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 in order to fit, becoming “Mount•Ta•Villa,” “Monta•Villa,” and finally “Montavilla.” It’s often stated that this contraction on streetcar signage was the reason for the area’s name change, but it actually was more of a gradual shift over time. The Montavilla post office was founded before streetcars reached the area, but the Mount Tabor Villa name was still the dominant form for years after its establishment. It’s reasonable to state that streetcars weren’t totally responsible for the new name, but they did help popularize it and cement it in the public consciousness. One other thing to note is that people often give the longer form of the name as “Mount Tabor Village,” but this is not the case—the addition was platted as “Mount Tabor Villa” in June 1889.

Photograph from c. 1905 showing the intermediate “Monta•Villa” form of the area’s name on the headboard of the streetcar, while the dashboard sign uses the final form of “Montavilla.”

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.

Untitled