Clang, clang, clang went the Trolley

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, before the rise of automobiles, trolley lines spurred the growth of many cities by creating paths to connect nearby communities. St. Petersburg’s first trolley line began operating in 1905, and it ran between St. Pete and Gulfport. Contributing immensely to the development of both cities, trolleys provided an efficient and affordable means of public transportation for citizens, visiting businessmen, and tourists, although they enforced the racial segregation laws that prevailed at that time in the South.

The St. Petersburg and Gulfport Railway Company, owned by Frank A. Davis, opened its first trolley line on New Year’s Day of 1905. Most of the lines ran down Central Avenue into Gulfport. Davis owned land in Gulfport and he hoped the trolley lines would help his real estate businesses. The trolley system quickly grew to more than twenty- three miles of track, most of which provided access to areas being developed by real estate prospectors. Despite the popularity of the trolleys, the St. Petersburg and Gulfport Railway Company had more than its fair share of financial troubles and filed for bankruptcy in 1919. The citizens of St. Petersburg then voted to approve a $250,000 bond that allowed the city to run the lines.

By the 1930s the use of trolleys was already declining due to the increasing number of people owning automobiles. However, during World War II, rationing of both gasoline and rubber limited the usefulness of automobiles in St. Petersburg, so everyone started using the trolleys again. Thousands of troops stationed in St. Petersburg for training took advantage of the trolleys to get around. This helped the trolleys survive the war years, and after the war was over, people once again preferred the freedom of automobiles to riding trolleys.

Not only did the trolley line run in the red financially (except during WWII with the influx of well over 100,000 troops training in the area), but oil companies pushed to replace electric vehicles with gas-driven ones. And the strategy worked. In October 1947, St. Petersburg City Council voted to phase out the streetcars for buses, despite the objections of Mayor Bruce Blackburn.

The trolleys succumbed to the recommendations of city planners to replace them with buses that were considered to be a more efficient mode of transportation. On May 7, 1949, the last trolley in both the St. Petersburg and Tampa Bay area drove around with signs that said, “Rest in Peace,” “Retired for Progress,” and “Not Dead, Just Retired.” Since that time buses have become the city’s public transportation.