One of the first attempts at public transportation in Pensacola was in July 1884, when Conrad Kupfrain, Henry Pfeiffer, and John Cosgrove received approval from the Secretary of State for a streetcar system. The streetcars were to be pulled by horses or mules along railroad tracks embedded in the road and the company was to be called the “Pensacola Street Car Company.” The first route called for the trolley to leave the waterfront at the Pensacola Wharf and proceed up Palafox to Wright Street. Here it turned east to the L&N Union Depot and then down Tarragona to Gregory Street. It then turned west to Devilliers Street where the streetcars turned north until they reached Kupfrian’s Park. The park was a picnic and fair ground area near today’s Baptist Hospital. All of this was supplied for the mere cost of one nickel (.05) per mile. Over the next several years the company was renamed twice, once on March 4, 1891 when it became the Pensacola Terminal Company, and again on November 13, 1897 when it was bought out by W. H. Bosley and renamed the Electric Terminal Railroad Company. At this time horses were still being used to pull the trolleys along their routes with one exception. This exception was the so-called “dummy line” that ran from the Port of Pensacola to Fort Barrancas on today's Naval Air Station. Because of the long distance of this route, the company used a steam type engine for power. However, during that same year of 1897 the company began to experiment with the new “electric” cars that would one day replace the horses and mules. In 1903, the “dummy line” was made an all-electric route and the transformation began. On July 2, 1906 the Pensacola Electric Company was franchised to furnish electric power to the city for lights, power, and the railway system. The company, based out of a Maine Corporation, was the ancestor of what we know today as the Gulf Power Company.
Type of mule drawn streetcars of the period c1890
Type of steam powered street car of the day
Conrad Kupfian (1833-1892)
Henry Pfeiffer (1833-1887)
Early auto racing at Kupfrian's Park (near today's Baptist Hospital)
Picnic and playground at Kupfrian's Park