Monday Streetcar Blogging

Perley Thomas car 923, approaching Basin Street, riverbound on Canal Street in early 1962. We base the date on the fact that NASA geared up to go to the moon after JFK’s speech at Rice University in September of 1961 and there are no Christmas decorations on Canal Street, so it’s more likely the shot is from around January of 1962. The big text sign around Krauss Department Store is visible on the left. Canal Street still looks like new a year or so after the 1958 beautification project. This was, from a streetcar perspective, one of the busiest sections of Canal, with tracks going six across prior to WW2. With just the Canal and St. Charles Lines left, the city ripped up all but the two center tracks as part of the 1958 repairs to the street. Flower boxes and palm trees were installed in place of the outside tracks.