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Toonerville Trolley opens for business
On this day in 1910, the "Toonerville Trolley" streetcar line began
operating between Houston and the suburban community of Bellaire.
Railroad executive William Wright Baldwin, acting as president of the
South End Land Company, founded Bellaire and Westmoreland Farms after
purchasing the 9,449-acre Rice Ranch in 1908. The development was six
miles from Houston on the eastern edge of the ranch named for its former
owner, William Marsh Rice. By 1910 Baldwin had invested over $150,000 in
capital improvements to turn the treeless prairie into an attractive
location for residences and small truck farms. From the site to Main
Street in Houston he constructed Bellaire Boulevard. He also
incorporated the Westmoreland Railroad Company to build an electric
streetcar line down the center of the boulevard. The Toonerville Trolley
operated from 1910 until bus service replaced it on September 26, 1927.
The line was typical of the many electric streetcar lines that played an
important role in the urban growth of Texas. The town of Bellaire was
eventually surrounded by Houston, but it remained a separate community
with a population of 15,642 in 2000.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- BELLAIRE, TX
- HOUSTON, TX
- ELECTRIC STREET RAILWAYS
- ELECTRIC INTERURBAN RAILWAYS
- RICE, WILLIAM MARSH
- URBANIZATION
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Fiery preacher denounces professor (1930)
- Red Rovers leave for Texas (1835)
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