Watch Your Feet

March 31, 1965, Neenah-Menasha Daily Northwestern

It's been a while since we featured a streetcar of any sort on the blog.  Horse-drawn streetcars began operation in July of 1886.  At first there was just the simple route from downtown Menasha to downtown Neenah.  Electrified cars were instituted in Appleton in 1896 and interurban lines to Menasha and Neenah and parts beyond came into being two years later.  As described in previous blog posts, a passenger could take the interurban from Neenah to Menasha for 5 cents, to Waverly Beach for 10 cents, or to Appleton for 15 cents.  The rise of city buses and automobiles and a reluctance by the traction companies, as they were called, to pay for bridge upkeep sounded the death knell to streetcars for Menasha in 1925.  By 1930, Appleton's had made their last runs, too.