Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from March, 2024

O.U.R. Streetcar: The Trolley that Ran Through Renaissance

  1911 Tulsa Postcard Courtesy of Tulsa Historical Society.  Used with Permission. Tulsa’s transportation system has evolved from horse-drawn wagons and buggies to streetcars, jitneys, automobiles, electric bicycles, and scooters. (“Jitney” was slang for a five cent piece.   Small buses that carried people for 5 cents a ride became known as jitneys.) From 1905 through 1935 an electric double rail trolley system wound through the city carrying hundreds of Tulsans to work, shopping, recreation and back home again.   This is a short history of the Tulsa streetcar system, including one line that ran  through present day Renaissance.   Before the introduction of the trolley in 1905, horse-drawn vehicles were the primary mode of transportation. Tulsa's horses were well accustomed to the unpaved, dusty, and sometimes mud-filled roads. Hitching posts in front of homes and businesses were common at the time.   In November 1905, Tulsa Mayor C. L. Reeder signed an ordinance that set fare