PUNCHED - VERY GOOD CONDITION - METROPOLITAN STREET RAILWAY ARCHIVE

Extremely rare transfer specimen featuring a clean 1911 issue date documenting the historic Metropolitan Street Railway Company streetcar network in New York City.

This is a premier specimen from the Metropolitan Street Railway Company, issued during a period of complex operations under receivers Adrian H. Joline and Douglas Robinson. This transfer serves as a master historical document, capturing the essential transit links required for commuters navigating the vital 34th Street crosstown thoroughfare during the early 1910s.

Ultimate Geographic Keyword Powerhouse: This specific transfer is a goldmine for neighborhood history enthusiasts, explicitly mentioning an incredible array of legendary Manhattan transfer points, cross streets, and transit connections, including Lexington Avenue, 4th & Madison Avenue cars, Fourth Avenue & Williamsburg Bridge cars, 6th Avenue cars, Broadway, 7th Avenue, 8th Avenue, 9th Avenue, 10th Avenue & 34th Street West Bound, West 34th Street Pier cars, West Belt cars, South Bound cars, and 10th Avenue & 42nd Street.

Historic Line Coverage: It documents the 34th St. Crosstown Line and its unique connections for passengers boarding surface cars across Manhattan. It provides a primary source look at the specific service patterns used to facilitate cross-island travel, linking major river ferries, the West Belt Line, and the critical central avenues of the borough.

Backside Advertising Appeal: The reverse side features a wonderfully preserved, classic transit informational statement titled Tell The Conductor. The text instructs passengers that if they find any property on the cars, they should turn it over to the conductor who will send it to the Lost Property Office. It also directs commuters who leave items behind to call at the Lost Property Office of the Company located at No. 820 Eighth Avenue.

Condition and Provenance

This item is part of a substantial transit collection recently added to our store, featuring decades of curated New York City history. This transfer remains in very good condition, featuring a clean conductor punch mark directly over the 10 o'clock PM time slot on the right grid, which produces a small visual punch hole near the word any on the lower left portion of the reverse side text block. The tan-toned paper shows some expected light age toning, minor edge nicks along the top margin, and a standard rough edge cut on the right side from where it was torn from the original book dispenser, which is completely typical for early paper transit ephemera. Both sides retain sharp black typography with bold black lettering for the weekday, number 26, and the stamped 1911 year date on the front face.

Historical Context

The Metropolitan Street Railway Company operated a vast system of horse cars, cable cars, and electric streetcars across Manhattan. This 1911 specimen illustrates the robust network during the notable receivership era of Joline and Robinson, a key moment in New York transit history just before major consolidations. It serves as a primary source snapshot of the day-to-day operations and civic etiquette systems established to handle lost belongings in a dense urban transit system at the turn of the century.

Please visit our store to see the rest of this newly listed collection, featuring many more rare transfers from this historic era!