Street Railway Embrace and Resistance on the Massachusetts North Shore

Abstract

This thesis presents a history of embrace and distaste for street railways on the Massachusetts North Shore during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In some communities, the streetcar was desired as an economic stimulant and a vital transport method. In others, it was repulsed for fear of bringing undesirable elements. The divergent development of the North Shore, as an inclusive industrial center and an exclusive summer resort, divided the region between street railway embrace and resistance.