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22-619: A series of mergers of various transportation companies in 1905–1906 culminating in the merger of the Portland Street Railway Company ; Oregon Water, Power and Railway Company; and the Portland General Electric Company on June 28, 1906, established the Portland Railway, Light and Power Company (PRL&P). Nearly 200 miles of track and 375 urban and interurban streetcars were thereupon consolidated under

44-480: A boat operated by Holladay, and from about 1879 to 1889, with a new boat (later relocated to San Francisco Bay ) built and operated by Henry Villard . The West Side Company obtained its own grant through an 1870 law that would give it land for a line from Portland to Astoria with a branch to McMinnville , but its owners sold the company to Holladay in 1870, and it only built about 47 miles (76 km) between Portland and Saint Joseph (near McMinnville), opening

66-591: A company to be designated by the Oregon Legislature that would build the line. Led by Joseph P. Gaston , railroad promoters informally organized the Oregon Central Railroad (West Side Company) on October 6, and the legislature designated this company, which did not file incorporation papers until November 21, as the beneficiary of the federal grants four days later. The company adopted a line surveyed in 1864, which would begin at Portland (then entirely on

88-524: A descendant of PRL&P. The company's interurban lines used standard-gauge track, with the exception of the line to Vancouver, Washington , while most of its urban (or "city") lines were narrow-gauge, specifically 3 ft 6 in (1067 mm) gauge . A few lines in the southeast part of the city were standard-gauge, converted from narrow gauge in December 1908 for efficiency, so that they could operate out of PRL&P's Sellwood carbarn , which

110-485: A single company. Upon its formation, PRL&P became the only company to operate streetcars within Portland city limits; it also continued to sell electric power. The name, Portland General Electric (PGE), remained in use as a division of PRL&P and, after subsequent reorganizations in 1930 and 1940 eventually PGE became once again fully independent as a power utility company, making PGE in some ways both an ancestor and

132-588: A total of four cars and ten horses . Ben Holladay , the owner of the company, put his younger brother, Joseph Holladay, in charge of the company. The expansion of Portland inland, away from First Street, increased demand for a separate car line by the 1880s. On February 18, 1886, the City of Portland approved an ordinance allowing the Portland Street Railway Company to extend its line from Caruthers Street to Porter Street. After Ben Holladay's death in 1887,

154-536: A two-mile (3.2 km) narrow gauge line on First Street, from a barn on Glisan Street in the north to Porter Street in the south. On April 19, 1871, Levi Estes, who together with D. S. Thompson owned sawmills on North Front Street, proposed to the Portland Common Council the operation of horse - or mule -drawn streetcars on First Street, among other streets. That September 12, the council approved Ordinance No. 1065, titled "An Ordinance Authorizing

176-530: The Oregon Central Railroad by turning the iron upside down. Four "bobtail" cars were ordered for the company from Kimball & Company of San Francisco, California . After the cars arrived in October 1872 it was discovered that the cars would not fit the line and the entire track would have to be readjusted. For the first time the cars were run on the track on December 7, 1872. The company started with

198-718: The Union Pacific Railroad 's I-5 Corridor ; the West Side line is now operated by the Portland and Western Railroad between Beaverton and Forest Grove . An early version of the Pacific Railway Act of 1862 included a branch north into Oregon, but this was left out of the law as passed. In its place, an 1866 law gave land grants to California and Oregon to convey to the California and Oregon Railroad of California and

220-471: The Construction and Operation of Street Railways in the City of Portland", which granted the Portland Street Railway Company a 25-year franchise to operate a horsecar line down the length of First Street. At the time, most of Portland was located near the waterfront, making First Street the ideal spot for the new line. Construction of the line began on September 11, 1872. The horsecar rails were recycled from

242-533: The East Side Company followed suit the next day in East Portland . A contest erupted between the two companies in the courts of public opinion and of law, each one claiming to be the recipient of the land grants. West Side construction was stopped when Portland's guarantee on bond interest was declared in violation of the city charter. Simon G. Elliott of California, promoter of the East Side Company, procured

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264-667: The O&;C, until September 1879, when it was leased to the O&C-controlled Western Oregon Railroad , which had continued the line to Corvallis . Both companies were consolidated into the O&C in October 1880, and the Southern Pacific Company (SP) gained control in January 1887, and leased the O&C in July. Except south of Eugene , where the Natron Cutoff turned the old line into

286-475: The Portland Street Railway Company was caught up in his estate . His brother was ordered to sell off the company to settle the estate. Joseph Holladay refused and went to Vancouver, Washington , to avoid authorities. Caught up in litigation, the Holladay estate increased in value, eventually enough for Joseph Holladay to return to Portland to reclaim the car franchise. Upon Holladay's return he attempted to upgrade

308-827: The West Ankeny Carbarns was listed in 1978, and the Sellwood Division Carbarn Office and Clubhouse was listed in 2002. The company's 1911 hydroelectric facility in Estacada, Oregon , the River Mill Hydroelectric Project , is also listed on the NRHP. Portland Street Railway Company The Portland Street Railway Company was the first mass transit company and streetcar line in Portland, Oregon , United States. Founded in 1872 by transportation magnate Ben Holladay , it operated horsecars on

330-492: The assistance of businessman Ben Holladay , who in 1868 persuaded the state legislature to reassign the grant to that company, and Congress to extend the time for completion. The first 20 miles (32 km), from Portland to New Era , were completed by December 1869, thus enabling the East Side Company to receive its first pieces of land. The terminus of the East Side line was connected to Downtown Portland by ferry; first, with

352-629: The city council complained about the power rates charged to the city. PRL&P's president, Franklin Griffith , was part of the corruption and graft surrounding Mayor George Luis Baker ; Griffith and others paid off Baker's mortgage. PRL&P was reorganized as the Portland Electric Power Company (PEPCO) on April 26, 1924. Two former PRL&P streetcar buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places . Bay E of

374-471: The contract expired in 1896 the company was dissolved. Oregon Central Railroad The Oregon Central Rail Road was the name of two railroad companies in the U.S. state of Oregon , each of which claimed federal land grants that had been assigned to the state in 1866 to assist in building a line from Portland south into California . The "East Side Company" of Salem (incorporated 1867), supported by businessman Ben Holladay , eventually received

396-515: The grant for its line east of the Willamette River , and was reorganized in 1870 as the Oregon and California Railroad (O&C), which completed the line in 1887. Portland supported the competing "West Side Company" (incorporated 1866), which only built to McMinnville , and was sold to the O&C in 1880. The O&C was later acquired by the Southern Pacific Company , and mostly remains as part of

418-642: The line in November 1872. In order to secure funds for the entire road to California, Holladay reorganized the East Side Company as the Oregon and California Railroad , which would go on to complete the line to Roseburg in December 1872, and to the state line in December 1887. By that time, the Oregon Short Line Railroad had been completed as a branch of the First transcontinental railroad to Oregon. The West Side Company operated its own road, under control of

440-513: The line without success. He attempted to sell his company to property owners on First Street, but they wanted a new electric streetcar line. Finally, the city council granted the property owners of First Street an electric streetcar line with the condition that they buy out the horsecar company. After the First Street Railway Company took ownership they continued the horsecar line with just two cars, four horses and one conductor. When

462-654: The west side of the Willamette). In July 1865, Californians associated with the California and Oregon Railroad incorporated the first Oregon and California Railroad, but failed to acquire control of the West Side Company. Undaunted, they incorporated a second Oregon Central Rail Road (East Side Company) in April 1867, with Governor George L. Woods as president. The West Side Company broke ground in Portland on April 15, 1868, and

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484-550: Was closer to the area those lines served but was only equipped for standard-gauge operation. By 1910, PRL&P was a $ 15 million holding company , having received 43 franchises from the city of Portland, mostly in the form of land grants . It was a monopoly, and "liable to anti-trust action under the Sherman Act ." The company only installed safety devices (such as pedestrian bumpers) on its streetcars after "extreme public pressure." While PRL&P installed many public streetlights,

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