Throughout her letters, my grandma talks about catching the “line” or the streetcar. She takes it to work, to go dancing, to go shopping, and so many places. The Twin Cities streetcars and trolleys aren’t around anymore, a fact which is pretty heartbreaking to any fan of public transit. As a Minneapolis resident, I can attest to the fact that our current public transit infrastructure leaves much to be desired.

Recently my husband checked out a book from the library called Twin Cities by Trolley: The Streetcar Era in Minneapolis and St. Paul by John W. Diers and Aaron Isaacs. He got it for his own interest in public transit, but then when I typed up a recent letter and my grandma mentioned taking the “line”, we realized we could see if it was in this book!

We know from the address on my grandparents’ letters that she lives at 661 N. Lexington in St. Paul. She goes to the factory to work. She goes downtown Minneapolis to dance and shop. So I took a look to see if I could find out which line she might be taking.

And, this book did not disappoint! She very likely rode the Hamline line, which runs just north of University Ave on Thomas from Prior, past Lexington where she likely got off (walking two blocks north on Lexington to her house), all the way to downtown St. Paul.

The book explains that in 1906, this route was set up to “serve residential neighborhoods along Thomas and Minnehaha Avenues as well as the Northern Pacific Hospital and the manufacturing and industrial plants served by the Minnesota Transfer Railway near Prior and University Avenues.

They book details how “most of its traffic was eastbound, directed toward downtown St. Paul. However, its connection with the St. Paul-Minneapolis line at University and Prior Avenues attracted westbound riders headed for destinations along University Avenue, the Minneapolis campus of the University of Minnesota, or downtown Minneapolis.

Even more exciting, the book specifically calls out that “during World War II, the Sperry plant at Prior and Minnehaha Avenues manufactured the Norden bombsight, employing hundreds of workers, many of whom used the Hamline-Cherokee line to reach the plant.”