Streetcar suburbs

[Docere]

What are "streetcar suburbs" in your city? In Toronto some examples include:

Mimico, New Toronto and Long Branch
St. Clair West (both still have streetcars on them!)
North Toronto
Much of the east end of the old city (Danforth, Beaches)
The Birch Cliff area of Scarborough

[KevinFromTexas]

Our only true streetcar suburb is Hyde Park, but it's been part of Austin for decades now and we haven't had streetcars since the 40s.

The date of this photo is 189u, so probably 1898 or 97.

The southern edge of this neighborhood today is 1 mile north of the UT Campus and less than 2 miles north of downtown.


http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/675...?q=hyde%20park

[jg6544]

My great uncle and aunt lived in Hyde Park and moved there because that's where the streetcar ended. Believe it or not, it was considered fairly far north even when I was a child in the 50s.

[llamaorama]

That is a really fantastic picture, Kevin If streetcars lasted until the 40s, I wonder if are their buried tracks under any streets?

[initiald]

Dilworth, Charlotte, 1938:


Same view today:

[Chef]

Most of Minneapolis proper is streetcar suburb, it is what we do best. The city grew up along streetcar lines. The inner south side may be some of the densest streetcar suburbia in the country. This neighborhood, for example is about 20,000 ppsm:

https://www.google.com/maps/@44.9603...L1qwcXvYRA!2e0

[Shawn]

Boston has maybe 25-30 independent municipalities surrounding the city which fit the bill. Plus the last areas annexed at the turn of the last century like Hyde Park and West Roxbury fit the discription. About 1.5 million or so people live in these towns and cities.

The most well-known is Brookline, the most ideal suburb in the country in my opinion. Newton is up there too.

[jg6544]

Originally Posted by llamaorama

That is a really fantastic picture, Kevin If streetcars lasted until the 40s, I wonder if are their buried tracks under any streets?

My Mother told me that by 1940, all of Austin's tracks had been ripped up and sold for scrap - to the Japanese!

[dave8721]

For Miami, Coral Gables and Miami Beach (South Beach specifically) would qualify as separate cities with places like Little Havana in-city. Like most of the rest of the US the streetcar lines were torn out during the 1940's and replaced with cheaper bus lines.

[photoLith]

Houston Heights and Montrose are streetcar suburbs in Houston. I used to live right along where one of the streetcar line stops were in the Heights. I loved that neighborhood.

[kool maudit]

the streetcars are gone, but the s-train is still holding things together.

i live on the border of copenhagen and hellerup, and work in the latter. it's a beautiful old streetcar suburb.

[gtbassett]

The vast majority of Oakland, where I live, and Berkeley, where I work, are streetcar suburbs. Here is a map of the former system. It was disbanded by the 1950s but Oakland's street grid was heavily influenced by the streetcars all converging on downtown. That's why we have so many diagonal streets that do not conform to the grid. Telegraph, San Pablo, Broadway etc.

Here's a link to the map, the map is pretty big so I won't post it here. http://cluster3.lib.berkeley.edu/EAR...key-system.jpg

[initiald]

When Charlotte started building the first leg of their light rail line, they found the old tracks under the street as they were tearing it up to add the new tracks.

[Muji]

Los Angeles once had plenty of true streetcar suburbs but the vast majority of them were effectively absorbed into the city's central core during the middle part of the last century. Plus, the old streetcar and interurban network that framed the city's early growth disappeared for good in the early 1960s.

That said, a few places in the region have managed to keep the streetcar suburb vibe. I think the best example is South Pasadena, whose healthy and historic business district is in fact centered around what is now the Metro Gold Line light rail.


Gold Line, South Pasadena by Metro - Los Angeles, on Flickr

[jg6544]

Originally Posted by Muji

Los Angeles once had plenty of true streetcar suburbs but the vast majority of them were effectively absorbed into the city's central core during the middle part of the last century. Plus, the old streetcar and interurban network that framed the city's early growth disappeared for good in the early 1960s.

That said, a few places in the region have managed to keep the streetcar suburb vibe. I think the best example is South Pasadena, whose healthy and historic business district is in fact centered around what is now the Metro Gold Line light rail.


Gold Line, South Pasadena by Metro - Los Angeles, on Flickr

Culver City is getting that way fast; wonder what will happen to Santa Monica once the tram gets all the way out there.

[ue]

Glenora, Calder, the Highlands, Alberta Avenue, North Edmonton (Fort Road), Westmount, and I suppose Strathcona would be Edmonton's streetcar suburbs.

[Quixote]

Originally Posted by Muji

Los Angeles once had plenty of true streetcar suburbs but the vast majority of them were effectively absorbed into the city's central core during the middle part of the last century. Plus, the old streetcar and interurban network that framed the city's early growth disappeared for good in the early 1960s.

That said, a few places in the region have managed to keep the streetcar suburb vibe. I think the best example is South Pasadena, whose healthy and historic business district is in fact centered around what is now the Metro Gold Line light rail.


Gold Line, South Pasadena by Metro - Los Angeles, on Flickr

As someone who grew up in SP, I fully agree with the identification. Fair Oaks and Mission are the clear centers of activity and they form part of the commercial core clearly built around the original Pacific Electric Railway.

Claremont and Glendora are also nice streetcar suburbs.

[tayser]

The overwhelming majority of Melbourne within a 5-10km radius of the CBD could be classed as a tram 'burbs...

Streetviews around the current network outside the centre of the city where the tram has existed for a century or more:

Camberwell

Glenferrie

St Kilda

Northcote

Brunswick East

Brunswick West

Malvern

Albert Park

East Brighton

Footscray

Ascot Vale

Kew

[Leo the Dog]

Originally Posted by Shawn

Boston has maybe 25-30 independent municipalities surrounding the city which fit the bill. Plus the last areas annexed at the turn of the last century like Hyde Park and West Roxbury fit the discription. About 1.5 million or so people live in these towns and cities.

The most well-known is Brookline, the most ideal suburb in the country in my opinion. Newton is up there too.

I agree. I lived in Brookline Village. Present day D-Line, close to E and C Lines. Still have family in Newton and Back Bay.

[Docere]

Cleveland has some well known streetcar suburbs like Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights. It places the "streetcar suburb" era from 1890-1930.

Electrified streetcar development in the late 1880s transformed the metropolis. Three times faster than horse-drawn streetcars (15 vs. 5 mph), they permitted radial suburban development up to 10 miles from the city center. The new technology arrived as Cleveland confronted a series of challenges: huge migrations from Southern and Eastern Europe; industrial and business expansion into residential neighborhoods; pollution from new industries; and corrupt government. Urbanites looked to the suburbs as both rural haven and escape from urban disorder. Unlike previous suburban developments, streetcar suburbs deliberately distanced themselves from the city. Privately owned, franchised electric streetcar companies (often controlled by land developers) laid out tracks on EUCLID AVE.. (to Lee Rd. by 1893), Euclid Hts. Blvd. (to Edgehill by 1897); Detroit Ave. and Clifton Blvd. (to the Rocky River by 1894 and 1904, respectively). Almost immediately after completion of these lines, residents of outlying areas took advantage of Ohio's permissive incorporation laws and established villages: East Cleveland (1895), LAKEWOOD and CLEVELAND HEIGHTS (both in 1903). Rapid population growth quickly raised them to city status: East Cleveland and Lakewood in 1911, and Cleveland Hts. in 1921. Nevertheless, Cleveland's first streetcar suburbs grew most quickly between 1910 and 1930: East Cleveland added 30,488 new residents, Lakewood's population increased by 55,328, and that of Cleveland Hts. by 47,990. A second suburban ring, linked to the downtown by streetcar or rapid transit, also formed. Made up of the older independent villages (BEDFORD and BEREA) and new suburban developments (EUCLID, GARFIELD HEIGHTS, MAPLE HEIGHTS, Parma, ROCKY RIVER, and SHAKER HEIGHTS), these communities all obtained city status by 1931. In addition, 52 new villages incorporated.

http://ech.case.edu/cgi/article.pl?id=S25