Alfred Betts

interviewed by Historical Commission members Marjorie DeFrancis and JoAnne Roskopp on October 30, 1989

ALFRED BETTS DESCRIBING THE INTERURBAN STREETCARS:

INTERVIEWER: Did the interurbans stop in Mount Clemens?

ALFRED BETTS: Yes.

INTERVIEWER: And then went back to Detroit?

ALFRED BETTS: Yes, it took us one hour to get the interurban if we wanted the local car it would stop at our street or from the John Kuhn residence south of Church St. And we'd get on the interurban and ride to Detroit in one hour's time. Later on, they had these steel cars, with the overhead trolley and a trailer --a steel trailer. They were very comfortable cars. You had a conductor to wait on you, he'd put steps down at the rear platform so you'd walk up into the car. And they had smokers in the front end of the cars, where people that smoked all sat. And the seats were covered with velour, and they were very comfortable, and you rode quietly.

INTERVIEWER: Mr. Betts, they had a non-smoking and a smoking area in those days also?

ALFRED BETTS: Right. They had closed doors, glass doors, between the passenger compartment and the smoker. The smoker was always up near the front end behind the motorman that ran the car.

INTERVIEWER: Mr. Betts, what would you go to Detroit for, in those days?

ALFRED BETTS: We practically lived down in Detroit.

INTERVIEWER: I see. What were some of the things that you would do?

ALFRED BETTS: Well, we'd mostly go to the J.L. Hudson Company. We'd buy our clothing, and kitchen supplies, almost anything. And then of course, we'd go to Detroit for theaters, too...

INTERVIEWER: How much did it cost to ride the interurban to Detroit?

ALFRED BETTS: Well, we used to pay twenty-five cents.

INTERVIEWER: Round trip?

ALFRED BETTS: No, it was one way. Twenty-five cents, and it would go down ... it usually ... it'd go down Gratiot and when it got to [Randolph?] street we'd usually get off there and go through a street and come out at Hudson's or along Woodward Avenue.

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INTERVIEWER: There were streetcar tracks that went out Crocker Boulevard, too.

ALFRED BETTS: Yes, they did.

INTERVIEWER: And what did ... did that just go out to the lake and come back again?

ALFRED BETTS: See, there was a large hotel out there at the corner of Jefferson and Crocker
but it was on the lake side, rather than on Crocker. And the cars used to go from downtown Mount Clemens and stop at this hotel, there was a store in there, and they'd come out and go down Jefferson Avenue to Detroit. So we always had the two ways of going. And probably, the people around the lake shore used it a lot, too. But it came in to Mount Clemens.

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ALFRED BETTS: The old interurbans always remained very much on my mind, because the tracks ran down the middle of Gratiot. Then they went over this old iron bridge --it was a double span, iron span, and it had a center support-- and, to bring up another thing about it, there were always men there in the winter time, or the spring, rather, when spring break would come there was quite a bit of ice coming down the river, and they were so afraid the bridge would be damaged --it was a wagon bridge as well as a railroad bridge-- and they were afraid that the ice would take the foundations out. So, I can remember the men being down there at midnight to hold lanterns. They stood all night --and during the spring flood time.

Then the cars went on to Detroit, as I said, and they used to go all the way downtown. And, of course, when they got down in the city they had to go slowly because they would get in behind the city streetcars that ran very slow. And later on, Detroit stopped the interurbans from coming into the city, and that was a sad thing, I think it did more damage to the city than good. They had a station for the interurbans to come into on Connor's Creek and Gratiot, and they had a station there, and then you'd have to get off your interurban electric and get on the bus to take it --they were large, heavy buses-- they would take you downtown and they usually stood in front of the old First National Bank building on Cadillac Square, is where they would take you downtown.

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