Days of the Horsecar

The original Resort House Bathing Pavilion was built in 1884 as a beach front destination for the hotel's horse trolley. Everett E. Johnson purchased the pavilion in1913 and thereafter it was known as Johnson's Atlanatic Avenue Pavilion. Joseph Risden purchased the casino next door from Johnson in 1916 and Risden's restaurant and dance hall continued to operate until 1954 when August Hoffman purchased it and it became the Hoffman House (torn down in 1969). The earliest streetcars used horses and sometimes mules, usually two as a team, to haul the cars. By the mid-1880s, there were 415 street railway companies in the USA operating over 6,000 miles of track and carrying 188 million passengers per year using horsecars. Horsecars were largely replaced by electric-powered streetcars following the invention in 1887 by Frank J. Sprague of an overhead trolley system on streetcars for collecting electricity from overhead wires. In 1926 CH Jenkinson purchased beach front property and two years later built Jenkinson's Pavilion, which included the largest salt water swimming pool in the area, an open air pavilion, concessions, a dance hall and more.

Image size: 13x21.

Giclee print. Open edition. Unsigned.

$125