Chautauqua County trolley car talk tonight
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MAYVILLE - Tonight, Sept. 17, Bob Johnston, will be giving the Chautauqua Town Historical Society's September talk in the Chautauqua Municipal Building.
Bob Johnston is a local historian and volunteer best known as the founder and driving force behind the Jamestown Street Railway Trolley Car 93 Restoration Project. Johnston is a retired supervisor with the Jamestown Department of Public Works, and has spent more than 20 years (starting in 1996) painstakingly restoring the historic 1926 Jamestown Street Railway Trolley Car No. 93. Johnston will give an update on the project which is nearing completion. The talk will be augmented with Johnston's extensive collection of images and memorabilia.
The Jamestown Street Railway was the first street railway in Jamestown, New York, and it became one of the most important pieces of transportation infrastructure in the city during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It began with horse-drawn cars in 1884, was electrified in 1891, expanded into a substantial local trolley network, and finally ceased streetcar operations in 1938. Jamestown was growing rapidly in the 1870s and 1880s, but its streets were notoriously muddy and difficult to travel. A street railway offered a much more reliable way for workers, shoppers, and residents to move around town.
The first Jamestown streetcar made its inaugural run on June 19, 1884, operating from the Sherman House in downtown Jamestown to the boat landing on Chautauqua Lake. The first car was filled with company directors and invited guests. Among the directors was Reuben E. Fenton, former governor of New York and prominent Jamestown resident. The railway effectively helped transform Jamestown from a relatively compact industrial town into a more dispersed urban community. People could live farther from their workplaces and still commute conveniently. This was facilitated with the development of electric streetcars. Electrification transformed the railway and the city. Instead of depending upon horses, the cars could travel faster, carry more passengers, operate longer routes, and avoid the enormous expense of maintaining a horse fleet.
By 1900, the street rail system began to radiate out from its Jamestown core. Service was extended to Celeron and Lakewood. Then the Chautauqua Traction Company expanded the service north to Mayville and Westfield. The separate Warren & Jamestown Street Railway, connected Jamestown with Frewsburg, and Warren, Pennsylvania in 1905. Thus, someone in Jamestown in the early 20th century could use electric railways to travel far beyond the city itself.
Perhaps the most colorful part of the Jamestown Street Railway story is its relationship with Celoron Park, "The Coney Island of Chautauqua." This was part of the larger American phenomenon known as the “trolley park.” Street railway companies across the country developed amusement parks to generate weekend and holiday ridership. Both Celoron Park and Midway Park (midway between Jamestown and Mayville) became celebrated examples of "trolley parks," and allowed hundreds of people to make recreational trips that otherwise would have been beyond their means. Jamestown’s famous double-decker streetcar “Columbia” became particularly associated with the Celoron run.
The early 1920s was the heyday of the street car, but automobiles and buses were rapidly replacing them as the prime mode of urban transportation, especially in smaller urban places like Jamestown. By the 1930s, the electric street car was becoming a remnant of a bygone era. On January 29, 1938 the last Jamestown Street Railway trolley made its final run. And the last "surviving" trolley is Bob Johnston's Jamestown Street Railway Car No. 93. Thanks to Bob's dedication and diligence, Car No. 93 is not only surviving, but perhaps thriving, if a suitable permanent home can be found. Support and donations for this are being coordinated through the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation in Jamestown.
The Chautauqua Town Historical Society's speaker's programs are normally the third Thursday of the month. The talks are in the Veteran's Memorial Meeting Room of the Chautauqua Town Hall, 2 Academy Street, Mayville.