The Interurban on Pewee Valley's Railroad
Avenue
Percival Moore of Anchorage, KY founded the Louisville, Anchorage &
PeWee Electric Railway (aka The Interurban) in 1900, around the time of
"The Little Colonel's House Party" and "The Little Colonel's Holidays".
This put downtown Louisville (end station Third & Liberty), about 20 miles
away, within easy reach of residents of Pewee Valley. With
some of today's rush hour traffic, the commute by automobile can be even
longer than it was in 1900 by Interurban.
The
Pewee Valley interurban station was located next door to Town Hall on Mt.
Mercy Avenue (then called Railroad Avenue). A small brick building, Glen
Gallery, is on the spot now. (That building once housed the phone
company.) There were two sets of tracks and a sidecar rail running through
the downtown Pewee Valley.
Most of the rail trips to and from Pewee Valley depicted in the later
Little Colonel books would have been via Interurban.
There is a vacant lot on Mt. Mercy that once served as the turnaround
for the interurban. Pewee Valley Historian Gin Chaudoin says it turned
around on the half hour to Louisville and on the hour it went to LaGrange.
She remembers a platform and an ice house by the interurban station. She
says the interurban also hauled milk. (Gin took the last ride on a
passenger train between LaGrange and Pewee Valley.)
When the trains stopped, the Chaudoin Line started with limousines and
eventually had busses and four lines that went to Carrollton, LaGrange,
Shepherdsville and Paducah. Mr. Chaudoin (Gin's husband, by the way)
sold the company to the Kentucky Bus company when he was drafted to serve
in World War II.
Information on the Interurban from "Land of the Little Colonel" by Katy
Smith, 1974:
|
The site today |
"The Louisville, Anchorage & Pewee Valley
Electric Railway, Inc., completed to Beard's in November 1901, was
Louisville's first interurban line. The name was changed in 1903 due to
the company's plan to built all the way to Cincinnati. The track was
extended to LaGrange in early 1907, but financial difficulty prevented
further extension north. The Louisville & Interurban (now the Louisville
Transit Company -- really now TARC) took over in 1911. The L&E had been
built to steam railroad standards with heavy cars, regular stations with
station agents and freight was handled as well as passengers. With the
advent of paved roads ad trucks, the freight service stopped May 15,
1934. The last day of passenger service through Pewee Valley to
Louisville was August 10, 1935. Today the Southern Belle Telephone
Office (now Glen Gallery) stands on the site of the L&E Station in Pewee
Valley."
There is more Interurban history at
http://hometown.aol.com/chirailfan/louhist.html , excerpts below:
1889 - First electric streetcar line in
Louisville opened on Green St., now Liberty St.
1890 - Louisville City Railway acquires
all other streetcar companies, and changes name to Louisville Railway
Co.
1901 - Electrification of streetcar lines
completed. Louisville & Eastern Railroad opens first interurban railway
in area, extending northeast to Crestwood.
1904 - Louisville & Interurban Railroad
opens its first interurban line, east to Jeffersontown. Louisville &
Interurban Railroad was owned by Louisville Traction Co., a holding
company which also owned Louisville Railway Co. Line also opened
northeast to Prospect, by electrifying a Louisville & Nashville steam
railroad branch. This would be the only standard gauge interurban line
in the Louisville area, with broad gauge on all other electric railways
in area.
1905 - Louisville & Interurban Railroad
opens interurban line southeast to Okolona.
1907 - Louisville & Eastern Railroad
completes interurban line beyond Crestwood to La Grange. Louisville &
Interurban Railroad opens interurban line southwest to Orell.
1935 - Interurban line to La Grange
abandoned, replacement bus service operated by Chaudoin Bus Lines.
Interurban line to Prospect abandoned, replaced with Paxton Bus Line
route. After World War II, Paxton Bus Line would be succeeded by
Goebel's Bus Line, and later Prospect Bus Line. Interurban line to Orell
also abandoned, replaced with Louisville Railway Co. bus route. Virgil
Pierce bus line sold to Blue Motor Coach Co.
1945 - Chaudoin Bus Lines sold to
Kentucky Bus Lines.
The Interurban Depot
A piece of Interurban memorabilia
Another great picture of a LaGrange Interurban car can be
seen here:
http://davesrailpix.com/odds/ky/htm/lint01.htm
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