Olympia’s Street Railway Is Mortgaged—Horses and All
A $222 chattel mortgage on the track and a lien on the company’s horses expose the shaky finances behind Olympia’s experiment with a naphtha motor car.
A chattel mortgage of the Olympia street railway track has been recorded in the office of the county auditor. The mortgage is to Joshua D. Smith, an employee of the company, for $222. Foreman Parker, who built the new car for the naphtha motor, holds a mortgage on the horses of the company. Mr. Savage declines to say what use he will make of the new motor.
“Foreman Parker, who built the new car for the naphtha motor, holds a mortgage on the horses of the company.”
Transit financing is not a modern invention: Olympia’s first street railway was already borrowing against its own track and draft animals. The small sums and mortgaged horses make the era’s boosterism look fragile—much like today’s debates over how to pay for the buses and rail we depend on.
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