CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
EN/FR
Search
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Streetcars in St. Louis

Open-knowledge reference entry

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 11, 2026
Entity authorityQ7623082 ↗
Source-derived summary

Streetcars in St. Louis, Missouri operated as part of the transportation network of St. Louis from the middle of the 19th century through the early 1960s.

During the first forty years of the streetcar in the city, a variety of private companies operated several dozen lines. In 1898, the City of St. Louis passed a Central Traction Bill that required franchises for streetcar companies. United Railways quickly consolidated most St. Louis streetcar companies, then St. Louis Suburban in 1906. United Railways sank into receivership which was resolved only in 1924.

Editorial summary

“Streetcars in St. Louis” enters the record as open-knowledge reference entry. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Streetcars, Louis and Open-knowledge can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1898, 1906, 1924—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Streetcars, Louis and Open-knowledge.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Streetcars in St. Louis” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Streetcars, Louis and Open-knowledge provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7623082. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1898, 1906 and 1924.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Streetcars in St. Louis”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Streetcars in St. Louis primary sources, Streetcars in St. Louis archive and Streetcars research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Streetcars in St. Louis”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Streetcars in St. Louis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.