Here’s a very handsome little map showing the lines of the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway from sometime in the late 1930s. By this point in time however, almost all of the routes were run by buses, making the name of the company somewhat ironic. Just two streetcar lines remain: Fields Corner to Quincy (with branches from there to Quincy Point or Houghs Neck), and Sullivan Square to Stoneham.

The map itself is drawn in a lovely, ornate illustrative style that was very popular at the time with scrollwork around the map’s legend, a decorative border and a beautiful compass rose. The use of blue for both water and terrain is rather clever — the differing textures used allows the two to be told apart easily and also makes the black route lines and text stand out from the background better.

This particular copy of the map has had some additions penciled in by an unknown hand — a whole new line from Taunton to Norton, and some directional arrows along routes on the right half of the map, almost as if someone was planning a journey to take advantage of the $1 Ride-all-Day far advertised in the copy below the map.

Source: Wikimedia Commons