As a side note, yesterday was a very interesting blog day. According to the Statcounter, I normally get 90 - 100 unique visitors in one day. I don't ascribe a lot of importance to numbers, but I was surprised when the number of unique visitors exceeded 2,200 for the day. What the heck was going on? Well, there must have been some article somewhere that sent people scrambling for images of Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier. They all stopped by to look at this post from almost a year ago. I find it amusing, but I also know that they are not really interested in postcards and they won't be back. It's hard to believe that greater interest is generated by Grace Kelly than by this lovely interurban.
The Kansas City, Excelsior Springs, and St. Joseph Railway operated two light-rail lines powered by overhead wires - one between Kansas City and Excelsior Springs and another between Kansas City and St. Joseph. It ran hourly, and the fare was $1.55. It took about two hours between cities. This interurban ran from the early 1900s until 1933. Grace Kelly would have looked great riding in it.
Here's the back of the card, sent in 1921:
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I love the picture and believe this is an early Hallmark card. Hall Bros. Inc. was formed in 1923 according to the Hallmark site, but there was a store earlier. I think the date looks like the last number might be something other than 1.
ReplyDeletehttp://corporate.hallmark.com/history/founder-jc-hall
What a beauty! Imagine the luxury of velvet or sumptuous leather seats and the excitement of going to the city to shop or see a play or visiting someone special.
ReplyDeleteleather or velvet seats? that does sound luxurious! I wish the Long Island Rail Road had that.
ReplyDeletePostcardy, thanks, now I'll know to blame Mr. Hall for those sentimental, overwrought, silly cards I don't like! I guess Hallmark's $4 or $5 billion annual gross proves me mistaken.
ReplyDeleteLily and Meri, we had the Niles (Ohio) Car and Manufacturing Co. here, a builder of streetcars and interurbans. My understanding is leather seating was chosen then for its utility. Cf. photos of coaches and early automobiles in which the coachman or driver has leather seats, his upmarket passengers sit on cloth. Jack/Y-town
I should have mentioned that in this car, the leather seats were for the smoking section and the cloth ones for the non-smoking section. Makes sense, really.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Christine, and both the leather and velvet seats are likely to have used horsehair batting or filler. Jack/Y-town
ReplyDeleteThink of all the poor bald horses in those bays...
ReplyDeleteoops, I meant 'days', sorry- both for the misspelling and being for a wise guy
ReplyDeleteSo good to see a close-up of this beauty (and I mean the interurban, not the princess). Had no clue about Hall preceding Hallmark, thanks for that history, Postcardy.
ReplyDelete