page_title: San Diego Class 1 Streetcars
section_title: The Great Depression leads to the retirement of the Class 1 streetcars
hierarchical_section_title: San Diego Class 1 Streetcars / History / The Great Depression leads to the retirement of the Class 1 streetcars
caption_attribution_description: English: Archival photo of Class 1 Streetcar homes in the Old Town neighborhood of San Diego, CA.
context_page_description: The San Diego Class 1 Streetcars were a fleet of twenty-four unique streetcars that were originally built to provide transportation for the Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park. The cars were designed by the San Diego Electric Railway Company under the leadership of John D. Spreckels and built by the St. Louis Car Company. These cars, which took the best elements from preceding models and integrated them into a new, modern streetcar design, went on to serve the many neighborhoods of San Diego until they were retired in 1939.
  While most of them were ultimately destroyed over the years, three remaining Class 1 streetcars were saved from this fate in 1996 by a San Diego antique dealer and collector Christian T. Chaffee, owner of Chaffee Estate Services. They have since been designated San Diego Historic Landmarks and have been adequately preserved to this day in storage in San Diego at a substantial cost to Mr. Christian T. Chaffee.
context_section_description: Ultimately, after some updates and improvements in the mid-1920s, the San Diego Class 1 streetcars met the same fate as most light rail as The Great Depression began to take hold in America. As the government moved to economize public transportation systems in order to reduce the financial burden of public transit budgets, many cities decided to make the switch to the cheaper, utilitarian Presidents' Conference Committee (PCC) streetcars. Developed by a collaborative committee of streetcar company presidents, this mass-produced vehicle was designed to look like a then modern city bus and represented a necessary shift during the tough economic times.
  As a result, the Class 1 streetcars were retired and some were auctioned off in 1939. Some were even turned into homes, before a city law that prevented the practice was passed later that same year. Following the ban on streetcar sales, the remaining Class 1 bodies were destroyed. However, the sale of a few of these streetcars has allowed for three of these important pieces of San Diego history to be preserved until this day.
caption: Archival photo of Class 1 streetcar homes in the Old Town neighborhood of San Diego, CA.
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