Streetcar History

Streetcar History. Ackert Walkway. , People on the Move , Where you are now on the Ackert Walkway was once a streetcar line that ran all the way to Ferguson and Kirkwood. For many years, streetcars were an affordable way to help people move throughout the region to work, learn, play, pray, shop, and dine. The earliest streetcars of St. Louis were pulled by horses. Over time, the horses were replaced by below-ground cables then electric overhead wires., By the 1920s, about 1,650 streetcars carried people along nearly 500 miles of streetcar tracks throughout the region. This streetcar line carried people to neighborhoods and destinations such as the Delmar Garden Amusement Park and Delmar Race Track in University City., Repurposing the Tracks , During World War II, streetcars transported many local civilians to their factory jobs making war supplies. After the war, the federal government guaranteed low-cost home loans to returning veterans in many new suburbs further from the streetcar routes. Many financial institutions denied those loans to Black veterans, and many of the new suburbs had racially restrictive covenants preventing people of color from living in them., As many White veterans and their families moved to the new suburbs and purchased their own automobiles, the streetcars got less usage and eventually stopped running. The land sat vacant for many years, and the nearby neighbors who were left without streetcar transportation were often people of color., The last streetcar ran along this line in 1948. The streetcar tracks were repurposed in 1967 into a linear park named for Harold C. Ackert, a former University City mayor who helped expand the city's park system.