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History
of
The Fenlon Place Elevator
In
1882, Dubuque was an hour and a half town. At noon
everything shut down for an hour and a half when
everyone went home to dinner.
Mr.
J. K. Graves, a former mayor, former State Senator,
also promoter of mines and a banker lived on top
of the bluffs and worked at the bottom.
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Unfortunately,
he had to spend half an hour driving his horse and buggy
round the bluff to get to the top and another half an
hour to return downtown, even though his bank was only
two and a half blocks away.
Mr.
Graves liked to take half an hour for his dinner, then
a half an hour nap, but this was im-possible because of
the long buggy ride.
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The
History of
Cable Car Square.
Nestled
at the base of the world's shortest, steepest, scenic
railway, Cable Car Square is the feature attraction
of the Cathedral Historic District.
A
classic Victorian neighborhood untouched by time,
the square was once a mostly Irish Neighborhood, as
was most of Dubuque's south end. The businesses of
Cable Car Square are each based out of houses built
in the 1850-1880 Vistorian Period and have been restored
in large part back to their original beauty.
It
was into early 1980's that new life was brought to
the area by the infusion of an eclectic mix of quaint
shops and cafe's. Anchored on the Corner of 4ht and
Bluff by founding square tenants Shamrock Jewelers
who keep the Irish heritage of the area alive and
well, the square has experienced healthy greowth to
nearly 40 shops and businesses with just a two block
radius.
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As
a traveler he had seen incline railways in Europe and
decided that a cable car would solve his problem. He
petitioned the city for the right to build. The franchise
was granted on June 5, 1882.
John
Bell, a local engineer, was hired to design and to build
a one-car cable modeled after those in the Alps.
The
original cable car, which was built for Mr. Graves' private
use, had a plain wood building, that housed a coal-fired
steam engine boiler and winch. A wooden Swiss-style car
was hauled up and down on two rails by a hemp rope.
Mr.
Graves' cable car operated for the first time on July
25, 1882. After that, he had his gardener let him down
in the morning, bring him up at noon, down after dinner
and nap, and up again at the end of the work day. Before
long, the neighbors began meeting him at the elevator
asking for rides.
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On
July 19, 1884, the elevator burned when the fire that
was banked in the stove for the night was blown alive.
After Mr. Graves rebuilt the elevator, he remembered how
his neighbors showed up when he used the cable car and
he decided to open it to the public. He charged five cents
a ride.
The
elevator burned again in 1893. Because there was a recession
Mr. Graves could not afford to rebuild the cable car.
The neighbors had come to depend on the elevator to get
them to work, to church, to school, and to the market.
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Ten
neighbors banded together and formed the Fenelon Place Elevator
co. Mr. Graves gave them the franchise for the right of way
for the track. This group traveled to the 1893 Colombian Exposition
in Chicago, Illinois, to look for new ideas. They brought
back a streetcar motor to run the elevator, the turnstile,
and steel cable for the cars. They had remembered that each
time the elevator house burned, the fire also burned through
the hemp rope that held the car and sent it crashing down
the hill destroying it and the little house at the bottom.
Then they in-stalled three rails with a fourth bypass in the
middle to allow for the operation of two (funicular) counterbalanced
cars.
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By
1912, C. B. Trewin, who had built a house next door in 1897,
became the sole stockholder. It was natural for him to buy
up the stock from the original ten stockholders as they either
passed away or moved away.
Mr.
Trewin added garages to the north and south sides of the operator's
house in 1916. He also added a second floor apartment which
the neighborhood men used for a meeting room where they could
smoke and play cards without the wives interfering.
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There
was another fire in 1962. That time an electrical fire between
the ceiling of the operator's room and the apartment upstairs
brought the realization that the price had to go up. And it
did to ten cents a ride.
In
1977, the cable cars were completely rebuilt. After 84 years
the original gear drive was re-placed by a modern gear box
with a DC motor. The movie F.I.S.T. starring Sylvester Stallone
included a scene that was filmed at the elevator.
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