The Trolleys Are Coming to Yakima Avenue
A new 50-year franchise grants developers the power to lay streetcar tracks across the city's main thoroughfares.
An ordinance was passed granting to Wayne Ferguson, V. M. Massey and Laughlin Mac Lean, of Spokane Falls, authority to build and maintain street railways over Yakima avenue, Walnut, C, Second, Third or Fourth streets to the city limits on the west. The franchise has a life of fifty years. Construction work must commence within six months and at least one mile of the road constructed in eighteen months and two miles in two years; otherwise the franchise is void. The cars shall be of improved modern construction, provided with brakes and shall not run at a speed exceeding ten miles per hour within the city limits.
“The privilege and franchise herein granted shall continue for fifty years from the date of the passage of this ordinance.”
Early streetcar franchises were the lifeblood of urban expansion in the Pacific Northwest, dictating how the city grew. Today, the conversation has shifted from building these lines to reclaiming the public space they once occupied for pedestrians and cyclists.
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