Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Streetcars, Undated

streetcar between 1917 and 1940
(Click on images to enlarge)
Images in this post courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.


Here we have Post-Apocalypse Streetcar. Seriously, doesn't the whole place look desolate? No people, no cars, just scraggly weeds growing everywhere.

No helpful notes on the back to give us a date, and I know only enough to date it between 1917 (when the Strattan building lost its curtain loft) and 1940 (when the Hobart House was demolished).

Let's move on to a more cheerful picture.

Streetcarcirca1940s

… That's better. This undated image shows the same corner as my 1938 slide, but judging by the automobiles on the street, I'd estimate it at about ten years later. By that time, this corner was the end of the line for the streetcars; i.e., they no longer traveled all the way to the Pennsy depot.

2 comments:

Janice said...

So the streetcar ran from Gary to Hobart? Do you know the route?

Ainsworthiana said...

I don't know the route west of Wisconsin Street. There might be something about that in the streetcar file at the museum, when I get some time to check it.

East of Wisconsin -- the line ran from the Pennsy Depot, along Third Street. Around (modern-day) Ash Street, the tracks turned north/northwest, then where the Pennsy tracks cross Wisconsin Street, the streetcar tracks turned to run alongside the railroad tracks. Beyond that, I don't know.

I have some 1939 aerial photos of Hobart, one of which shows what I just described, but it's going to be a little while before I can get those up on the blog. (Things are a little crazy around here right now.)