This vintage real photo postcard features a horse drawn trolley in St. Augustine, Florida. Printing on the front of the card elaborates with “Rapid Transit at Capo’s North Beach”. Most of us would not think of a single horse pulled trolley as “Rapid Transit”, but compared to walking, the trolley was rapid transit. It wasn’t difficult to find a seat on the trolley when this photograph was taken. It’s only occupants were two passengers and the African American driver. Research revealed the story behind this particular trolley. In 1904, Paul and Ellen Capo built a boat landing on the east shore of the Tolomato (North) River, and used this horse drawn trolley to carry passengers over the dunes, to the beach. Beachgoers could swim in the Atlantic Ocean. The visitors to Capo’s North Beach arrived there via a ferry from downtown St. Augustine. The name of the ferry boat was “Pauline II”. The photographer of this photo postcard was P. A. Wolfe, of St. Augustine. Mr Wolfe was a very talented photographer. Many of his photographs can be seen at the website “Florida Memory” which is operated by the State Library and Archives of Florida. In 1921, he took a series of photographs of President Warren Harding’s visit to St. Augustine. P. A. Wolfe was born in England in 1886. The 1920 US Census reveals that he was married to Ina Wolfe and was working as a photographer in St. Augustine. The “AZO” stamp box on the reverse of this postcard indicates that it was published sometime between 1904 and 1918. (SOLD)
THE CABINET CARD GALLERY 