Trolleys

A trolley line used to run along the east side of Route 82 into Kennett, and you can still see part of its path near Willowdale and the Kennett Country Club. I learned this and many other interesting things about early-20th-century trolley lines at a wonderful talk given by Ray McKay to the Southeastern Chester County Historical Society on April 25.
He showed photos of the trolleys operating in downtown West Chester, Lenape, Downingtown and Kennett, with then-and-now comparisons of what the sites look like today. There was a trolley barn on South High Street, near Market Street, in West Chester; a power plant to keep the trolleys running where Lenape Forge is today; and another barn on Birch Street in Kennett. The arched bridge that crosses the Brandywine near Lenape Park didn't exist when the trolleys were running; they used a bridge just north of it that no longer exists. 
He said it's a tricky business tracing the old routes because the lines have been pulled up, stations have been torn down and in some cases roads have even been moved.
He said that originally the trolley cars were not labeled with signs, and they all looked alike, causing confusion as to which car was going on which route.
In the more-chairs-needed audience at the Kennett Friends Home I saw Mary Dugan, Marjorie Kaskey, Karen Halstead, Baz Powell, and former Kennett Square borough residents Janice and Dick Taylor, and Mary Sproat introduced Mr. McKay.
After the talk my friends and I walked down the street and had a tasty supper at El Ranchero, a Mexican restaurant in the little West State Street shopping center where the card shop Papier used to be.