A Trip Back in Time: Streetcar near the Union Depot in Stillwater

In June 1889, the first electric street railway in Minnesota began operation in Stillwater. Trolleys, or streetcars, pulled on rails by a horse or team of horses had been used for several years in the St. Croix Valley, but the steep grades were difficult for the animals. 

Although electric trolley service in the valley started off well, the patronage soon fell off. The line managed to keep afloat until Dr. E. D. Allen, the owner, started to dip into the Stillwater funds to support another of his streetcar lines in Davenport, Iowa.

The Stillwater line suffered. Employees were not getting paid. On May 31, 1894, the electric streetcar line was sold at a sheriff's sale for $69,120 to Allen Curtis as trustee for Boston bondholders. What was left of the first streetcar line was sold in 1897 to Fred Flint of Stillwater. Flint tore up the tracks, had the wires taken down and everything else was sold.

--Courtesy of Brent Peterson, executive director of the Washington County Historical Society

For more information about streetcars in Stillwater check out Robert Goodman's "A History of Washington County: Gateway to Minnesota History," or Brent Peterson's "Stillwater: The Next Generation."

Both of these books are sold at the Warden's House Museum or at www.wchsmn.org/store.