West of downtown Dubuque Iowa is a large bluff. Odd looking white and green cable cars move up and down the hill on railroad tracks. They are part of the Fenelon Place Elevator Company that transport riders up and down the hill. It is more of a novelty now but before the automobile it transported residents to their homes and down to the city.
The first elevator was built by J. K. Graves, a former mayor, former State Senator, and banker who lived on top of the bluffs. Back then Dubuque shut down for an hour and a half every day for lunch. Mr. Graves wanted to go home for lunch but it took him an hour and a half to take a buggy to his home and back. He came up with an ingenious plan to build a cable car like he had seen in the Alps. He hired local engineer John Bell to build it. Bell used a wood fired steam engine to raise and lower an car using rope. Now Graves had time to eat his lunch and take a nap.
Many of the neighbors also rode the elevator and when it burned down in 1894 they banned together to form the Fenelon Place Elevator Company and constructed a new one. The group traveled to the 1893 Colombian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois, to look for new ideas. They brought back a streetcar motor to run the elevator, and cables to hoist it up and down. The also added a second car so the system is counter balanced. The elevator still operates today and transports passengers for $2 per person from April to November.
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