Your History @ CDPL: Interurban travel

Interurban trains were active in Crawfordsville from 1903 to the early 1930s. Did you know that you could board a "traction" car at a station on Washington Street at one of more than two dozen times daily in order to arrive in Indianapolis in less than two hours? The tracks leading to Indianapolis ran south on Washington Street and turned east on Wabash Avenue -- going all the way to Grace Avenue, where the tracks turned south before eventually turning east again (near Elmore) to continue to Indianapolis. Stops along the way were in Linnsburg, New Ross, Jamestown, Lizton, Pittsboro, Brownsburg, Clermont, the Indiana Girl's School, and Speedway. Come to the Reference Department @ CDPL to learn more about your history! This photograph was taken in front of 313 E. Wabash sometime around 1910. Current-day residents would have difficulty imagining having to dodge interurban cars coming back and forth down the middle of this busy street.