The Community Traction Co. Toledo, Ohio

Toledo’s streetcar network during the mid-1930s.

This uncommon transportation map of Toledo, Ohio, depicts the operational network of The Community Traction Company. A comprehensive system of streetcars, trolleybuses, and motor buses is shown connecting the downtown district to various suburbs and sprawling industrial facilities along both banks of the Maumee River. Major arterial streets, geographic features, and prominent local businesses are labeled throughout the sheet, which is presented at a scale of approximately one inch to one-half mile. A complete index of transit lines appears in the lower right, while faint ghost lettering beneath several entries reflects the company’s ongoing route revisions.

The map captures Toledo’s public transportation system during a period of rapid modernization. The city’s first trolleybus line was introduced along Dorr Street in 1935, helping to date the work and marking the beginning of a gradual transition away from traditional streetcars. Over the following years, electric rail lines were systematically replaced by trolleybus and motor bus routes, a process accelerated by changing transportation priorities and wartime constraints. By the early 1950s, Toledo’s once-vibrant era of electrified street transit had come to an end.

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