Despite Portland once having one of the largest streetcar networks in the United States, finding reliable, empirical information about it is surprisingly difficult. Books about the history of the streetcar – like Richard Thompson’s series of books or John Labbe’s Fares Please! – tend to be more photographs and captions than exhaustive detail, internet sources are incomplete and at times contradictory, and even contemporaneous sources are frustratingly incorrect. A much-referenced Pittmon map of streetcar lines was not updated at all from c.1913 to the late 1920s, but was just republished year after year with references to long-closed or merged routes.
However, by combining all of these sources, I think I’ve managed to produce a mostly accurate map of streetcar lines in Portland in 1920 – the year the system reached its maximum extent with the addition of the City’s Municipal Terminal Line in St. Johns.
I say mostly accurate, because I’m almost certain that some of my downtown routing is wrong: working out all the loops and terminus locations is a thankless task. My next step is going to be to create individual line maps for each route, which will hopefully help refine and correct this map. After that, a modern styled transit map of the network is on the cards, and even a chronological series of maps is a possibility.
At this time, there were a staggering 38 streetcar lines running in the city of Portland. Most were run by the Portland Railway, Light and Power Company (or PRL&P, a direct predecessor to today’s PGE), though a few lines were operated by other companies – the Kenton Traction Company’s stockyard line, the City-run Municipal Terminal line, and the free-to-ride Errol Heights stub line, owned by the eponymous Errol Heights Railway Company. In addition to this were some connecting streetcar lines at the city limits, interurban electric trains that could take you as far afield as McMinnville, Salem, Eugene and Corvallis, and mainline steam trains connecting to the rest of the country.
This map is really just my preliminary working map, but it looks pretty nifty, so I thought I’d share. The blue colour used for route lines is set to multiply, so the darker the blue, the more routes are running along a section. The downtown Alder loop out over the Hawthorne Bridge was certainly busy! I’ve substituted a grey for blue for short stub lines and crosstown lines – those that either run only on the east side like the Bridge Transfer (BT) and Russell–Shaver (RS) lines, or that run through the city like the North and South (NS) Portland line. Most of the letter designations were in use at the time on the streetcars themselves, although I’ve had to invent my own in a couple of cases to make the map consistent. The Richmond (RM) and Woodstock (WS) lines were sometimes referred to as Waverley–Richmond (WR) and Waverley–Woodstock (WW), but my usage seems to be correct for 1920 from what I’ve seen.
If you have any thought or corrections, use the contact form on the site. If you want to correspond, please don’t use the “Anonymous” feature so that I can get your email address.
UPDATE 7/25: First round of corrections to the map! Fixed the downtown routing of the Alberta line, which I’d erroneously placed on 5th and 3rd instead of 3rd and 2nd. Reversed the jog at the eastern end of the Beaumont line to properly indicate that the line moves westward from E. 42nd to E. 41st as it reaches The Alameda. All references to the Vancouver line now correctly use “VC” as the abbreviation – thanks to those who pointed this mistake out!
Finally, after a lot of research, I’ve downgraded the United Railways line that ran through NW Portland to the city limits to an electric interurban instead of a streetcar. The line originally ran from the North Bank Depot in Portland (the buildings of which still remain today as fancy condos) all the way to Wilkesboro and Banks via Linnton and the Cornelius Pass. In 1914, United Railways requested that the fare for the trip from Portland to Linnton be increased from 5 cents to 10 cents. The Oregon Commission granted the increase, but the Multnomah County Court then determined that such an increase was in breach of the terms of the franchise, which specified 5 cents as the maximum fare. As punishment, United Railways was ordered to tear up their track from the Portland city boundary all the way to Linnton, leaving two disconnected sections of the line: Banks to Linnton, and the short remaining line within Portland itself, as shown on this map. Passengers were now forced to use a Spokane, Portland and Seattle (SP&S) steam train to make a connection between the two sections. Unsurprisingly, ridership dropped drastically and electric service on the Banks section of the line ceased in 1923. A fascinating slice of railroad history!
UPDATE 7/28: A few more little edits. Added the route disc for the 13th Street line. Redrew the Mississippi Avenue line to more accurately show the jog between Mississippi and Albina north of Skidmore. Redrew the end of the Errol Heights line to reflect the actual trajectory of Andover (now Flavel). Added the loop at the end of The Oaks line to show how those trains returned to downtown. The Mount Hood Railway is now correctly shown as an electric line, not a steam line. Added railway ownership notes to all the lines leaving the map.
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