Streetcar history rolling into the NC Transportation Museum | Arts & Culture

SPENCER - The N.C. Transportation Museum begins a new offering during the month of September.  A lecture series will expand the museum’s weekday programs, providing something extra for those who visit.  The 2nd Wednesdays Lecture Series will take a deeper look into the various ways that people have moved across the state of North Carolina.

The first program in this new series will be held Sept. 7, with future programs held the second Wednesday of each month.   

September’s program will feature N.C. Transportation Museum historian Walter Turner, presenting “North Carolina Streetcar History.” This dynamic PowerPoint presentation will be held in the Bob Julian Roundhouse Orientation Room at 1 p.m.

Turner examines the history of a unique form of transportation in the state, from the first streetcars powered by mules in Charlotte in the late 1800’s, to the spread of electric streetcars in cities across the state.

Photos and the history of streetcar use in Winston-Salem, Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh, Durham, Pinehurst, and Wilmington will all be addressed. Turner even looks toward the future, as Charlotte’s new light rail system has taken its cues from the streetcar era.

Admission fees apply, with $5 admission for adults, $4 for seniors and active military, and $3 for children 3-12.

Future programs are already planned.  Oct. 12, Larry Bruton will speak about his adventures in the “Uwharrie Clipper”, a boat he used navigate and map the rivers of North Carolina.  Nov. 16’s program will be conducted by the museum’s Education Program Coordinator Brian Moffitt, with a look at early travel in North Carolina. Moffitt will focus on dugout canoes and other transportation essential to early settlers of the Tarheel state.

The N.C. Transportation Museum, located in historic Spencer Shops, the former Southern Railway repair facility is located just five minutes off I-85 at Exit 79 in Spencer, N.C., and about an hour from Charlotte, Greensboro or Winston-Salem. The museum is part of the Division of Historic Sites and the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, the state agency with the mission to enrich lives and communities and the vision to harness the state’s cultural resources to build North Carolina’s social, cultural and economic future. Visit www.nctrans.org for more information.  For information on the Department of Cultural Resources, call (919) 807-7385 or visit www.ncculture.com.