You may have ridden in or have at least seen the free trolleys that run through downtown Greenville, but you may not know that trolleys started moving people around the city almost 150 years ago.
The Street Railway Company laid the first trolley tracks in 1875. There were seven cars pulled along the 2.25 miles of tracks by a stable of 30 mules.
Chances are good that the Garrauxs, the family whose story is told in my novel “When He Was Gone,” used the trolleys frequently, especially to get to and from the train stations for travel outside Greenville.
By 1902, the trolley system had been electrified and nine cars carried workers and shoppers over seven miles of track.
The electric street cars continued to run in downtown Greenville until the system was decommissioned in 1937. A trackless trolley system was then in use until February 1956.
Greenville reintroduced trolleys in 2014, and several routes are available throughout the downtown. The fare-free trolleys have bike racks, and there is even an app to get real-time locations of when the trolleys will reach particular stops.
