Vintage Photo Wednesday, Vol. 35: New York Horsecar Scene, 1910s-1920s

I’ll admit that this one has me a bit puzzled. What I can gather is that this is a shot of a horsecar in front of a building owned by the Hartford and New York Transportation Company. The company operated steamboats, barges, skiffs, tugboats, and other water craft and carried passengers between New York and Connecticut — making frequent stops along the Connecticut River. In 1906 the company was taken over by the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad.

All this is to say that I can’t really nail down a date for this very nice photo. Click for the full-size version.

Vintage photo of a horsecar, New York City 1910s-1920s

The main clue for dating offered here is the horsecar in the foreground of the photo. Horsecars — which differed slightly from horse-drawn trolleys — were pretty much phased out of New York City by 1917 or so, which leads me to believe this image is pre-1920. But there may have been a few still left as late as the early ’20s I suppose.

Regardless, this is a great shot.

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