In the early days of operation, this was seen as an extension of the East Ankeny line and was known as either the Fairview line, North Mount Tabor line or the Mount Tabor Villa line. The latter name was contracted on streetcar headboards and roll signs in order to fit, becoming “Mount•Ta•Villa” and finally “Montavilla” – the contracted streetcar name then becoming the name of the neighborhood.

The line originally ran to “Rosenthal’s Place” on a straight run out Glisan Street to NE 82nd Avenue or so. The population center, however, grew half a mile south on SE Stark Street (then Base Line Road) and residents began to complain of the long walk required either north to Rosenthal or south to “the summit of Mount Tabor” at SE 69th and Belmont to catch a car to the city. The line was finally extended south to Stark along 80th in October 1900. The short section of track east of 80th along Glisan was taken up and reused to build this extension.

In 1911, the line was again extended west along Glisan to NE 90th to meet with the standard-gauge Mount Hood line trains at the depot there, giving two alternating outer termini. These two termini continued right through to abandonment in 1948, even though the connection with the Mount Hood line at 90th was long gone by then.

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