Then and Now: Fountain Avenue in Springfield

Before automobiles took over as the preferred mode of transportation, Springfield street cars and interurban lines that travelled between cities were a frequent sight. This scene from the early 1900s shows both street and interurban cars downtown. Although tracks had once crisscrossed the whole city, by the time the street car system shut down, there were only three lines remaining, through Snyder Park, on Limestone, and on Lagonda. The last street car parked in the Selma Road car barn around midnight on December 8, 1933 and the replacement bus system started up at 5:30am the following day. The end of the interurban lines came a few years later when the final Cincinnati and Lake Erie car came through Springfield on October 29, 1938. Photo Courtesy of the Clark County Historical Society