When you could get a horsecar to Vendome

Tremont St Trolley Delayed due to Horse breakdown (of course)

Actually, you could never take a "trolley" to the Vendome. A trolley, by definition, is an electric streetcar, one of the ones that replaced the horse-drawn cars -- known as "horsecars" -- like the one you see here. Electric overhead wires were never erected in the Back Bay, other than on Boylston Street and the streets south of it (and on Mass. Ave., plus Beacon St. west of Mass. Ave.). The city's last horsecar line went up Dartmouth Street past the Vendome; it ended service in 1900. Interference with the faster electric trolleys (which had begun in 1889) was a major reason for the decision to get rid of horsecars.

The term "trolley" actually refers to the pole extending up and at an angle from the car's roof, and making contact with the overhead wire, completing the circuit so as to allow electric current to flow into the car. By extension, the word was soon applied to the cars themselves.

Look carefully and you'll see that the car at right -- heading away from us, going to Charlestown and Union Square (Somerville) -- does have a trolley pole extending up to the overhead wire. Of course the horsecar has no such pole.

John Costello's guess is correct. You can just see a bit of King's Chapel at upper right, above the construction scaffolding. The trees are in King's Chapel Burying Ground. The building with all the round light fixtures is the old Boston Museum, actually not a museum but a theatre. The taller building to the left of that is still standing.

I believe the construction scaffolding at right has a conveyor belt to haul dirt excavated out of the tunnel to a central location where it was dumped into carts. Just above the "Union Square" sign on the trolley at right, you'll see some baskets that appear to be on pulleys, so they could be lowered empty into the excavation, then hoisted full up to the conveyor.

This portion of the subway opened Sept. 3, 1898 -- a year after the initial segment south of Park Street -- so this photo may be from 1897. If I recall correctly, Heliotype Printing Co. was an early publisher of postcards.

Thanks for playing everyone! This is Tremont Street, near King's Chapel, circa 1895-1896. It was published in the Boston Transit Department's annual report.