Tracking Growth

Tracking Growth. Transit to South Minneapolis. , The Chicago line reached 35th Street by 1890, 46th Street by 1904, 48th Street by 1922, and 54th Street by 1928. Each extension opened up new areas to development, making it easy for people to commute to jobs and go shopping. As historian Stephen Kieffer observed in Transit and the Twins: "New lines were laid into areas with no previous settlement. Invariably, though there might be a few houses in the area when the company announced plans for laying track, by the time the track was actually laid (and the difference in time was usually a matter of but a few months), real estate promoters had platted and sold almost all the land along the path of the line. Thus, for example, the cases of the 8th [Chicago] Avenue South and Bloomington Avenue lines, which accounted in great measure for the sudden accumulation of population between Franklin Avenue and Lake Street from 1885 to 1890.", The transit company also promoted the system to visitors, distributing guides describing self-guided sight-seeing tours. One from the early twentieth century highlighted Park Avenue: "Take the 8th Avenue car . . . and get off at 28th St. Walk to the right two blocks and down Park Ave., one of the handsomest residence streets in Minneapolis, to Franklin Ave. (20th St.), turn to the left to 4th Ave. South, at which point take any car going to the city." The fare was 5 cents each way., "To See Park Avenue", from Twin City Trolley Trips, 1906 , Credit: Minnesota Streetcar Museum Collections, Early cars, like the one on the left, had few amenities. By World War I, streetcars like that on the right were far more comfortable. , Credit: (left) Sweet, photographer, and (right) H.E. Fister, photographers/Minnesota Historical Society Collections.