Streetcar #728, Main Street — 1954
by Paula Bosse
1000 block of Main Street, Sept. 2, 1954 (click for larger image)
by Paula Bosse
Oh, streetcars. In the photo above, we see car #728 heading east on Main Street on September 2, 1954, having come from, I believe, Oak Cliff (the placard reads “Jefferson”). This photo shows Main Street looking east from, I think, Poydras.
The Shanghai Cafe was at 1004 Main, Luby’s Cafeteria (the second one in Dallas) was at 1006 Main, the Topper restaurant was at 1012 Main, the Main & Martin Liquor Store was at 1016 Main (at Martin Street), and the St. George Hotel was at 1018 Main, all of which can be seen in this photo.
1952 Mapsco
Car 728 wasn’t always “Jefferson,” whiling away its days crossing back and forth across the Trinity. Back in 1945 it was “Myrtle” and was spending a large part of its time in South Dallas.
I’m not sure where Myrtle/Jefferson ended up, but, sadly, the Golden Age of streetcars ended in Dallas in 1956.
***
Top photo from an old eBay listing.
Bottom photo by Robert W. Richardson; from the Western History/Genealogy Dept., Denver Public Library, viewable here.
Today, the block seen in the top photo looks completely different. Across the street is where the Bank of America Plaza is now. In the map below, the red line is Main, the yellow is Lamar, and the green is Griffin. The 1000 block of Main Street is circled in white. (Click for larger image.)
Bing Maps
So what’s there now? A parking lot!
Google Street View
To read “The Last Day the Streetcars Ran in Oak Cliff” by Ron Cawthon, click here.
As always, most pictures are larger when clicked.
*
Copyright © 2015 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas 
The street car was a time and place that could become a great hour, then it faded for a reason, today the street car crossing the Trinity river……, that is a strange event, going back too a place that really has no time for the past….to be futuristic one has to get rid of the facade of the hour or decade, and live the moment now, then it works…..time travel is very expensive……but it can be a neat vacation……
LikeLike
That is one of the interurban freight cars following Myrtle in the 1945 photo is it not? Nice pics.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I hadn’t noticed that, but I think you’re right. It has no windows and it looks pretty hulk-y.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And the old home or the death of a street car,….. was once upon a time in the Washington and Hall street area by Baylor Hospital where the old projects were in location. and later the street cars are to be sold to some group who would have them hauled down to South America in the late 1960’s early 1970’s as the story is told…as old boarding house residences…..
LikeLike
[…] spotted the Luby’s seen above in a photo I found on eBay a few years ago (see the full photo here). Back then I checked to see how long Luby’s had been around in Dallas, and I was surprised […]
LikeLike