CRANSTON, R.I. — David A. Goldenberg glanced into one of the potholes near his home in Edgewood and saw a piece of history gleaming in the rubble.
The house he’s lived in since 1989 rattles when passing cars hit the broken pavement on Narragansett Boulevard. Now he knew why — underneath was the rail for the Eddy Street-Edgewood trolley line, covered up for less than a century, but just long enough to be forgotten.
For Goldenberg, the sight of those old streetcar tracks piqued his curiosity about his neighborhood’s history. When the city launched its massive repaving project of Narragansett Boulevard in 2017, Goldenberg persuaded the public works employees to cut away the tracks and give him some of the pieces.
Those rails went to a friend, sculptor David Karoff, to weld together “something that captures the spirit,” Goldenberg said.
Meanwhile, Goldenberg, a documentary filmmaker, began digging into history. What he learned about the rise of streetcars in Rhode Island and how they influenced the development of the suburbs like his own Edgewood neighborhood made him decide to make a short film called “End of the Line.”
Five years later, Goldenberg’s impulse to save a bit of streetcar history culminates this Sunday at noon with the unveiling of a marker at the original “end of the line” for the old Eddy Street-Edgewood trolley, at Narragansett Boulevard and Sefton Drive.
The celebration will include “trolley music,” courtesy of the Extraordinary Rendition Band, and officials in top hats, to fit with the attire worn by passengers more than a century ago.
The years-long project brought together local preservationists, a sculptor, and the city mason.
Edgewood Waterfront Preservation Association’s Barbara Rubine and Goldenberg got the city’s permission to place a historical marker at the actual terminus of the streetcar line, just above Stillhouse Cove. Karoff’s sculpture using the trolley tracks is also installed there, on a base made by city mason Dennis F. Conte.
Goldenberg’s film is also published on the EWPA’s website and the RIPTA website, featuring historical photographs, excerpts from trolley guidebooks, old transit schedules, descriptions of trolley rides, and old songs about trolleys.
His research included collections at the Providence Public Library, the Library of Congress, the collections of University of Rhode Island professor D. Scott Molloy, and even photos from a railway museum in Illinois that show a trackless trolley turning around at Stillhouse Cove.
“The major thing was discovering the extent to which the streetcars shaped the neighborhood into an upper middle-class suburb,” Goldenberg said. “The way they developed [Edgewood] were these fairly large lots, and when you look at lists of occupants, it was people who were lawyers, bankers, and factory managers. It’s quite a rapid cycle in terms of how quickly technology changed.”
For the film, a musician recorded the trolley songs that Goldenberg found on sheet music at the New York Public Library and friends voiced the descriptions from “Trolley Trips,” written by Mariana M. Tallman, in brochures published in The Providence Journal from 1897 to 1901. Along with describing places to see, Tallman had important tips for riders, such as securing one’s hat and taking a cushioned seat for long trips. The “End of the Line” film was a semi-finalist in the 2022 Rhode Island International Film Festival.
The Eddy Street-Edgewood trolley line converted to electric buses in 1939, Goldenberg said, but despite all of his research, he never learned when the line’s electric buses stopped running. The last streetcar stopped running in Rhode Island in May 1948. The last trackless trolley ran in 1956.
Goldenberg hopes the site will encourage an appreciation for the history of the neighborhood, and how a simple streetcar line led to its development. “Because of Pawtuxet Village and Gaspee Days, most people are aware of their early history, but they don’t have an understanding of history of 120 years ago,” Goldenberg said, referring to the 1772 rebellion in the nearby village. “And, one would hope we’d get back to a sensible transit system.”
Amanda Milkovits can be reached at amanda.milkovits@globe.com. Follow her @AmandaMilkovits.