JAX CURIOSITY SHOP: "HAYBURNERS"

(Source of picture:  Florida State Archives)

The mule looks tired.  He's been pulling a streetcar that has reached the end of the track in Riverside.  The photo dates from between 1880 and 1895.

It was scenes like this that angered the local Humane Society.  It pressured the city's trolley companies to retire its beasts of burden.  During the early 1890s, Jacksonville's electric streetcars proved such a success that mules didn't have to pull a heavy load for much longer.  The last mule car rattled through the River City in May 1895. 

The picture below shows an electric streetcar in about 1917.  Some of the outer walls of this old train station still stand next to the Prime Osborne Convention Center.

 For more street car info, see below.

CLICK HERE FOR TRACK LAYING PICTURE

CLICK HERE FOR ANOTHER TRACK LAYING PIC 

CLICK HERE FOR A PIC FROM THE PHOENIX LINE

CLICK HERE FOR A PIC OF TROLLEY AT TRAIN STATION

CLICK HERE FOR ANOTHER TROLLEY AT TRAIN STATION PIC

HAY BURNERS -- This was the nickname for Jacksonville's mule-drawn streetcars.  They rolled about town during the late 1800s.  The streetcars came in two sizes, and the larger cars required two animals each.  The last trips for the day were made at about 10:00 pm, when bells on the mules' necks would ring.  

When day-trippers returned from Pablo Beach (Jacksonville Beach), the streetcars would meet the St. Johns River ferry downtown.  The streetcars ran down Main and crossed Bay Street.  They then turned around on a turntable, located in front of the ferry dock. (This was situated just to the east of where The Jacksonville Landing is today.)  

Space wasn't wasted:  Up to people could be crammed into a single streetcar!   Riders would crowd inside, hang off the sides, and sit on top. 

Jacksonville saw its first electric trolley cars in 1893.  Streetcars ran in the River City until 1936.