Looking Back

Two men pose aboard a streetcar c. 1910-1915

Moving the Masses

ELECTRIC STREETCARS WERE A STEP TOWARD OUR MODERN TRANSIT SYSTEM BY: JILLIAN BECQUET PHOTO CREDIT: CORPUS CHRISTI PUBLIC LIBRARIES, LA RETAMA SPECIAL COLLECTIONS & ARCHIVES

Someone in Roy Miller’s (1883-1946) generation saw the entirety of the development of Corpus Christi’s public transportation system. Their first memories of public transportation would have been of the steam dummy streetcar line. People could even ride from downtown out to the Alta Vista hotel, between present-day Cole and Ropes parks on Ocean Drive, in a steam-powered passenger coach resembling a railroad car.

Concurrent with the steam dummy was the Gussett Street Railway, offering horse-drawn streetcars. This eliminated the dangers of the steam power, while allowing regular service on a designated line. But the horses needed care and made a mess of the streets, so the line wasn’t a sustainable business as the city grew.

In 1910, electric streetcars arrived in Corpus Christi with the start of the Corpus Christi Street & Interurban Railway Company. Daniel Hewitt came to town as a streetcar promoter to found the company, and sold it just a year after its first run on March 28, 1910. The line continued to expand through another sale in 1914, before changing its name to Corpus Christi Railway & Light Co. in 1915. Electric streetcars were fixtures on Corpus Christi streets until 1934, which is even later than commercial air travel coming to town with the 1928 opening of Cliff Maus Airport.

Streetcars and buses coexisted for five years before the flexibility of buses won out. In one lifetime, Corpus Christi saw technological innovation completely change the landscape of public transportation.