End Of Car Line Historical Marker

This humble marker recalls the West Asheville & Sulphur Springs Electric Railway Company, whose trolleys used to run past this site between 1891 and 1895. Edwin Carrier, who made his fortune in lumber, built an empire in West Asheville including the Sulphur Springs Hotel, a dam and power plant on Hominy Creek, a number of brick buildings along Haywood Road, and of course the railway system itself, which was the first hydroelectric-powered trolley in the world.

By 1900, most of the city’s railways were consolidated into the Asheville Electric Company, and just over a decade later in 1911, streetcar service was initiated between Asheville and West Asheville.  Growth of West Asheville boomed in the early part of the 20th century, with a number of commercial interests popping up along Haywood Road, mostly owned and operated by people living in nearby neighborhoods. While the city of Asheville was hit hard by the Great Depression, West Asheville emerged from that dark time in the country’s history in fairly good shape, largely attributable to the physical proximity of work and home and the availability of nearby jobs in the community and neighborhoods in and around Haywood Road.

Although the marker is the only remnant of the trolley systems that once serviced this part of West Asheville, many of the buildings that were erected on Haywood Road between 1916 and the mid-1930s now comprise the West Asheville End Of Car Line Historic District, which was heavily influenced by and indebted to the rail service that ran along the Haywood corridor between 1910-1934.