A History of Streetcar Service in Athens, Georgia

A HISTORY OF STREETCAR SERVICE IN ATHENS, GEORGIA, AND SOME POSSIBILITIES FOR ITS REINTRODUCTION by DAVID WINTER RAY (Under the Direction of John C. Waters) ABSTRACT The city of Athens, Georgia boasted a street railway service for forty-five uninterrupted years, from 1885 to 1930. For all but the first six years, when the small original streetcars were pulled by mules, the system operated electric-powered streetcars, also known as trolleys. Chapter 2 of this thesis offers a perspective on the history of this streetcar service. It covers the routes that were utilized, the chronology, content, and impact of developments and expansions, as well the line of succession of ownership for the operating company. Then, in Chapter 3, the thesis analyzes the potential for reintroduction of an electric streetcar system in Athens. Specifically, it focuses on some possible routes that might be suitable for an effective line or circuit. These hypothetical routes are assessed with a view towards their technical feasibility, as well as the likelihood that they will attract a ridership significant enough to sustain long-term success and viability. INDEX WORDS: Athens streetcars, Athens streetcar history, Athens Electric Railway Company, Athens Railway Company, Athens Railway & Electric Company, Athens Park & Improvement Company, Boulevard Historic District, Classic City Street Railway, Streetcars, Trolleys A HISTORY OF STREETCAR SERVICE IN ATHENS, GEORGIA, AND SOME POSSIBILITIES FOR ITS REINTRODUCTION by DAVID WINTER RAY B.A., Rhodes College, 1995 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF HISTORIC PRESERVATION ATHENS, GEORGIA 2005 © 2005 David Winter Ray All Rights Reserved A HISTORY OF STREETCAR SERVICE IN ATHENS, GEORGIA, AND SOME POSSIBILITIES FOR ITS REINTRODUCTION by DAVID WINTER RAY Major Professor: John Waters Committee: James Reap Danny Bivins Bruce Lonnee Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2005 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I extend my sincerest thanks and/or apologies to the following, without whose assistance, it would have taken me even longer to complete this: - Professor John Waters and Donna Gabriel for all their help, and for putting up with me throughout this process. - The members of my Reading Committee, for pushing on through my long-winded prose, and for doing so on short notice. - Rene’ Shoemaker, for continuing to let me check out books. - Dr. Margaret Calhoon at Georgia Power Company’s Corporate Archives in Atlanta. - Melissa Bush and the other staff members at the Hargrett Library. - Tom Hardaway at the University Map Library. - The Graduate School, for its timely extensions. - Gary L. Doster, James K. Reap, and Frances Taliaferro Thomas, amongst others, for their prior efforts and dedication to documenting the history of Athens. - Everybody at Parsons Brinckerhoff for their strong encouragement and understanding. - My friends, for listening to me talk about this project these past few years (which was undoubtedly tiresome), even after the missed opportunities of “Two-thousand-threesis” and “Two-thousand ‘4’ thesis.” - To my family in Mobile for everything, and especially to the other DWR for taking the time to thoroughly review my prose, and help make it a little less long-winded. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................................................................................................... iv LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... vi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................1 Premise ......................................................................................................................3 Methodology .............................................................................................................5 2 A PERSPECTIVE ON THE HISTORY OF STREETCAR SERVICE IN ATHENS, AND THE ROUTES THAT ITS TROLLEYS TRAVELED .......................................8 3 APPRAISALS OF SOME POSSIBLE ROUTES FOR USE BY A REINTRODUCED STREETCAR SYSTEM IN ATHENS....................................74 An Assessment of the Reutilization of Athens’ Historic Streetcar Routes .............78 An Analysis of a Campus-Oriented Circuit that Caters to the Transportation Needs of Students at the University of Georgia...........................................................94 Potential Routes through the University of Georgia Campus, and Potential Obstacles .........................................................................................................103 Summation and Evaluations of the Potential Routes through Campus.................113 4 SOME HYPOTHETICAL BENEFITS OF IMPLEMENTATION OF ONE OF THE PROPOSED CAMPUS ROUTES.........................................................................128 5 CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................135 BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................................................................136 v LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 2.1: Map of the Property of the Athens Park and Improvement Company ........................64 Figure 2.2: Map of the City of Athens, Ga., by C.M. Strahan........................................................65 Figure 2.3: Map of revisions to the Athens Electric Ry. tracks on College Avenue.....................66 Figure 2.4: Proposed Plan of Paving Clayton & Washington Sts. (Hull St. to College Ave.)......67 Figure 2.5: Proposed Plan of Paving Clayton & Washington Sts. (Pulaski St. to Lumpkin St.) ..68 Figure 2.6: Proposed Plan of Paving Clayton & Washington Sts. (Jackson St. to Foundry St.) ..69 Figure 2.7: Map of Athens, Georgia, circa 1905............................................................................70 Figure 2.8: City of Athens, Georgia – Map Showing Road, Rail, and Power Ways......................71 Figure 2.9: Athens, Georgia (Street Car Lines).............................................................................72 Figure 2.10: Proposed Plan for Re-paving & Double Tracking Prince Ave., Athens ...................73 Figure 3.1: The University of Georgia Campus Map ..................................................................125 Figure 3.2: UGA Campus Bus Routes Map .................................................................................126 Figure 3.3: North-South Route and Timetable.............................................................................127 vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Within the last decade, another accomplished student in the University of Georgia’s Historic Preservation Program, Robert A. Ciucevich, authored a thesis entitled “Providing a Future for Historic Streetcar Lines” (Approved 9/9/97). This fact might logically raise the question of why another thesis on the same basic subject - the reintroduction of streetcars - is warranted, or is, at the very least, not redundant. In order to answer or sidestep this question, it is hereby asserted that, although Mr. Ciucevich’s research into the subject was carried out as recently as 1996 and 1997, much has happened in the realm of streetcar redevelopment during the last ¾ of a decade. As Graham Hill, a transportation consultant who has formed a non-profit organization to stimulate the introduction of streetcars in Boulder, Colorado, says, "Streetcars have become a national trend, and communities are lining up to put them back in their cities." Providing witness to this trend, three major new streetcar systems or lines, staffed by paid professional operators, have opened in the United States since 2000, with the inauguration of the Portland Streetcar system in 2001, Tampa’s TECO Line in 2002, and New Orleans reborn Canal Street line in the spring of last year. Moreover, Memphis has just completed a 2.5 mile extension of its decade old Main Street Trolley line. Each of the above is fully integrated into the city’s overall transit operations, linking directly with existing bus or light rail service. Thus, they indicate that the track-based streetcar, with its 115 year old heritage, can be updated and 1 reintroduced in a manner in which it legitimately contributes to a city’s urban transportation infrastructure, by moving citizens and visitors where they want to go, without use of their cars. Although their merits and/or cost-to-benefit ratios are certainly still open to dispute (as are those of public transportation in general, according to some), the reintroduction of streetcar lines, whether or not historically oriented in appearance and technology, must now be acknowledged as one accepted solution for providing public transportation in urban centers. The sheer number of cities that have installed streetcar systems, or are currently developing or implementing plans to do so, means that their reintroduction can no longer be dismissed as the unrealistic, off-the-wall dreams of a small cadre of out-of-touch planners, historic preservationists, or rail and trolley enthusiasts. In essence, the issue of whether it is even possible to reintroduce trolley systems is no longer really the most salient point of contention for discussions of their validity, since plenty of cities - both large and small - have already done so during the last decade. These prior efforts of planning and early

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