Collection is open for research.
The first public transportation system in Portland, Oregon, began in 1872 as a horsecar line on First Street. When, in 1891, the separate cities of East Portland and Albina joined Portland to form a single city of 88,200 people, the City & Suburban Railway Company merged out of the Willamette Bridge Railway Company and the old Third Street horsecar system. Most of the remaining street railways joined into the Portland Consolidated Street Railway Company. In 1893, the East Side Railway Company gave service between Portland and Oregon City. Around 1907, this entire system of streetcar lines, along with interurban lines and power companies, merged into a single company, the Portland Railway, Light and Power Company, which became Portland Electric Power Company in 1924. The high point for electric streetcars was around 1912. Following World War I, streetcar companies competed with the automobile. Trolley buses were introduced in 1936. Interurban passenger service ended in 1958.
This collection is stored offsite and may require up to one week's notice for retrieval. Contact library staff for assistance.
Portland Railway, Light and Power Company charts, Mss 1456, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
Portland, Oregon, streetcar blueprints and drawings, Coll 142, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
Collection includes plan of Multnomah Street railway cars, 1891; tables of cost per car hour and car mile, 1903-1904; drawing of Munley property, Willamette River Falls Railway, 1904; distance charts for city lines, circa 1910.
The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.