Dorchester Illustration 2508 Street Railways.
Today’s photo shows a horse-drawn street car with a sign that says Dorchester Ave. via Upham’s Corner. The blue lines on the map show the horse railways in the Boston area in 1876.
Street railways were pulled by horses along tracks on the surface streets
The first street railway corporation to receive a charter from the Massachusetts Legislature was the Dorchester and Roxbury in 1852. It was authorized to construct a railway with single or double tracks from Meeting House Hill along Hancock and Stoughton Street to the Roxbury line and from Codman Square along Washington Street to Roxbury, where it would connect with the Metropolitan Railroad Company.
The Dorchester Avenue Railway Company was begun in 1854, but failing to meet the terms of its charter, it was succeeded by The Dorchester Railway Company. It was granted the route from Lower Mills along the Dorchester Turnpike (Dorchester Avenue) to the edge of Boston, then through South Boston and over the Federal Street Bridge.
In 1863-1864 both lines came under the control of the Metropolitan Railroad Company.
In the late 1880s and 1890s, the street railways were electrified.