New Street Cars in Parade; Pageant of Transportation Depicts Old Mule Car and Modern Coaches

From the Oct. 20, 1926, Nashville Banner

Ten new street railway coaches, representing the most modern transportation equipment of any city of the United States, were formally presented to the service of a greater Nashville Friday afternoon by the Nashville Railway & Light Company.

The presentation was in the form of a parade through the principal downtown streets of the ten new street cars, preceded in chronological order by the various other transportation equipment which in the last sixty years Nashville citizens have used.

One of the largest crowds that ever lined the streets for a public demonstration witnessed the parade, inaugurating service of the new street cars. From the car barns on Fourth avenue, north, to Church street, to Eighth avenue the queer and instructive pageant wound its way.

Leading the parade was the old mule car, initiated in passenger service for a better Nashville in 1866. It looked a great deal as it looked in the old days, except for the array of flags and bunting about its venerable sides, and the considerably advanced years of its drivers, John Irvin and J. H. Hood. For these two figures, holding the reins and ready to “collect fares” on the mule car Friday, were two of the same men who drove the old mule car teams back in the days following the civil war.

Old Car Abandoned.

When the parade reached Eighth avenue at Church street, the mule car was abandoned and its passengers, representing part of the large group of distinguished citizens, city and state officials who were guests of the Railway & Light Company on the ride, repaired to the other cars. The parade continued out Broadway.

Behind the mule car came the first electric car used in Nashville which was put into service on April 30, 1889, and then came several of the latter day types of coaches filled with guests of the company and bearing the Nashville Railway & Light Company band and Tony Rose and his band.

If the mule car and the first electric car caused a stir, it was only a murmur in comparison with the cheers and applause that greeted the appearance of the ten new one-man safety coaches which were formally presented to the city and dedicated to a greater Nashville. Leading the new coaches was the “President Andrew Jackson” or car No. 600, in charge of J. P. W. Brown, vice-president and general manager of the Nashville Railway & Light Company, R. P. Clift, assistant to the president and Kinney Harmon.

Conspicuously displayed in the car were two pictures of “Old Hickory” himself, and the golden sword presented to him by the state of Tennessee in commemoration of the battle of New Orleans. Jackson’s proclamation of the nullificationists was hung below one of his pictures and several other personal articles once belonging to the Tennessee President were carried by Mrs. Bettie M. Donelson, president of the Andrew Jackson Society, and owner of the Jackson relics which were on display. Mrs. Walker Edwards, second vice-president, and Mrs. E. T. Lowe, treasurer of the society, also rode on the car as special guests of the management.

Distinguished Guests.

Mayor Hilary E. Howse, Judge Litton Hickman, Judge John H. DeWitt; John Trotwood Moore, state librarian; Gen. Harvey and Julian Campbell, members of the state railroad and utilities commission; members of the city board of education, county board of education, city council, park commission, Chamber of Commerce, County Court, both city and county parent-teacher associations and other guests occupied seats on the President Andrew Jackson.

Mrs. Bettie Donelson was presented with a bouquet of chrysanthemums by J. P. Brown, and cigars were distributed through the cars for the men. The drivers of the cars wore roses presented by Harrison Brothers, florists, and for one week they will be given fresh roses each day. …

When the cars were parked on Eighth avenue for inspection by the general public, a mass of humanity rushed for the new cars as soon as they had been brought to a stop by the operators. The guests scarcely had time to alight when the crowds rushed into the cars. Men, women, children, both whites and blacks tried out the new cushioned seats or inspected the electric mechanism. Only a steady, courteous employe of the Nashville Railway and Light Company stood the flood of questions fired at them or refrained from pitching headlong from the cars the groups of boys who were intent on trying out the bells.

Latest In Safety.

The cars represent the latest in safety devices. In order to operate the cars the motorman must keep his control lever pressed down in order to insure contact and the minute he releases his hand from the control level the air is applied to the brakes, sand is dumped on the tracks and the car stops. Patrons of the company are protected fully in case the operator of the car should drop dead while at his post of duty, for the automatic system of brakes insures an immediate stopping of the car. Indirect lighting is another feature, while the mirrors suspended from the outside just above the door give the passengers a full view of the street as they board and alight from the cars.

Many old timers preferred to talk of the old days when mule cars and the first electric cars were the rage, but the current of talk was always deflected to the new coaches which, according to many, represent the greatest development by a public utility in the South within the last 20 years.

Mayor Hilary E. Howse, who inspected all of the cars, tried out his hand on the mule car. However this was only while a photographer snapped his picture. J. P. W. Brown formally presented the ten new cars to the city when he handed to Mayor Howse a board bearing ten miniature street cars symbolic to the ones which the company just placed at the service of the people of Nashville.

(Tennessee State Library and Archives)

Editor’s note: This article appeared in the October 2016 Nashville Retrospect with more photos. Research and assistance with this article and with photo captions was provided by historian Ralcon Wagner, author of the book Nashville’s Streetcars and Interurban Railways.