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June 2007
A STREETCAR NAMED INSPIRE
By: Larry Duffy
Creative Director
On a beautiful May afternoon, we held our first Art Fair in New Town. Those who attended might have been a little disappointed by the quantity of artists selling their work but no one was disappointed by the quality of the art. The Whittaker office courtyard provided an elegant setting for an event which will naturally expand as word gets out. A steady stream of art lovers poured over the work in an encouraging display of things to come. As evening settled, a crowd gathered to listen to the smooth sounds of Readus Miller as they browsed and chatted with the artists. I left thinking I had taken in all the amazing works of art that would be offered me that day, until my phone rang to tell me I was mistaken.
On the other side of New Town, four more magnificent objects of art were arriving. Streetcars had come to New Town and not just any cars but authentic vintage street cars from St. Louis’ past. These fantastic relics from the golden age of design and craftsmanship have been hibernating on a California mountainside for the last twenty-five years. With their streamlined curves and green and alabaster paint jobs, they look like something out of an Edward Hopper painting. As these behemoths rumbled into town, I felt like I was standing in Jurassic Park watching some reanimated creatures from long ago slowly emerging from extinction. At first glance they look pretty rough but you don’t have to strain your imagination much to envision what they once were or could be again. The nine cars are in varying stages of dilapidation but the potential for restoration is evident.
The signage within the cars hints of a more courteous time. A metal box that must have once held schedules and routes has the cartoon image of a smiling man in a cap beckoning “Please Take One”. My favorite sign sits above the driver’s seat and reads “Information gladly given but safety requires avoiding unnecessary conversation.” Today’s equivalent would probably read “Sit down and shut up!”, but these cars are from a simpler, more dignified era. Upon viewing the inner mechanisms of the cars, someone commented on their Rube Goldberg characteristics. Gears, coils and wires abound. Everything from the driver’s switches to the window cranks were built with a durability and simplicity that is lost to the ages. There is a plaque on the electric door operator with a patent date of December 20, 1931. It looks like it could instantly spring into operation again given a little juice.
The street cars were built by The St. Louis Car Company under the direction of the Electric Railway Presidents’ Conference Committee. These particular cars were built in the late forties and were in service in St. Louis until the early sixties when the decision was made to dismantle the St. Louis Street Car System. They then went into service in the San Francisco Bay Area’s Munisystem where they were in operation until the early eighties when buses and light rail subway cars replaced them. That’s when the New Town Nine were hauled away to languish as temporary time capsules in the mountains of Lake Tahoe. A lot of the cardboard advertisements from that time remained intact all these years. One of them promotes New Crest Gel Toothpaste, which reminds us there was a time when Crest was Crest and Colgate was Colgate and we didn’t have fifty varieties of each to choose from. There’s also a San Francisco Giants schedule from 1981, the strike shortened season when the rival Dodgers won the pennant. Vida Blue and Joe Morgan were on the Giant’s roster that year, to give you some idea of how long ago that was.
There were numerous beer cans and soda bottles from that period and even an old Styrofoam container from a Filet-O-Fish sandwich. Remember when they were packaged that way? If you’ve never seen twenty-six year old tarter sauce before, trust me it isn’t pretty.
The truck drivers who hauled the cars halfway across the country in flatbeds all told stories of the excitement their journey aroused. Folks all along the route were honking with nostalgic approval or leaning out of car windows to snap photographs. People would follow the drivers to their next stop and ask them where the street cars were bound. At one truck stop after another, travelers would clamor around the cars to gawk and remember.
In the days before every household in the United States owned several automobiles, people relied on street cars for their everyday transportation needs. Whether commuting to employment or shopping for the family’s needs, the street car system was the way to get around. My mom used to ride the Grand Avenue street car line everyday to get to her first job near the wedge at Olive and Lindell. The Cass Avenue line ran right in front of my father’s house when he lived near the Old Public School Stadium. Many people have similar memories.
Upon their arrival, Glenda Myer, a neighbor from Stable Ridge walked across Boschertown Road to marvel and reminisce. Her grandfather was a conductor for the St. Louis System and as a teenager she parked her grandfather’s street car in the terminal for the final time on the day he retired. She was visibly moved as she climbed aboard and the memories flooded back.
The dream of course is to get these cars completely refurbished and back in operation in the City of St. Charles, with possible routes from New Town to Main Street and beyond. With gasoline now over three dollars a gallon, this endeavor is a lot more than an exercise in nostalgia. It is a practical and conscientious solution to the mounting problems presented by our continued reliance on automobiles. In the interim, the street cars can be converted for any number of cool applications. A diner, sushi bar or an arcade have all been discussed. Regardless of how they are eventually used, the street cars are already a big hit and rightly so. These historic artifacts from our region’s past have finally been rescued from further neglect and returned to their proper home.
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