station.

1905

Twin City Lines bought up much of the old McCrory Motor Line route, started work in the spring, and inaugurated the electric Excelsior (Lake Minnetonka) Line on September 30, 1905. The line went from Downtown to Morningside, Hopkins, and Excelsior. The 14 mile double track line was slightly different from that of the old Motor Line. It had local stops at Browndale, Mackey, and the Brookside Station, which was located at the corner of Motor Street [44th] and Main Street [Brookside]. An express ran to Minnetonka, and that train went so fast it was known as quite a wild ride. The line had some double decker cars, but they were decapitated because they weighed too much and were too hard on the infrastructure. Brookside Ave. crossed the tracks on an overpass that was removed in about 1956 or 1957. The tracks were laid on a private right-of-way, mostly following the route of the McCrory Line. Electric lights hung from the span wires. 

The route of the Lake Minnetonka line was as follows:

Lake Harriet (31st and Irving)

what is now an alley on the north side of 44th and France

crossed France at an angle and moved to the south side of 44th
ran parallel to 44th to Brookside Ave.
across a marsh that featured cattails, ducks and shore birds
southern boundary of Morningside Golf Course
through the woods along the southern edge of Blake Road, south of Blake School
crossed Washington Ave. (now highway 169)

took a viaduct over the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railroad and Milwaukee Road
Excelsior Blvd. between Hopkins and 494
south of Excelsior Blvd. (now housing)
continued west of Highway 101, Highway 7 to Excelsior.

Twin City Lines also bought Walker's Lake Street Streetcar around this time.

1906

A second track of the Lake Minnetonka line was added to the Lake Minnetonka line.

The Lake Minnetonka streetcar line to Excelsior was extended to include six "Streetcar Boats" that took passengers to the Big Island Park in Lake Minnetonka. The amusement park and hotel closed in August of 1911. The Minnetonka Line was known as the “white way” for the light poles every 400 feet. In 1924, Excelsior Amusement Park was built at the site of the waiting station for the streetcar boats. The streetcar boats were discontinued in July of 1926 and revived in 1996. For pictures, go to http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresources/ and type in Big Island Park as the Keywords.

The Griswold Monorail Co. (same Griswolds as the Griswold Sign and Signal Co.) proposed building a monorail from Lake Minnetonka to Minneapolis.

The Lake Street Streetcar was purchased by TCRT in November and was merged with the Minneapolis and St. Paul and Suburban Railway.

1907

The Hopkins extension to the Lake Street Streetcar was abandoned, citing access via the Lake Minnetonka line.

The Tonka Bay Hotel was purchased by the TCRT, and reopened in 1908.   The building was designed by L.S. Buffington, and was built in 1879 as the Lake Park Hotel.  It was four stories tall, had 200 rooms, and dining facilities for 500.  The hotel closed in 1911, the same day as Big Island Park. The combination roller rink and dancehall would later be moved to the Excelsior Amusement Park.

1909

[1908] The Como-Harriet line was extended to Hopkins, originating in downtown St. Paul going to 9th Ave. and Excelsior Blvd. in Hopkins.

Thomas Lowrey died and his son-in-law, Calvin Goodrich became president of the Twin City Lines until he died in 1915. 

1913

An article in the Journal dated November 2, 1913, indicated that when T.B. Walker's electric streetcar was sold to the Twin City Lines in 1905/06, there was the expectation that there would be a 5 cent fare into the city, and when that happened, the village would develop as a manufacturing suburb and residence district. The article also mentioned the Dan Patch line, then under construction, which would carry freight as well as passengers. "Until such time it was felt that it would be at least a drawback against bringing in settlements and improvements. Under these circumstances, the Park has lain dormant until the present time."

1914

The Dan Patch Electric Railway, started in 1907 by Col. M.W. "Will" Savage, came to the Park running north-south.

Eric Wickman inaugurated the beginning of the “omnibus” when he transported miners from Hibbing to the iron mine.  This eventually led to the development of Greyhound Lines.

1921

An independent company ran a bus line in Minneapolis.

1922

Twin City Lines carried 226 million passengers, an all-time high. Ridership began a gradual decline, due to the increase in automobiles.

1926

Twin City Lines bought up all independent bus lines, and all taxi companies. The city smelled monopoly and ordered the taxis sold later in the year.

1932

In August, the Lake Minnetonka line was truncated and only ran to Hopkins.

1938

August 28 marked the last run of the Lake Street Streetcar. The process started in 1934, when the Village Council authorized the Council President to bargain with the Minneapolis and St. Paul Suburban Railway for bus service to replace streetcar service and to bargain for better service. Although the demise of the streetcar was marked with sentiment, the advent of buses appealed to riders because of their more flexible routes and more comfortable rides. Only later did residents regret the loss of their beloved streetcar.  The photo above is said to be the last streetcar in St. Louis Park. 

Plans were announced to widen and improve the highway on the north side of Lake Calhoun.  The decision was to switch to buses rather than relocate the streetcar tracks.

1947
The bus first came to Knollwood.

1949

From the Minnesota Streetcar Museum website:

Late in 1949, New York City investor Charles Green gained control of TCRT. Determined to squeeze dividends from a company that traditionally reinvested its profits in system improvements, Green discontinued the rebuilding program, trimmed maintenance to a minimum, laid off hundreds of employees, relentlessly cut schedules, and announced a goal of complete conversion to buses by 1958. His heavy-handed policies so alienated the public that in 1951 he was ousted and control passed to his local partner Fred Ossanna. [It was rumored that Green made a $100,000 profit when he sold.] Mr. Ossanna introduced further economy measures and continued to reduce service as patronage dropped. A Los Angeles expert on conversion to buses, Barney Larrick, was hired and the system was completely converted by 1954. Several years later it became known that Ossanna and associates had pillaged TCRT for illegal personal profit. They were tried and sentenced to prison terms.

The story is that Ossanna, rebuffed by local financiers, went straight to General Motors, hoping to buy 25 new diesel buses. Roger Keyes of GM (later to become Assistant Secretary of Defense) found conditions so promising that he was willing to extend credit to buy 525 new vehicles. USA Confidential  posits that Joe Massei, of Detroit's Purple Gang, with a bundle of Mafia cash, was in on the deal." 

1952

In November the 3.3 mile stretch of track between Brookside Ave. and Hopkins was removed. All the tracks in the system were removed by 1954.

In the fifties, Excelsior Blvd. was served by the Deephaven bus line.

1954

After a mind-boggling two-year conversion, a fleet of 525 buses totally replaced Minneapolis streetcars. Cars were sold to Newark, Cleveland, and Mexico City. Offers of jute bags from India, coffee from Brazil, and beef from Argentina were apparently turned down. The older, home-built cars were sold to private citizens for things like lake cottages, construction shacks, and camp mess halls. Those that could not be sold were burned. A picture of Ossanna in front of a burning street car, smile on his face, enraged streetcar proponents, and he had to live that down from then on. The Twin Cities’ last trolley rolled down Hennepin Avenue on June 18, 1954.

Brookside station, @ 1953

The run of the Como-Hopkins line ended in June. The Minnesota Historical Society has a 78 record of the next to last run. The Village Council expressed an interest in a thoroughfare made of abandoned streetcar Right of Way from 44th and France to Hopkins. They would pay a share of the cost to buy the Right of Way from Twin City Lines.

On November 22, the Village ordered the damaged waiting station at Wooddale and W. Lake removed.

1955

The City Council was alarmed at the reduction of bus trips on Excelsior Blvd. from 59 to 37.

1973

In July, St. Louis Park became the first Minneapolis suburb to have its own MTC minibus system. 19 buses traversed a route between 44th Street and Highway 12, Monday through Saturday. Principal stops were the library, schools, rec center, St. Louis Park Medical Center (now Park Nicollet), Methodist Hospital, Westwood Shopping Center, Shoppers’ City, and Miracle Mile.
 

Presidents of the Twin City Rapid Transit Company:

Thomas Lowrey: 1873-1909
Calvin Goodrich: 1909-1915
Horace Lowrey: 1915-1931
Julian McGill: 1931-1936
D.J. Strouse: 1936-1949
Charles Green: 1949-1951
Emil B. Aslesen: 1951
Fred A. Ossanna: 1951-1957
Dr. David E. Ellison: 1957

For more information on Twin Cities Streetcars, visit the Minnesota Streetcar Museum at www.trolleyride.org.

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This information comes from a variety of sources: newspapers, books, yearbooks, phone directories, interviews, etc. Given the varied sources, we cannot guarantee that all of this information is correct, and welcome any additions and corrections. Please contact us with your contributions and comments.