The Phoenix Trolley Museum

This marker (Monument) on 2nd Avenue between Roosevelt and Van Buren describes the Phoenix Street Railway, and includes a section of track in the sidewalk. Thanks to Al Atz for the photos.

According Prescott Evening Courier of 27 January, 1921:

Paving improvements along rights-of-way of the Phoenix Railway company of Arizona… will be started immediately. The city commission so decreed at its meeting this morning… Improvements of six lines will be made…

Copy on Google News

According to the records at Open Jurist,

In June, 1913, the Corporation Commission of the State of Arizona made an order directing [the Street Railway] to double-track its line of street railway on West Washington street in the city of Phoenix… between Seventh and Seventeenth avenues,—a distance of ten blocks…

In October 1915, the Street Railway sued the Corporation Commission, arguing that

the order was unjust and unreasonable because the service already rendered upon Washington street… was adequate and efficient; that the construction of a double track was not required by the needs of the public; that… operating expenses exceeded its revenues, and that it was unable to make the additional expenditure of about $14,000 required for the double-tracking… [and that] the order had the effect of depriving [the Railway] of its property without due process of law… in violation of the 14th Amendment…

The court, however, on 29 November 1915 judged against the Railway, finding that

…There is abundant evidence of substantial inconvenience to the public owing to the fact that there is but a single track with one turnout between Seventh and Seventeenth avenues, and some evidence tending to create an inference that the revenues of the company would be materially increased by the double-tracking. The Commission’s order appears to have been made after full hearing and investigation respecting these matters…

Plans for Gridironing Valley with Electric Lines to Mesa, Tempe and Scottsdale

Arizona [Phoenix] Gazette, 26 July 1911, Page 1.

The launching of a stupendous transportation project was signalized today by the filing of the articles of incorporation of the Salt River Valley Electric [Railway] Company, which contemplates the building and operation fo sixty miles of rapid transit electric lines, connecting Phoenix with Glendale, Scottsdale, Peoria, Ingleside, Mesa, Tempe, and Chandler. A superintendent of construction has already been hired, and according to the confident assertions of the promoters, actual work will be commenced within thirty days. The initial work will be on the Scottsdale and Ingleside branch.

This ambitious project, which it is claimed will immensely stimulate land values and give Phoenix a population of 125,000 within ten years, was born only two months ago. The incorporators are F. W. Winter, rancher; Jacob Kleck, rancher; W. S. Furman, attorney; Dr. J. m. Swetnam, physician and banker; and C. C. Lewis, rancher.

The company is capitalized at $600,000, divided into 6000 shares of $100 each. The articles of incorporation provide that the incorporators shall act as the board of directors until the first annual meeting, July 26, 1912.

The promoters say this will be a people’s line. For every dollar contributed an equal amount of stock will be issued, and no bonuses of any sort will be asked. The promoters are going ahead with their project in a manner that indicates their absolute faith in the outcome and their further faith that a line of the sort contemplated will be a paying proposition from the beginning.

Plans for the proposed route have been prepared, but these are subject to change, as the existing plans of a more or less tentative nature. However, it is proposed to connect the towns and villages named, and it is further proposed to take in every scenic spot possible in running the lines.

To this end one of the lines will pass by Camelback and the Tempe line will proceed directly east on Roosevelt Street, past Hole in the Rock [later Papago Park] and across the river not far from Tempe. The river will be crossed on the company’s own bridge.

The equipment will be of the most modern kind and the road in both its construction and operation will be up to date in every particular.  As an illustration of the expected early consummation of the company’s plans, it may be mentioned that J. C. Harwood, who built the Glendale line and who is a railroad builder of long experience, has been chosen superintendent of construction and purchasing agent. There is every reason to believe that Mr. Harwood will be an extremely busy man during the next several months.

One feature emphasized by the promoters is that the new line is to be a strictly home institution. As it is expected that the money necessary to construct and operate the line will be furnished largely by the people of the Salt River valley, so it is intended that all this money, or at least as much as is possible, shall be kept here. All the officers live either in Phoenix or in this vicinity and no outside aid will be asked.

“Every man who subscribes a dollar to the fund required for building this road will subscribe to one of the greatest transportation projects that was ever conceived in this valley,” Mr. Winter, one of the promoters, said today. “We are not asking bonuses. We are merely asking the people of this valley to support a proposition that will immensely increase the value of their property and which will, as nothing else could, aid in building up the city of Phoenix. Everyone knows that one of the crying needs of this valley is more adequate transportation facilities, and that is what we propose supplying. We feel certain the lines will be a success because we know there is a real demand for such an improvement. Each contributor will be a stockholder and will participate in the profits, whatever they may be.”

The promoters are confident they will have absolutely no trouble in securing the necessary franchises, nor in floating the requisite amount of stock.  As stated above, they say actual construction work will be begun within thirty days.

The sale of the stock will begin at once and a ready response is anticipated. And if the enthusiasm of the incorporators is as valuable as enthusiasm is generally supposed to be, there should no be difficulty whatever in financing the project. Furthermore, if the company makes good its claim as to the upbuilding of Phoenix it will have accomplished a task that can be fitly classed with the marvelous.