THE PENDLETON LINE

Taking a break from my NASCAR blogs, I wanted to share this photo with you.

I was at an auction and it was very warm in the building. The gal sitting next to me purchased a box and there were three fans in it. She handed me one to use, then she said to just keep it. On the hard paper fan with the little wooden stick handle was a photo. Under the photo it read, "The Pendleton line gets ready to start their day in 1885."

This photo peaked my curiosity since the date was 1885, and I had not heard much about horsecars from the late 1800s, so I started to research where the photo came from. After finding a few leads, I emailed the research department of The Cincinnati History Library and Archives. The response was (excellent and fast) as follows:

Pendleton was an unincorporated village which, according to The Bicentennial Guide to Greater Cincinnati: A Portrait of Two Hundred Years (1988), page 333, “lay along the Ohio River from a point east of Foster Street to Delta Avenue.” Pendleton was annexed to the City of Cincinnati in 1870. Today, Pendleton is one of the communities which make up Cincinnati’s East End.

To read more about Pendleton, the Bicentennial Guide contains several pages on this community, including information about the streetcar and railway lines which were located there.

The photograph appears in Cincinnati Streetcars No.1: Horsecars and Steam Dummies (1968) on page 19 with the following caption:

“One of the many horsecar barns of the city was on Eastern Avenue. This East End car paused for a picture in front of the barn before starting its rounds to Pendleton and picking up passengers for Music Hall and the Little Miami Railroad Depot. Barnman John Bauman is seated on the driver’s stool and Frank Fuhs holds a broom.”