Remembering When
by
Jerry Person
Huntington Beach City Historian
Dedicated to the people of Huntington Beach
When the Pacific Electric Red Cars came to Town
One question I hear from new residents is what was this "Red Car" that they keep hearing from longtime residents about and we'll see this week how it helped create Huntington Beach.
When I grew 1940s and 1950s up in Los Angeles, we were only a few blocks away from the Pacific Electric tracks and on cold windy nights I could hear their unique sounding horn as they traveled from LA to or from Long Beach. Today that same right-of-way is still bringing passengers to LA on the Blue Line.
They may have called these electric streetcars, red cars, but when I was growing up I would have called them rust-red cars and they looked old compared to the modern LA Transit streetcars of that period.
So this week lets remember a system that transported people and goods over four counties in the early part of the last century.
The Pacific Electric railway was founded by Henry E. Huntington on July 4, 1902 with a line running from Los Angeles to Long Beach. Huntington knew that inaccessible land had little value, so he purchased a controlling interest in a small seaside town called Pacific City and renamed it after himself-Huntington Beach in late 1903.
Tracks were laid along the coast and this line was known as the Newport-Balboa Line and extended from the Pacific Electric station at 6th and Main in Los Angeles where it headed south some 40 miles to the Balboa ending with Huntington Beach at the 32.46 mile post. The Pavilion in Newport Beach's Balboa Isle still stands as the end of this line today.
Residents in Huntington Beach , Newport Beach and Seal Beach could ride to Los Angeles to shop in the big department stores in little over an hour's ride.
The "Big Red Cars" as they were the prime means of transportation into and out of Huntington Beach in those early days as most roads were dirt roads when they were dry and muddy during rainy times.
Remember, this was still the time of horse-drawn vehicles as very few people owned that new-fangled automobile.
The first streetcars of importance to arrive here in Huntington Beach came on July 4, 1904 to celebrate our country's independence. These massive 12 foot high cars towered above the tracks and their length averaged 40 feet long, each carrying 50 to 60 people. This event was also a way to introduce a large number of people to come see and buy land in this tiny beach town.
In later years our local residents remember watching the interurban car past by at night with its blue sparks flying from the trolley wheel as it made and broke contact with the 600-volt wire above the car.
Later on passengers leaving Huntington Beach in the streetcars could see mile post (signs) with long forgotten names like Rocamp, Stalco, Bolsa Chica, Los Patos, Sunset Beach on its way to Bay City (Seal Beach).
The last Red Car service to Huntington Beach ended on June 30, 1950.
For if it hadn't been for these streetcars and the man behind them, we might still be called Pacific City and there would no large homes, traffic or as many people here.