For the first half or the twentieth century, the most easterly city in North America had a public transportation system that was on par with those found in Toronto, Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco. From 1900 to 1948, the streetcars of the Reid Newfoundland Company and, later Newfoundland Light and Power, travelled along narrow-gauge rails on some of the oldest streets to be found anywhere. From the famous cobblestones of Water Street to Duckworth Street, Military Road and Queens Road, and powered by electricity from nearby Petty Harbour, residents could avail of the most modern form of inner-city transport of the day.
The black and white photographs are contrasted with modern-day colour retakes by the author of the same scenes as they now exist. When compared side by side, it is fascination to see just how much St. John’s has changed in the past hundred years and yet, in so many ways, remained the same.
