Turning Points
in Wisconsin History
An 1890 plan for an electric rail system in Milwaukee
Milwaukee Light, Heat & Traction Company: West Allis Station.
This collection of photographs and information concerns an early twentieth century electrical substation in West Allis whose main purpose was to create a rail system encompassing southeastern Wisconsin. While horse-powered street cars had plied Milwaukee streets since the 1860s, the first electrically powered street cars did not appear until 1890. Henry Villard, president of the Edison General Electric Company, entered the Milwaukee electrical power market in 1890, hoping to give the city, and eventually the region, a reliable and unified interurban rail system. These documents, produced in the 1960s, provide information about this effort and the construction of the substation.
| Related Topics: |
Industrialization and Urbanization The Introduction of Electrical Power |
| Creator: | Milwaukee Light, Heat & Traction Company |
| Pub Data: | Documentation compiled after 1968. 59 photos plus 12 data pages. |
| Citation: | Milwaukee Light, Heat & Traction Company: West Allis Station;
Online facsimile at:
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hh:@FIELD(DOCID+@BAND (@lit(WI0161))); Visited on: 5/13/2024 |
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