Sunday, January 9, 2011

Streetcar Sunday - Auburn, New York

Starting in 1901, there was interurban service between Auburn and Skaneateles, New York. Soon thereafter, the service merged with Auburn City Railway and became the Auburn and Syracuse Electric Railway.


In 1927, it declared bankruptcy, and streetcar service in Albany ended. Interurban service continued until 1930. You may recall an earlier post here about Auburn, New York and its famous prison, where the first execution by electric chair took place. It's also where the striped prison uniforms were first introduced. In the early days, this was considered a model prison, and visitors could pay to see the operation and its prisoners.

Here's the back of the postcard, which was sent in 1909:


The message to Mrs. William Connely (?) of Elmira, New York reads:
We got you postal this noon and was glad to here that you was in Elmira yet How is your baby these warm days
Loretta Hindon (?)

6 comments:

  1. Dein Streetcar- Postkartenfundus ist ja schier unerschöpflich.
    Die sind aber auch wirklich schön

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  2. The streetcar was not electric. I can't think how the powered them when they weren't electric. Maybe they left out the wires so as not to clutter the scene. I really like the car and the scene.

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  3. Can't say I'm familiar with Auburn, but when I was a kid we used to go on family picnics at the Skaneateles end of the line, as there is a nice lake there. I think I used to prefer going to nearby Little York Lake though, because in my recollection there was a little amusement park with a toy train ride there- not positive, I was probably 7 years old last time we were there.

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  4. Wonderful card. It almost has a British look about it - I can normally spot American cards of this era from the form of the buildings and the printing of the card, but this one made me look twice.

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  5. Great transportation postcard! The streets look awkwardly empty of people. Maybe it was early Sunday morning. Ha.

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  6. Larry,
    I'm sure the car WAS electric. It was not uncommon at all to try to erase or obscure the overhead wires on postcards, but you can still see a few mysterious segments here.

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