Interurban Passenger Depot

From 1901 until 1938 Huntington had an interurban rail system. Called light rail today, these electric trains crisscrossed Indiana during a time when roads were bad and few families could afford an automobile. They provided convenient, comfortable, and affordable transportation to most of the cities of Indiana. The line that ran through Huntington came from Fort Wayne and ran to Lafayette. In Peru, passengers could connect to an Interurban line that took them to Indianapolis. At its peak, more than 8 trips per day were made in each direction. Cars were able to be serviced and repaired at a depot located just a block from First Street alongside the old heavy rail tracks (now the trail).

Interurban railroads flourished in Indiana from the last decade of the 1800s through the 1920s. (The cars were driven by electric traction motors, and so many of the companies used the term “traction” in their name.) The Model T and modern roads began competing with them in the mid-1920s. The Great Depression put additional stress on the interurban companies causing accelerated consolidations and abandonment of non-profitable lines. At one time, Huntington County had two interurban lines pass through it. One ran through the city of Huntington on its way from Fort Wayne to Peru. The other passed through Warren while transporting people and goods from Bluffton to Kokomo. Both lines connected to others that allowed travel from South Bend to Louisville, as well as to Lafayette; Terre Haute; Dayton, Ohio, and many places in between.

Interurbans frequently competed directly with the larger steam railroads. They were able to compete because of their more frequent trains and city-central terminals. They also allowed passengers to flag them down in between stations, which aided their popularity. Finally, the cars were usually cleaner. The interurbans were mostly electric thus eliminating the coal ash and cinders of a steam locomotive. And their cars were typically more comfortable than either regular railroad cars or streetcars/trolleys. But, as roads improved and auto ownership increased, they lost much of their competitive edge. Eventually, passenger buses and long-haul trucking services contributed to their demise. Today, many cities are trying to rebuild at least the inter-city portion of these once-vital services in an effort to reduce congestion. Since the rails no longer extend between cities, they are usually called “light rail” to distinguish them from the long range, “heavy rail,” traffic that we think of when someone says “railroad.”

Huntington’s interurban history began much as its canal history, with a line that ran mostly along the canal bed from Fort Wayne to Huntington. When the line reached our city limits, it turned sharply south on First Street passing an interurban car repair shop near the intersection of Division before turning onto Market Street. At first the main city stop was outside City Hall. It later moved to what was then 31 West Market Street (now number 35). The tracks continued along Market Street to State Street. There was a freight depot just past the intersection of Lafontaine Street where the right-of-way rejoined the tow path of the old canal on its way to north of Andrews and Lagro.

The first car reached Huntington on the 12^th of December, 1901. In 1921 there were 10 daily trains eastbound and another 10 westbound between the hours of 5:30 a.m. and midnight. The last car left the station on the 5^th of September, 1938, at which time it was replaced with bus service. Like its larger sibling, the name of the Interurban railroad changed frequently due to corporate mergers and bankruptcies.

1.  Marlette, Jerry. 1959. Electric Railroads of Indiana. Indianapolis, IN: Council for Local History.
2. Middleton, William D. 2001. Reflections on the Interurban Era. Retrieved from <https://indianahistory.org/research/research-materials/railroad-symposia-essays> accessed 26 Jul 2018.
3. “Huntington to Have Interurban Freight Station.” 21 Apr 1910. Daily Democrat (Huntington, IN).
4. “Huntington Township Plat Map” in Plat Books of Indiana Counties, Vol. 3: H-L . ca.1925. Retrieved from <http://ulib.iupuidigital.org/cdm/ref/collection/IndianaPlat/id/2917> accessed 30 Jul 2018.
5.  “Last Traction Car Runs Made.” 6 Sep 1938. Herald-Press (Huntington, IN).
6.  Photograph380: Huntington Special Interurban car no. 311. Image collection of the Huntington City-Township Public Library. Posted on Indiana Memory at https://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16066coll15/id/536/rec/1
7. Detail of Huntington showing the Interurban station. 1919. Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, sheet 5.