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"Carlines to the Columbia: the Streetcars of Northeast Portland" Talk & Book Signing
08/16/2025 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM PT
Category
Lecture
Admission
- $15.00 - AHC Members
- $25.00 - General Public
Description
The story of the role played by streetcars in the development of Northeast Portland begins in 1888, when rails were laid northward through virgin timber and bottomland towards the Columbia River. Tracks soon also extended eastward along a prehistoric dirt road leading toward the Columbia Slough. Many twists and turns were encountered before the last steel wheel turned in 1948.
It is a tale of technological change, entrepreneurship, and even murder. Carefully selected photographs, many never published reveal the first horse-drawn streetcars plodding along Grand Avenue in 1888, noisy steam “dummy” streetcars remembered a fatal derailment in 1893, and narrow-gauge interurbans hurtling across high trestles across the Columbia bottomlands. A unique subject is The Dragon, the system’s only articulated streetcar. Beauty is also seen in views of Portland’s last new cars, the streamlined Broadways of 1932.
It is a tale of technological change, entrepreneurship, and even murder. Carefully selected photographs, many never published reveal the first horse-drawn streetcars plodding along Grand Avenue in 1888, noisy steam “dummy” streetcars remembered a fatal derailment in 1893, and narrow-gauge interurbans hurtling across high trestles across the Columbia bottomlands. A unique subject is The Dragon, the system’s only articulated streetcar. Beauty is also seen in views of Portland’s last new cars, the streamlined Broadways of 1932.
Local historian Richard Thompson is the author of nine books on the subject of Oregon streetcars and Interurbans. He has also written a dozen entries for the Oregon Encyclopedia and has appeared in several documentaries.