FOURTH STREET ELEVATOR

FOURTH STREET ELEVATOR (also known as the Fenelon Place Elevator. Steepest and shortest railway in the United States and possibly the world. The elevator has a length of 296 feet to carry passengers 189 feet from Fenelon Place to Fourth Street.

The incline in places is nearly seventy-four degrees. The 286-foot long track has three rails that widen to four to allow the cars to pass each other.

The elevator was constructed in 1882 for Julius K. GRAVES who was faced with a daily round trip of sixty minutes to reach his hilltop home from downtown and return to work. Graves petitioned the city council to construct an elevator after seeing the advantages of incline railways in the Alps of Europe. The petition was granted on June 5, 1882. A one-car model was designed and built by John Ben, a local engineer. Graves' private elevator went into operation on July 25. The Swiss-style car was moved up and down the hill using hemp ropes, a coal-fired steam engine boiler, and winch.

Nearly two years later, on July 19, 1884, the elevator was destroyed by fire. Remembering that his neighbors had often asked for rides, Graves opened his elevator to all riders for a fare of five cents. During a recession in 1893 the elevator burned again, but Graves was unable to pay to rebuild. Accustomed to having the use of the elevator, ten neighbors (each of whom invested $250) formed the Fenelon Place Elevator Company and bought Graves' interest in the system.

In 1893, during a visit to the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois, company members discovered a steel cable for the cars to replace the hemp ropes that had been used. One of Thomas Edison's first reversible electric streetcar motors, purchased to operate the elevator, became as much an attraction as the view from the tiny cars. A turnstile, a relic of the Exposition, was placed in operation, and the company had three rails installed with a bypass in the center to permit the use of two counterbalanced cars.

One of the original members of the Fenelon Place Elevator Company, C. B. Trewin, gradually bought up eighty shares of stock as the other members lost interest in the enterprise or died. By 1916 he owned the company and in 1916 replaced wooden cars with others made of steel. Ownership of the elevator eventually passed to his daughter, Mrs. Dorothy I. Huntoon.

The cars were rebuilt in 1977 and the original gear drive was replaced with a modern gearbox with a DC motor. The fare for traveling one way remained a nickel from 1882 until 1962. The fare became ten cents after a fire required costly repairs.

In 1978, after extensive rebuilding of the vintage 1916 cars and replacing worn teeth on the gears used to raise them, the fare increased to twenty-five cents for adults and fifteen cents for children. Fares for one-way travel in 2008 were posted as fifty cents for adults. As many as 150,000 passengers have been carried annually with an estimated eight million passengers between 1884 and 1964.

On August 4, 1978, the Fenelon Place Elevator was placed on the NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES. (Photo Courtesy: http://www.dubuquepostcards.com)