Intersection of Devine and Maple Streets
Streetcar Line
Mass transit for Columbians came about in 1886 with the advent of mule- (and later horse-) drawn streetcars along Main Street and Elmwood Avenue, a service superseded in 1893 by electrified cars. By 1898, the Columbia Electric Street and Suburban Railway and Electric Power Company had extended its tracks southeast on Devine Street and north on Maple Street to Millwood Avenue. For five cents, passengers could ride one of six trolley cars accessing Shandon every hour. Affordable and convenient, streetcars were many Shandonites' primary mode of transportation. In 1927, the city's streetcar service was terminated as buses and private cars had outpaced their competitor.The increasing prosperity of many of Shandon's middle-class families during the 1920s coincided with the rise of personally owned automobiles. This trend resulted in the conversion of barns originally housing horses and carriages into garages, and, in some cases, led to the construction of free-standing garages located to the rear of houses.
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Electric streetcar on the corner of Woodrow and Devine Streets, circa 1905. Historic Columbia collection
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Pictured here are Braxton Bragg "B.B" Davis and his wife Ada of 2726 Preston Street posing beside their car. Image courtesy Betty Jean Rhyne
