<\/p>\n
On this program we have had a lot to say about railroads. especially Maine’s famous narrow gauge lines. but only infrequently have we mentioned the street railways. We did discuss. some time ago, the electric roads in the vicinity of Waterville and Skowhegan, including the old Toonerville Trolley that used to run between Fairfield and Shawmut. Perhaps it is time to say a bit more about Maine’s street railways as they were seventy years ago in 1890.<\/p>\n
In that year. although the state had a number of street railway lines, only two had been electrified. the Bangor Street Railway and the Augusta-Hallowell-Gardiner line. All the others had horse-drawn cars. The one I knew best was never electrified, but remained horse-drawn to its end. It was the Fryeburg Horse Railroad, a picture of one of whose cars appeared on the jacket of my book “Kennebec Yesterdays”. It is the only horse car on which I ever rode. and I was only four years old when I made my first trip on it from the Fryeburg railroad station to the old Chatauqua grounds. though I rode on it many times afterward from Fryeburg Village out to the Oxford County fairgrounds. That Fryeburg Horse Railroad had a very modest amount of equipment: just one horse and three passenger cars.<\/p>\n
The original line ran three miles from the railroad station to Martha’s Grove where. for several weeks each summer in the 1890’s, was presented a continuous Chatauqua program.<\/p>\n
Largest of the horse railroads in 1890 was that of the Portland Railroad Company. which had 115 employees. It owned 54 passenger and four freight cars. In 1890 it made the astounding report that it had, during the year, carried 2.700,000 passengers. It ran through Congress Street, up Munjoy Hill, through Atlantic and Beckett Streets to the Eastern Promenade and on to Fort Allen. That railroad kept a big stable of 265 horses.<\/p>\n
The Lewiston and Auburn Horse Railroad included among its expenses for 1890 the sum of $2,287 for hay, $288 for steam, $3,346 for grain, and $836 for horse shoeing. It had just put in operation its new Belt Line route, crossing the Grand Trunk near the Auburn station, across the bridge to Lewiston, up around that city’s principal streets and back to Auburn by the other bridge. It ran a branch line to Lake Auburn and was in the process of building a new car barn in Lewiston.<\/p>\n
The Biddeford and Saco Railroad had 73 horses and 15 passenger cars, four of which were called herdies — a low-slung carriage with entrance at the rear and seats along the side. Sixteen employees operated its six miles of line. The really profitable section of that railroad was its line from Saco to Old Orchard Beach. The company announced in 1890: “Our Old Orchard line needs widening and filling with gravel between the rails. That will be done next season. We have a well arranged and comfortable stable in Saco, where the horses are well cared for. The cars are first-class and are kept in good condition.”<\/p>\n
Now we come nearer home to the Waterville and Fairfield Horse Railroad. In 1890 its 12 employees operated five passenger cars over less than 3t miles of track. Started in 1887, it ran along the main streets of Waterville, up the county road to Fairfield and through the principal streets of that village. Its stable and car barn were located in Fairfield. Not until the street railways were electrified in the early 1890’s did their resort parks come into being. By that time the Waterville Company had built a line to Oakland as well as to Fairfield. and its promoter, Amos Gerald, developed two parks. The first, called Island Park, on the largest of the Kennebec islands between Fairfield and Benton, became a rendezvous for local people. especially on Sunday afternoons, at the turn of the century. Its successor, Cascade Park, near the Penney Farm on the line to Oakland, had a summer theater where vaudeville of the time held sway. I first saw that park when I was a Colby student in 1910, but I never saw Island Park. It had been abandoned before I came to Waterville.<\/p>\n
Of course the now famous Lakewood Theater had exactly the same origin. It was built so as to be available to the trolley line between Skowhegan and Madison, and like Cascade Park was at first a resort place with many other amusements and only vaudeville in the theater. It was the genius of Herbert Swett that made all the difference between Lakewood and other Maine resorts, turning his place into legitimate theater, and making it famous for first performances of such plays as “Life with Father”.<\/p>\n
Portland had three famous trolley resorts. The oldest was Underwood Park on the Yarmouth highway, built in 1897. It had an open-air theater seating 1,500 persons, an elaborate electric fountain illuminated by colored lights, and an orchestra constantly in attendance. A long pier extended into the bay with a big pavilion at its end.<\/p>\n
I am sure some of you remember another Portland trolley resort, Cape Cottage Casino, near Fort William. Overlooking the ocean at a point where all heavy shipping passed in and out of Portland, it provided a magnificent, constantly changing scene. The price of the round trip from Portland, including admission to the vaudeville theater, was twenty cents. The casino had public and private dining rooms, as well as a big ballroom.<\/p>\n
Best patronized and longest surviving of the Portland resorts was Riverton Park, beside the Presumpscot River on what is now the Roosevelt Highway from Morrill’s Corner to Windham. It had an immense casino with ballroom, dining rooms, lounge, and spacious verandas. One could rent a canoe or a bicycle right on the spot, could enjoy any of the numerous picnic shelters, and stroll through the zoo, populated by deer, moose and other animals. Riverton’s outdoor theater seated 2,500 people and no expense was spared to bring nationally famous vaudeville acts to its stage. Two small steamers made scheduled runs up and down the Presumpscot River. I was a resident of Portland when Riverton Park was abandoned in 1921. It was then sold and its buildings were torn down.<\/p>\n
Another famous trolley resort was on the line of the Rockland, Thomaston and Camden Street Railway, called Oakland Park. It was about four miles from Rockland on 70 beautiful acres fronting on Penobscot Bay. It boasted not only a restaurant and dance hall, but also an artificial lake for winter skating parties. Every summer Sunday saw a band concert in Oakland Park’s ornate band stand. It was the site of championship baseball games in the Maine League, and every fair summer day its merry-go-round, slippery slides, and see-saws were filled with youngsters.<\/p>\n
What was considered the deluxe trolley ride in all Maine was the Portland-Lewiston Interurban Railroad. ‘That famous line was started in 1910 with Italian labor and horse-drawn cars. By 1912 the roadbed was finished and several concrete bridges crossed the streams. Brick stations with commodious waiting rooms were built at Danville, Gray and West Falmouth. An interconnection with the Maine Central at Deering Junction enabled the builders to transfer rails, ties. and other supplies directly to the work cars. The new, luxurious cars, more like railroad coaches than trolley cars, were named for flowers: Arbutus. Gladiolus, Narcissus, Magnolia, etc., up to a total of nine. The first trip over the road was made by the Arbutus on June 29, 1914. Running time between Portland and Lewiston was 90 minutes, including eleven scheduled stops, although like most such roads, its cars stopped almost anywhere that a prospective passenger hailed them.<\/p>\n
The full fare was 75 cents, and throughout the day cars left both cities every hour. It was the Arbutus that also made the last run on the Interurban on June 29, 1933, nineteen years to a day after it made the initial trip. The first electric railroad in Central Maine was the Augusta, Gardiner and Hallowell Street Railway, built in 1890. Its announcement declared that it was located through the main streets of Augusta, extended along the county road, through the streets of Hallowell and Farmingdale to a point near the MCRR station in Gardiner. In its opening year the line had 31 employees and operated nine passenger cars. Two other major electric roads were the Lewiston, Brunswick and Bath, and the Auburn and Turner railways. But the longest line of all came into Waterville in 1912. It was the Lewiston, Augusta and Waterville Electric Railway.<\/p>\n
In 1917, under the new name of the Androscoggin and Kennebec Railway, it had 153 miles of track, having by that time not only its main line from Lewiston through Sabattus to Gardiner, Augusta and Waterville, but also in its system the electric road from Lewiston through Brunswick to Bath, the line from Brunswick to Yarmouth, the one from Augusta to Winthrop, and the electric road from Gardiner to the Veterans Facility at Togus.<\/p>\n
During the heyday of the L.A. & W., Maine people found a favorite day’s outing in taking the triangular trip by steamboat from Augusta to Bath, trolley from Bath through Brunswick to Lewiston, and then trolley back to Augusta. A stop for dinner was made at New Meadows Inn.<\/p>\n
Yes, memories of Maine’s horse car and trolley days are fast sinking into the ever receding past. Now let us turn to another subject. We are constantly concerned about conditions in our public schools. It was ever so. Listen to what Editor Lane of the Lewiston Falls Advertiser had to say 116 years ago in 1844: “It is not uncommon for a teacher, on entering a school of forty pupils, to find six or eight classes in reading, owing to their having as many different kinds of reading books, and the school will be just as badly classed in other subjects. At least half of a teacher’s possible value is lost because of the want of proper classification in our schools.”<\/p>\n
What Editor Lane was hinting at was what we today call the grading system. In his day that device, which we have taken for granted for nearly a century, had not come into Maine schools. Perhaps the day will come, not too long hence, when Maine people will also take for granted the larger administrative school districts against which the people of Brooks and Perham have raised such a fuss. Last week I gave you a glimpse of life in 1843 through some newspaper ads. Let us see what living was like 65 years ago in 1895, likewise through ads, this time in a Bangor paper:<\/p>\n
“Jack Frost will never trouble people who have one of our stoves in their house. We sell stoves cheaper than any other dealer in Bangor or out of it. Hastings Hardware Company.<\/p>\n
“Slater’s Restaurant has pushed the head and shoulders off that hydra-headed monster, High Prices. Hasty lunch, 15 to 30 cents. Dinner 50 cents. Oyster stew, 20 cents. Please bear in mind that our oysters are free from city water and are true to their name of Providence River Oysters.<\/p>\n
“Now is the time to have your carpets cleaned. Get rid of buffalo bugs and moth millers.<\/p>\n
“Wanted: Second hand settees, in lots of 50 to 100.<\/p>\n
“Would some kind lady or gentleman lend a widow $40 on good security?<\/p>\n
“To let — a stylish new house of eight rooms and bath, about an acre of land, $15 a month.<\/p>\n
“New 7 room cottage, all conveniences, $13 a month.”<\/p>\n
And here are some food prices from that Bangor paper of 1895: sirloin steak, 20\u00a2; round steak, 12\u00a2; rib roast, 12\u00a2; loin of pork, 11\u00a2; whole ham, 13\u00a2; sliced ham, 20\u00a2; lamb leg, 12\u00a2; lamb chops, 18\u00a2; barrel of flour, $4.25; whipping cream, 15\u00a2 per quart.<\/p>\n
Year: 1960<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #459, Broadcast on May 15, 1960<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[766,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8092"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8092\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}