A history of the street railway systems of Vancouver, Washington, 1889-1926

The decade of the 1880s was a time of unprecedented development in the Pacific Northwest. Railroads were being constructed, immigration was high, lumber in demand and statehood for Washington appeared imminent. Vancouver, Washington, benefited from this prosperity. In 1888, a Portland firm built a steam powered railway from East Portland, through its real estate development, Woodlawn, to the Vancouver ferry. The success of this enterprise in aiding the sale of real estate was observed by several Vancouver men who formed the Columbia Land and Improvement Company to promote the sale of their property. The company constructed a horse drawn street railway in 1889 from Vancouver's business district north to its development in Vancouver Heights. The railway had mixed financial success and was sold to a Portland man, George B. Markle, in 1892. He electrified it and operated the line until his financial empire crumbled in the Panic of 1893. After several years of operation in the hands of a receiver, the railway ceased running in 1895, and was dismantled two years later. With the announcement that James J. Hill was going to build the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway through Vancouver in 1895, the area's prosperity was renewed. A number of franchise seekers vied for the opportunity to build a street railway in Vancouver, and in 1906 Walter H. Moore was granted permission. Before the line's construction was completed, Moore went bankrupt in the recession of 1907. A group of Vancouver men took over building it until 1908 when the Vancouver Traction Company was formed. This firm completed the line and operation commenced that year. In 1910 a subsidiary, the Clarke County Development Company was incorporated to build an interurban line east of town to Orchards and Sifton, an area in which they had real estate interests. The system did not pay as the investors had hoped, and in 1911 it was sold to the Washington - Oregon Corporation, a utility holding company. It managed the line until forced into receivership in 1914. In the fall of 1915 the company was reorganized under the name of the North Coast Power Company. During the next eight years the expense of operating the line increased rapidly with the wartime inflation of labor and materials. The line had been cheaply constructed and was in need of major overhauling. Jitneys, buses, and automobiles were providing increasing competition, but this was somewhat abated by the

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