Imagine it’s 1895 and you lived in or near Plattsburgh, NY. Your mode of transportation depended on your access to horse drawn rigs. Most people walked or rode a bicycle. The Delaware & Hudson Railroad provided transportation to and from Plattsburgh as well as the Lake Champlain Transportation Company steamers.
In 1895 the Plattsburgh Traction Company was incorporated and was comprised of directors and stockholders on a local level as well as outside investors with experience in transportation systems. The Board of Directors from Plattsburgh were Smith M. Weed, George S. Weed, H.E. Barnard, D.F. Dobie, W.M. Pattison, and George M. Cole. George M. Cole was instrumental in the success of the company.
As manager of the Plattsburgh Light, Heat, and Power Company he was in a position to provide the existing infrastructure as well as inexpensive power that was generated at their plant on the Saranac River. The original contract was .015 cents a car mile. Trolley service was sometimes limited by the amount of water in the river. Power was supplied to the trolley by a copper wire suspended from an insulated hanger attached to a stranded steel cable.
The six-and-a-half-mile track was completed on July 31, 1896. It connected the city center including Margaret Street, The Court Street Spur off Margaret Street which allowed the trolley to reach the Court Street Theater, Bailey Avenue, Cornelia Street, Beekman Street, Broad Street, and Bridge Street with the Plattsburgh Barracks, Clinton Park (Ball Park), The Catholic Summer School, and the Hotel Champlain.
In time additional lines and spurs were added including the Platt Street (Montcalm) Line which connected Cornelia Street to Bailey Avenue and the Clinton County Fairgrounds. (Now Penfield Park).
In 1906 the Macdonough- Hamiliton Street Extension and the Margaret Street-Riley Avenue extensions were completed. Open cars were used from late spring through early fall. They had ten bench seats and were equipped with two 30 horsepower motors, handbrakes and electric headlights. Closed or “vestibuled” cars used in winter had electric heaters.
The Company also had a Taunton snow plow car to clear the tracks in the winter. It still required manual labor to remove the piles of snow turned up by the plow in the streets.
The Plattsburgh Traction Company provided service for residents and visitors and adjusted their schedules to meet the demands of the community. This included the seasonal Cliff Haven Catholic Summer School that had a summer population of about 1,500 in July and August and the Bluff Point Hotel Champlain that attracted about 700 guests. Transportation was provided for hotel staff and guests who wished to go into town. Dedicated trips in the spring and fall were made for workman opening and closing the resorts.
About the turn of the 20th Century baseball was becoming much more popular. Clinton Park, located just north of Cliff Haven, had a baseball field with a grandstand. The games attracted large crowds of spectators. The Park also had a pavilion for dancing and concerts. High School football was played here in the fall. Trolley tickets to the games were advertised as 5 cents each.
The Plattsburgh Barracks had a variable population depending on who was stationed there. Soldiers as well as civilians who visited or worked there used the trolley for transportation. The summer volume from the training camps helped to support the trolley operations during the winter.
After the First World War there were two dance pavilions in the area. Young men participating in training programs could ride into Plattsburgh pick up their dates and go dancing at the Lakeshore Pavilion or Leonard’s Pavilion, then take her home and return to camp all by the trolley.
Special Events got additional service levels like the Champlain Tercentenary Celebration July 4-14,1909, the Champlain Valley Hospital benefit ice races (horses and cutters) held on February 9-11,1910, and the annual Clinton County Agricultural Association Fair held in September at the fairgrounds on Bailey Avenue.
In the beginning the Plattsburgh Traction Company was financially successful and in the early 1900s many were considering expanding electric railroads into other parts of the region and the State. To cash in on the electric car success and protect its railroad business the Delaware & Hudson Company purchased the Plattsburgh Traction Company in 1906 eleven years after it was established.
For about the next ten years the Traction Company was profitable but by 1916 the D&H deemed the company unprofitable as they took steps to divest themselves of electric lines. In 1925 the D&H
abandoned the Plattsburgh Traction Company.
In an article in the Plattsburgh Daily Press of March 11, 1925 it was announced that the entire system would be abandoned on March 31,1925. For the sake of the city Corydon S. Johnson and John T. O’Brian, Plattsburgh bankers, took over the company on April 1, 1925 and maintained operations until 1928 when Johnson advised the City that he wanted to stop operations of the cars. After which Felix E. Reifschneider took over in April 1929.
Nothing was stopping the downward trend in riding and by November the company could not pay its bills and on November 11,1929 the Plattsburgh Traction Company went out of business. The initial success and ongoing viability of the company was due to the Plattsburgh Light, Heat, and Power Company contract that provided power at one of the lowest rates in the state.
Without this the Plattsburgh Traction Company may not have survived as long as it did.
Noel Stewart is a Past-President of the Clinton County Historical Association.
Photo: Plattsburgh Traction Company trolley service travelers (Clinton County Historical Association).
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