The Ridge Historical Society
Chicago Streetcars
By Carol Flynn
UPDATED 9/21/2023
The recent installation of medians along Western Avenue through the Beverly/Morgan Park area led to the street being torn up, revealing old train tracks under the concrete. This spurred interest in and memories of the streetcars that used to run down the middle of the street.
A post made on this page with one historical photo of a streetcar on Western in 1935 has had 23,000 viewers so far. This could break a record for RHS.
Since the topic proved so popular, here is additional information.
Streetcars are local street railways that draw power from overhead electric wires. In other cities, they are usually called “trolleys” but in Chicago they have always been known as “streetcars.”
The original streetcars were horse-drawn cars running along rails built on the dirt streets. By the late 1880s, thousands of horses used for pulling streetcars were kept in stables all over the city and suburbs. The horses were selected not only for their endurance but also for their even temperaments. The horses had to be reshod every two weeks so there were also numerous horseshoe shops around the city.
The horse-drawn cars shared the later part of their timespan with “cable cars” connected to cables underground that pulled them along. Those systems were replaced by battery-operated cars. By 1906, these types of streetcars were obsolete, thanks to electricity.
The history of the adaptation of electricity to power items ranging from light bulbs to streetcars is a complex and fascinating one, but beyond the scope of this Facebook post. Important for this story, in 1890, the first streetcar tethered to overhead electric power lines in the city of Chicago ran on the south side, on 93rd Street between Stony Island and South Chicago Avenue.
Like the long-distance railroads, this “public” transportation was privately owned. Streetcar lines started as private companies that won contracts or franchises with municipalities. Ordinances passed by the city council and the state increasingly regulated how the services were run. Ten companies in the Chicago area eventually merged with each other and in 1914, the Chicago Surface Lines company was formed, and operations were consolidated.
The major north-south streetcar route in the early days of Beverly and Morgan Park was along Vincennes Avenue. Cars along this route connected to lines all over the city.
The first streetcar line in Beverly/Morgan Park was built along Morgan Avenue, today’s Monterey Avenue/111th Street, from Vincennes to Sacramento Avenue, in 1893, by the Englewood and Chicago Street Railway Company. It was built to bring funeral-goers and visitors to Mount Greenwood Cemetery and Mount Olivet Cemetery. Special funeral cars could be reserved to transport caskets and funeral attendees to various cemeteries around the city. A hearse from the cemetery would meet the streetcar at the closest stop.
The original 111th Street route began at 63rd Street and Vernon Avenue, about four blocks east of State Street, and made its way south to 79th Street, where it turned west to Vincennes Avenue, and then ran south on Vincennes. Most of the route was through swamps and over prairie land, with plenty of mud during the rainy seasons and snow drifts in the winter. There were special cars with plows to clear the snow off the tracks.
The first cars were powered by batteries that were recharged after every run at a powerhouse at 88th Street and Vincennes. The optimal speed of the cars was six miles per hour; higher speeds drained the batteries before the trip was completed. If the battery died while the car was out on the track it had to be towed to the powerhouse.
A special counterweight system was used to help the cars traverse the sharp hill on 111th Street just west of Longwood Drive. An article about that is attached to this post for readers who like technical details.
The 111th Street line shared the road with horse-drawn wagons and new automobiles. Its goal was to reach the cemeteries, but it also ran through the major commercial district of Morgan Park and right by the 111th Street Rock Island train station.
Businessmen from the City of Blue Island started a line there in 1897. The cars also used battery power. The route ran from the southern tip of the Ridge at Western Avenue and Stony Creek, then along Vincennes Avenue and Halsted Street to 63rd Street and Harvard Avenue.
The battery power was not very efficient. It was not strong enough for the streetcar to get up the steep hill on Western Avenue so a roundabout route through Blue Island streets was built to be a more gradual ascent. It was not that unusual for the battery to die before the car made it to the charging station at 88th and Vincennes Avenue.
Around 1900, the systems were electrified and switched from batteries to the overhead electric wires for power.
Even though it was a major thoroughfare throughout the entire city, Western Avenue did not have a streetcar line between 79th Street and 119th Street for many years because Beverly residents refused to allow one to be built through their area. Beverly prided itself on having no streetcars – it was part of the image of upper crust exclusiveness that Beverly homeowners fostered. They promoted using the Rock Island Railroad line to get downtown. Employees and visitors wishing to use the streetcars had to walk west to Vincennes Avenue.
The Blue Island line went bankrupt in 1927 and was discontinued. In 1931, the Western Avenue streetcar line was extended from 79th Street to 111th Street. A big parade was held to mark the occasion, because this extension created the world’s longest straight streetcar line, running the length of the city.
Running the early streetcars was a two-man job. The motorman was the driver, standing at the front of the car. He didn’t have to steer since the car was on tracks, but he needed to be quick with the brakes when people, animals, horse-drawn wagons, and ever-increasing automobiles wandered onto the tracks in front of an approaching streetcar. Some very tragic accidents involving streetcars occurred.
The conductor collected the fares (five cents in 1914, with a free paper transfer) and clanged a bell to let the motorman know when all were on aboard and the car could continue.
Service was frequent, and streetcars were used for other jobs besides public transportation, like transporting mail.
Streetcars had some advantages, notably they did not give off polluting exhaust, but they were considered slow and inefficient. They could not maneuver in traffic and contributed to the growing congestion problems created by more and more automobiles on the roads.
Streetcars were finally discontinued and phased out in the 1950s. More people were using automobiles, and it was decided buses were more efficient on city streets. The 111th Street line was discontinued in 1945, and the Western Avenue line ended in 1956.