A downtown Topeka street construction project has uncovered a piece of Kansas history. In September, crews working along Jackson Street came across buried railing from the Capital City’s long-retired streetcar system. Schuetz Construction foreman Scott Schuetz said workers found the rails as they replaced the existing street. “There’s a set of trolley tracks we were told down Jackson Street that we dug across several times connecting the services to the buildings, and then there’s a set of tracks that we dug across in 10th Street as well as in Eighth Street.” Katie Keckeisen is a local history librarian at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library. Nearly 150 years ago, Keckeisen said downtown Topeka bustled with horse-drawn trolleys. But in 1889, the very first electric versions of those trolleys first appeared on Topeka streets.
Source: KSNT 27 News
