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THE SERENADE OF PROSPERITY- page 7 - OT long ago a green brakeman was being "broken in" on "the big road", as everybody calls the line over whose destinies Captain W. W. Peabody presides. The conductor, in the role of an instructor, was naming over the stations as the train rolled along. Norwood had scarcely been left behind when the raw knight of the lantern was coached to call out "East Norwood." Before he obeyed he gave a grunt of astonishment and remarked: "Why don't they build a union depot out here?"
There are no less than six railroad stations within the limits of Norwood and right on the borders, scarce a stone's throw from the northern boundary line, are two more—Harewood and Norwood Heights—on the Chicago branch of the Pennsylvania, while away to the south the Cincinnati, Portsmouth and Virginia Road contributes two others to the list—Elsmere, which is within the corporate limits, and Idlewild, which is just without. The C., P. & V., which so long carried the title of the "Coats, Pants and Vest," now rejoices over the romantic name of the "Pocahontas Route." Ivanhoe, Hopkins Avenue and Norwood Park are all on the Cincinnati, Lebanon and Northern, and East Norwood is the junction of that Highland Route and the Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern. On every day, but the Sabbath, nearly seventy passenger trains pass through Norwood and all save a few fast expresses stop. With such grand railroad accommodations it is easy to account for the healthy growth in the army of commuters. The shriek of the locomotive's whistle so often heard only swells the chorus in the serenade of prosperity. The old Marietta and Cincinnati ran her iron arms into Norwood when it was Sharpsburg and farmland. Not until years afterward was the Northern built and since President George Hafer assumed the reins of government and Clay Rockwell has been in charge of the passenger service, suburbanites on the Highland Route have been taken care of in good shape. The B.&O.S.W. has been made a feature of suburban expresses, and O. P. McCarthy, the G. P. A., has not overlooked anything that would add comfort to the commuters. Not only has Norwood been extremely fortunate in the liberality of the steam railroads but there is another important artery of travel—the electric road on the Montgomery pike. From the day that the first car ran out over the Eden Park and Walnut Hills road to Norwood on the Fourth of July, not three years ago, the route has been a wonderfully successful one. Perhaps there was no one man in Norwood who did more toward having the road built than Fred Mehmert. Obstacles, such as the non-possession of a right of way, were removed by purchase outright of the pike. The Norwood Electric, with a five-cent through fare, proved a money-maker from the start and it has been a large factor in the latter-day growth of the borough. When the first cars were put on, the name "Norwood" could not be found on their sides even with the aid of a microscope, but a man at Fountain Square to-day can pick out a Norwood car without requiring the services of an interpreter. There are prophets who aver that before many years elapse the electric will circle on over the bridge and down Harris Avenue through East Norwood to the picturesque Duck Creek road and thence find an outlet into Norwood Park and return to Montgomery Boulevard through South Norwood. That, however, is only a promissory note, but Norwood has a singular facility of taking up all promissory notes and paying them off. ——— – ——— |
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