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83-446: Glendale Shopping Center was planned in 1955 by Howard M. Landau, along with representatives of William H. Block Co. and L. S. Ayres , two Indianapolis-based department stores which would serve as the mall's anchor stores . Each department store was to be positioned at the opposite end of a mall concourse which would contain about 45 stores in total. The site chosen for the mall was along Keystone Avenue at 62nd Street. Representatives of

166-474: A boom in agriculture which lasted through the First World War , but transportation in rural areas was inadequate. Conventional steam railroads made limited stops, mostly in towns. These were supplemented by horse and buggies and steamboats , both of which were slow and the latter of which were restricted to navigable rivers. The increased capacity and profitability of the city street railroads offered

249-473: A cost saving measure, Allied Stores began to merge small department store chains into larger ones during the 1980s. In 1984, Allied Stores merged the single store division Edward Wren Co. in Springfield, Ohio , into the larger Block's store division. The original Wren's store in downtown Springfield was an economically depressed area located far outside of Block's normal advertising area. This store had

332-531: A few years, interurban railways, including the numerous manufacturers of cars and equipment, were the fifth-largest industry in the country. But due to preference given to automobiles, by 1930, most interurbans in North America had stopped operating. A few survived into the 1950s. Outside of the US, other countries built large networks of high-speed electric tramways that survive today. Notable systems exist in

415-594: A hard time trying to compete with the department stores located five miles (8.0 km) away in the Upper Valley Mall that had just opened in 1971. Lazarus quickly closed this particular store after it acquired the Block's chain in 1987 because an existing Lazarus store (formerly a Shillito-Rike's store that Lazarus had acquired the previous year) was located at the Upper Valley Mall. Block's

498-566: A progressive loss of their initial passenger service over the years. In 1905, the United States Census Bureau defined an interurban as "a street railway having more than half its trackage outside municipal limits." It drew a distinction between "interurban" and "suburban" railroads. A suburban system was oriented toward a city center in a single urban area and served commuter traffic . A regular railroad moved riders from one city center to another city center and also moved

581-502: A small part of their extensive business empires, which often include real estate, hotels and resorts, and tourist attractions. For example, the Keikyu network has changed unrecognizably from its early days, operating Limited Express services at up to 120 kilometres per hour (75 mph) to compete with JR trains, and inter-operating with subway and Keisei Electric Railway trains on through runs extending up to 200 kilometres (120 mi);

664-505: A store that served as an expansion anchor at the Greenwood Park Mall in 1980 when the original Greenwood Center outdoor shopping center was converted into an indoor shopping mall. The Glendale and Southern Plaza locations were open air shopping centers at the time they were first opened. Glendale was enclosed in 1969, but Southern Plaza was never enclosed. The other locations were originally designed as enclosed malls. As

747-436: A substantial amount of freight. The typical interurban similarly served more than one city, but it served a smaller region and made more frequent stops, and it was oriented to passenger rather than freight service. The development of interurbans in the late nineteenth century resulted from the convergence of two trends: improvements in electric traction, and an untapped demand for transportation in rural areas, particularly in

830-480: Is necessarily blurry. Some town streetcar lines evolved into interurban systems by extending streetcar track from town into the countryside to link adjacent towns together and sometimes by the acquisition of a nearby interurban system. Following initial construction, there was a large amount of consolidation of lines. Other interurban lines effectively became light rail systems with no street running whatsoever, or they became primarily freight-hauling railroads because of

913-638: Is now owned by the state of Indiana and uses mainline-sized electric multiple units . Its last section of street running, in Michigan City, Indiana , was finally closed in 2022 for conversion to a grade-separated double-track line. SEPTA operates two former Philadelphia Suburban lines: the Norristown High Speed Line (Route 100) as an interurban heavy rail line, and the Media–Sharon Hill Line (Routes 101 and 102) as

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996-536: Is usually used in North America, with other terms used outside it. They were very prevalent in many parts of the world before the Second World War and were used primarily for passenger travel between cities and their surrounding suburban and rural communities. Interurban as a term encompassed the companies, their infrastructure, their cars that ran on the rails, and their service. In the United States,

1079-652: The Badner Bahn , operates a classic interurban passenger service, in addition to some freight services. Some interurban lines survive today a local railways in Upper Austria are such as the Linzer Lokalbahn , Lokalbahn Vöcklamarkt–Attersee and Lokalbahn Lambach–Vorchdorf-Eggenberg . While others operate as extension of as local city tramways such as the Traunseebahn which is now connected to

1162-518: The Gmunden Tramway . Today, two surviving interurban networks descending from the vicinal tramways exist in Belgium. The famous Belgian Coast Tram , built in 1885, traverses the entire Belgian coastline and, at a length of 68 kilometres (42 mi), which is the longest tram line in the world. The Charleroi Metro is a never fully completed pre-metro network upgraded and developed from

1245-518: The Hardt Railway . Other examples include: Milan operates one remaining interurban tramway to Limbiate with another interurban route to Carate Brianza / Giussano suspended since 2011. These two lines were once part of large network of interurbans surrounding Milan that were gradually closed in the 1970s. In Japan, the vast majority of the major sixteen private railways have roots as interurban electric railway lines that were inspired by

1328-758: The Japan Railways Group along highly congested corridors is a hallmark of suburban railway operations in Japan. For example, on the Osaka to Kobe corridor, JR West competes intensely with both Hankyu Kobe Line and Hanshin Main Line trains in terms of speed, convenience and comfort. However, a number of urban lines in Japan did close as late as the 2000s, with networks in Kitakyushu and Gifu being shut down. Between Vienna and Baden bei Wien

1411-667: The Japanese National Railways network at the time. The (former JNR) Hanwa Line was a wartime acquisition from Nankai, operating 'Super Express' trains on the line at an average speed of 81.6 kilometres per hour (50.7 mph), a national record at the time. The old Sendai station terminus of the Miyagi Electric Railway (the predecessor of the JR Senseki Line ) was situated in a short single-track underground tunnel built in 1925; this

1494-1023: The Long Beach Line in Long Beach and Los Angeles, California (this was the last remaining part of the Pacific Electric system). The Long Beach Line was cut in 1961, the North Shore Line in 1963; the Philadelphia Suburban's route 103 and the NYS&;W in New Jersey both ended passenger service in 1966. Today, only the South Shore Line, Norristown High Speed Line (SEPTA Route 100), and SEPTA Routes 101/102 remain. Some former interurban lines retained freight service for up to several decades after

1577-586: The Low Countries , Poland and Japan , where populations are densely packed around large conurbations such as the Randstad , Upper Silesia , Greater Tokyo Area and Keihanshin . Switzerland, particularly, has a large network of mountain narrow-gauge interurban lines. In addition, since the early 21st century many tram-train lines are being built, especially in France and Germany but also elsewhere in

1660-841: The Meitetsu opened their first interurban lines in 1912, what today form parts of the Meitetsu Inuyama Line and Tsushima Line . In 1913, the first section of what will become the Keiō Line opened connecting Chōfu to just outside Shinjuku with street running on what is today the Kōshū Kaidō or National Route 20 . Kyushu Electric Railroad, predecessor to Nishitetsu opened its first interurban line in 1914 serving Kitakyushu and surrounding areas, taking heavy inspiration from Hanshin Electric Railway . The fortunes of

1743-552: The Midwestern United States . The 1880s saw the first successful deployments of electric traction in streetcar systems. Most of these built on the pioneering work of Frank J. Sprague , who developed an improved method for mounting an electric traction motor and using a trolley pole for pickup. Sprague's work led to widespread acceptance of electric traction for streetcar operations and end of horse-drawn trams. The late nineteenth-century United States witnessed

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1826-589: The 1970s, the remaining interurban tramways have enjoyed somewhat of a renaissance in the form of the Sneltram , a modern light rail system that uses high floor, metro-style vehicles and could interoperate into metro networks. Various other interurbans in Europe were folded into local municipal tramway or light rail systems. Switzerland retained many of its interurban lines which now operate as tramways, local railways, S-Bahn, or tram-trains. Milan's vast interurban network

1909-611: The Netherlands a line from The Hague to Delft. Which opened as horse-tramway in 1866. Nowadays the line operates as Line 1 of The Hague Tramway . Line E, run by Randstadrail , was an interurban line connecting Rotterdam to The Hague and in the past also to Scheveningen. It now interoperates with the Rotterdam Metro . A large interurban network called the Silesian Interurbans still exists today connecting

1992-581: The Netherlands in earnest with the founding of the Tramweg Stichting (Tramway Foundation). Many systems, such as the Hague tramway and the Rotterdam tramway , included long interurban extensions which were operated with larger, higher-speed cars. In close parallel to North America, many systems were abandoned from the 1950s after tram companies switched to buses. Instigated by the oil crisis in

2075-409: The US during their heyday. While most interurbans in Japan have been upgraded beyond recognition to high-capacity urban railways, a handful have remained relatively untouched, with street running and using 'lighter-rail' stock. To this day they retain a distinct character similar to classic American interurbans. These include: The only surviving interurban line is also the oldest regional tramway in

2158-739: The US. But instead of demolishing their trackage in the 1930s, many Japanese interurbans companies upgraded their networks to heavy rail standards, becoming today's large private railways. To this day, private railway companies in Japan operate as highly influential business empires with diverse business interests, encompassing department stores, property developments and even tourist resorts. Many Japanese private railway companies compete with each other for passengers, operate department stores at their city termini, develop suburban properties adjacent to stations they own, and run special tourist attractions with admission included in package deals with rail tickets; similar to operations of large interurban companies in

2241-454: The United States, particularly in the states of Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Iowa, Utah, and California. In 1900, 2,107 miles (3,391 km) of interurban track existed, but by 1916, this had increased to 15,580 miles (25,070 km), a seven-fold expansion. At one point in time beginning in 1901, it was possible to travel from Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin , to Little Falls, New York , exclusively by interurban. During this expansion, in

2324-582: The William H. Block Co. chain said that they felt that the location was suitably positioned for the city's growth at the time, and that having both department stores in the same center would offer a greater shopping variety for customers. Victor Gruen was the mall's architect. When the 685,000-square-foot (63,600 m) Glendale Shopping Center opened, it was the premier retail center in Indianapolis and boasted an impressive array of upscale retailers. It

2407-523: The border of the neighbouring City of Mississauga , unlike other Toronto radial lines which were all abandoned outside of the 1960s boundary of the City of Toronto . In Germany various networks have continued to operate. Karlsruhe revitalized the interurban concept into the Karlsruhe model by renovating two local railways Alb Valley Railway , which already had interoperability with local tram trackage, and

2490-566: The corner of Illinois and Market streets. The new store at 50 N. Illinois Street officially opened it doors to the public on October 3, 1911. To the People of the State of Indiana, and Especially to the Home Folks of Indianapolis, This Magnificent New Store is Dedicated. The Pride of Hoosierdom Block was active in the business until his death in 1928, at which time the management of the company

2573-519: The country's railway infrastructure and cater to the post-war baby boom. The companies continued their policies of improvement they had followed before the war; lines were reconstructed to allow higher speeds, mainline-sized trains were adopted, street-running sections were rebuilt to elevated or underground rights-of-way, and link lines to growing metro systems were built to allow for through operations. Many of these private railway companies started to adopt standards for full-blown heavy rail lines similar to

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2656-413: The customer base from which the Indianapolis department stores were able to draw. Block's, being directly across the street from the traction terminal, was the first department store shoppers would visit. Block's main competitors were located at least a block away on Washington Street. Central Indiana was networked with the most extensive interurban system in the United States. Most small towns were either on

2739-629: The dense vicinal tramway network around the city. Similar to the United States, in Canada most passenger interurbans were removed by the 1950s. One example of continuous passenger service still exists today, the Toronto Transit Commission 501 Queen streetcar line. The western segment of the 501 Streetcar operates largely on what was the T&;YRR Port Credit Radial Line, a radial line that remains intact through Etobicoke and up to

2822-492: The discontinuance of passenger service. Most were converted to diesel operation, although the Sacramento Northern Railway retained electric freight until 1965. After World War II , many interurbans in other countries were also cut back. In Belgium, as intercity transport shifted to cars and buses; the large sections of the vicinal tramways were gradually shut down by the 1980s. At their peak in 1945,

2905-491: The downtown Illinois Street store in 1993. In 2003, the Illinois Street store building's upper seven floors were converted into residential apartments and the ground floor remained retail; the building complex is called The Block. At three mall locations (Greenwood Park, Washington Square, and Lafayette Square) that had both Lazarus and Block's stores, Lazarus liquidated the stock in the former Block's stores and sold

2988-418: The early 1900s interurban was a valuable economic institution, when most roads between towns, many town streets were unpaved, and transportation and haulage was by horse-drawn carriages and carts. The interurban provided reliable transportation, particularly in winter weather, between towns and countryside. In 1915, 15,500 miles (24,900 km) of interurban railways were operating in the United States and, for

3071-517: The early 1900s with some assistance from Thomas Edison . By the 1930s a vast network of interurbans, the Società Trazione Elettrica Lombarda , connected Milan with surrounding towns. In the first half of the 20th century, an extensive tramway network covered Northern England , centered on South Lancashire and West Yorkshire . At that time, it was possible to travel entirely by tram from Liverpool Pier Head to

3154-765: The east at 339 miles (546 km) and had provided Pittsburgh-area coal country towns with hourly transportation since 1888. By the 1960s only five remaining interurban lines served commuters in three major metropolitan areas: the North Shore Line and the South Shore Line in Chicago, the Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Company, the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway in northern New Jersey, and

3237-818: The entrances became the trademark logo for the store on gift boxes, print advertisements, and company stationery. A company publication identified the store as, "one of the country's most beautiful department stores". Restaurants located within the Illinois Street store included the Fountain Luncheonette, the Terrace Tea Room, the Men's Grille, and the James Whitcomb Riley Room. Block's was the second largest retail company in Indiana , its primary competitor L. S. Ayres & Co. being

3320-575: The former Block's locations still existed to be able to be rebranded as Macy's , the final successor organization to Block's. Strawbridge's added to division in 1996 Meier & Frank added to division in 2002 ; Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution (2001, to Meier & Frank) Interurban The interurban (or radial railway in Canada) is a type of electric railway , with tram -like electric self-propelled railcars which run within and between cities or towns. The term "interurban"

3403-557: The industry in the US and Canada declined during World War I , particularly into the early 1920s. In 1919 President Woodrow Wilson created the Federal Electric Railways Commission to investigate the financial problems of the industry. The commission submitted its final report to the President in 1920. The commission's report focused on financial management problems and external economic pressures on

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3486-522: The industry, and recommended against introducing public financing for the interurban industry. One of the commission's consultants, however, published an independent report stating that private ownership of electric railways had been a failure, and only public ownership would keep the interurbans in business. Many interurbans had been hastily constructed without realistic projections of income and expenses. They were initially financed by issuing stock and selling bonds. The sale of these financial instruments

3569-656: The interurban whose private tax paying tracks could never compete with the highways that a generous government provided for the motorist." William D. Middleton , in the opening of his 1961 book The Interurban Era , wrote: "Evolved from the urban streetcar, the Interurban appeared shortly before the dawn of the 20th century, grew to a vast network of over 18,000 miles in two decades of excellent growth, and then all but vanished after barely three decades of usefulness." Interurban business increased during World War II due to fuel oil rationing and large wartime employment. When

3652-497: The interurbans were the fifth-largest industry in the United States. In Belgium , a sprawling, nation-wide system of narrow-gauge vicinal tramways have been built by the NMVB / SNCV to provide transport to smaller towns across the country; the first section opened in 1885. These lines were either electrically operated or run with diesel tramcars, included numerous street-running sections, and inter-operated with local tram networks in

3735-448: The larger cities. Similar to Belgium, Netherlands constructed a large network of interurbans in the early 1900s called streektramlijnen . In Silesia, today Poland, an extensive interurban system was constructed, starting in 1894 with a narrow-gauge line connecting Gliwice with Piekary Śląskie through Zabrze , Chebzie , Chorzów and Bytom , another connected Katowice and Siemianowice . After four years, in 1898, Kramer & Co.

3818-687: The larger. Other competitors included H. P. Wasson and Company and L. Strauss & Co. The Block's store was located on Market Street across from the Indianapolis Traction Terminal (the largest traction terminal in the United States). From 1900 to the 1930s, the Indiana interurban system brought shoppers by the thousands from smaller central Indiana towns to shop in downtown Indianapolis. The availability of cheap mass transit to downtown Indianapolis greatly increased

3901-498: The leases for the smaller of the two stores at each location to Montgomery Wards . In total, five Block's locations were immediately closed upon merger. The stores in downtown Springfield and at the open air Southern Plaza shopping Center were also closed. The Springfield location remained vacant for over a decade while the Southern Plaza building was demolished and replaced with a Kroger grocery store. By 2005, none of

3984-608: The line was legally defined as a tramway and included street running at the two ends, but was based on American interurbans and operated with large tramcars on mostly private right-of-way. In the same year, the Keihin Express Railway , or Keikyu, completed a section of what is today part of the Keikyū Main Line between Shinagawa , Tokyo and Kanagawa , Yokohama . This line competes with mainline Japanese National Railways on this busy corridor. Predecessors of

4067-593: The long Cincinnati & Lake Erie Railroad (C&LE), and in Indiana with the very widespread Indiana Railroad . Both had limited success up to 1937–1938 and primarily earned growing revenues from freight rather than passengers. The 130-mile (210 km) long Sacramento Northern Railway stopped carrying passengers in 1940 but continued hauling freight into the 1960s by using heavy electric locomotives. Oliver Jensen, author of American Heritage History of Railroads in America , commented that "...the automobile doomed

4150-678: The mall or nearby areas. In 1972, Block's opened its second Bloomington store in College Mall in the space currently occupied (in 2013) by Abercrombie & Fitch , Christopher & Banks , and five other stores. This location was across the hall from one of the original anchor stores, Wasson's . Since both stores combined were small when compared to newer stores that Block's was opening at new malls being developed throughout Indiana, Block's had to wait until Goldblatt's closed its Wasson's store at College Mall in January 1981. After remodeling

4233-532: The mileage of vicinal tramways reached 4,811 kilometres (2,989 mi) and exceeded the length of the national railway network. Sprawling tram networks in the Netherlands extended to neighbouring cities. The vast majority of these lines were not electrified and operated with steam and sometimes petrol or diesel tramcars. Many did not survive the 1920s and 30s for the same reasons American interurbans went bust, but those that did were put back into service during

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4316-607: The mountain spa resort of Hakone. Many private lines were nationalised during the Second World War. The handful that remained in the hands of JNR after the end of the war – including the Hanwa Line, Senseki Line and the Iida Line  – remain outliers on the national JR network, with short station distances, (in the case of the Iida Line) lower-grade infrastructure, and independent termini (such as Aobadori Station and

4399-574: The national rail network, and, like JR commuter routes, are operated as 'metro-style' commuter railways with mainline-sized vehicles and metro-like frequencies of very few minutes. In 1957, the Odakyu Electric Railway introduced the Odakyu 3000 series SE , the first in a line of luxurious tourist Limited Express trains named ' Romancecars '. These units set a narrow-gauge speed record of 145 kilometres per hour (90 mph) on its runs to

4482-545: The original narrow gauge network was converted to standard, which allowed a connection with the new system in Sosnowiec. By 1931, 47,5% of the narrow-gauge network was reconstructed, with 20 kilometres (12 mi) of new standard-gauge track built. A large network of interurbans started developing around Milan in the late 1800s; they were originally drawn by horses and later powered as steam trams. These initial interurban lines were gradually upgraded with electric traction in

4565-614: The possibility of extending them into the countryside to reach new markets, even linking to other towns. The first interurban to emerge in the United States was the Newark and Granville Street Railway in Ohio, which opened in 1889. It was not a major success, but others followed. The development of the automobile was then in its infancy, and to many investors interurbans appeared to be the future of local transportation. From 1900 to 1916, large networks of interurban lines were constructed across

4648-455: The rail business altogether ran afoul of state commissions which required that trains remain running "for the public good", even at a loss. Many financially weak interurbans did not survive the prosperous 1920s, and most others went bankrupt during the Great Depression . A few struggling lines tried combining to form much larger systems in an attempt to gain operating efficiency and a broader customer base. This occurred in Ohio in year 1930 with

4731-423: The regions where they operated, particularly in Ohio and Indiana, "...they almost destroyed the local passenger service of the steam railroad." To show how exceptionally busy the interurbans radiating from Indianapolis were in 1926, the immense Indianapolis Traction Terminal (nine roof covered tracks and loading platforms) scheduled 500 trains in and out daily and moved 7 million passengers that year. At their peak

4814-562: The repair costs. The rise of private automobile traffic in the middle 1920s aggravated such trends. As the interurban companies struggled financially, they faced rising competition from cars and trucks on newly paved streets and highways, while municipalities sought to alleviate traffic congestion by removing interurbans from city streets. Some companies exited the passenger business altogether to focus on freight, while others sought to buttress their finances by selling surplus electricity in local communities. Several interurbans that attempted to exit

4897-453: The street from the campus of Indiana University . It was called as the Block's College Shop. It was so successful that it eventually expanded into adjacent store fronts when those properties became available. By 1955, the store's street address had become 100 S. Indiana Ave. through the last of these expansions. After College Mall opened on the east side of Bloomington in 1965, business gradually began to move away from downtown Bloomington to

4980-512: The system or a station was located nearby. Interurbans from Indianapolis reached as far as Dayton, Ohio , and Fort Wayne, Indiana . The net result of the interurban system to Block's and its competitors was a customer base that rivaled that of much larger Midwestern and eastern cities, such as Detroit, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. In 1954, a small branch store was opened in the Indianapolis neighborhood of Broad Ripple at 724 E. Broad Ripple Avenue and remained there until late 1960, when it

5063-451: The town was launched. After World War I and the Silesian Uprisings, in 1922 the region (and the tram network) was divided between newly independent Poland and Germany, and international services appeared (the last one ran until 1937). In 1928 further standard gauge systems were established in Sosnowiec, Będzin and Dąbrowa Górnicza (the so-called Dabrowa Coal Basin - a region adjoining the Upper Silesian Coal Basin). Between 1928 and 1936 most of

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5146-461: The trains retain a red livery based on the Pacific Electric's 'Red Cars', true to the company's interurban roots. The Keiō Line did not fully remove the street running section on the Kōshū Kaidō outside of Shinjuku Station until the 1960s, replacing it with an underground section. Similar to passenger railway conditions in early 1900s America, intense competition still exists today between private railways and mainline railways operated by

5229-407: The upper level of Tennōji Station ). Today, trackage of the major sixteen private railways , in many places originally designed as American-style interurban railways, has been upgraded beyond recognition into high capacity urban heavy railways. Private railway companies that started out as interurbans such as Tokyu , Seibu , Odakyu , Hankyu and Tobu ; rail transportation now tends to form only

5312-416: The urban areas of the Upper Silesia . It is one of the largest interurban networks in Europe. In Łódź region, an interurban tram system connects Łódź, Pabianice, Zgierz and Konstantynów Łódzki, and formerly also Ozorków, Lutomiersk, Aleksandrów Łódzki, Rzgów and Tuszyn. Only three continuously operating passenger interurbans in the US remain with most being abandoned by the 1950s. The South Shore Line

5395-473: The village of Summit, outside Rochdale , a distance of 52 miles (84 km), and with a short 7 miles (11 km) bus journey across the Pennines, to connect to another tram network that linked Huddersfield, Halifax and Leeds. The first interurban railway in Japan is the Hanshin Electric Railway , built to compete with mainline steam trains on the Osaka to Kobe corridor and completed in 1905. As laws of that time did not allow parallel railways to be built,

5478-402: The war ended in 1945, riders went back to their automobiles, and most of these lines were finally abandoned. Several systems struggled into the 1950s, including the Baltimore and Annapolis Railroad (passenger service ended 1950), Lehigh Valley Transit Company (1951), West Penn Railways (1952), and the Illinois Terminal Railroad (1958). The West Penn was the largest interurban to operate in

5561-415: The war years, or at least the remaining parts not yet demolished. One of the largest systems, nicknamed the Blue Tram , was run by the Noord-Zuid-Hollandsche Stoomtramweg-Maatschappij and survived until 1961. Another, the RTM ( Rotterdamse Tramweg Maatschappij ), which ran in the river delta south-west of Rotterdam , survived until early January 1966. Its demise sparked the rail-related heritage movement in

5644-576: The world. These can be regarded as interurbans since they run on the streets, like trams, when in cities, while out of them they either share existing railway lines or use lines that were abandoned by the railway companies. The term "interurban" was coined by Charles L. Henry , a state senator in Indiana. The Latin, inter urbes , means "between cities". The interurban fit on a continuum between urban street railways and full-fledged railroads. George W. Hilton and John F. Due identified four characteristics of an interurban: The definition of "interurban"

5727-422: Was a major RCA dealer and in order to sell the newly-invented television receivers in the late 1930s, a local TV broadcast station was needed. Block's acquired some TV broadcasting equipment with a small tower above the main store and went on the air briefly. However, America's entry into World War II suspended this small operation and the equipment was transferred to the local Naval Training Station. In 1947, Block's

5810-406: Was chosen to start electrification on Katowice Rynek (Kattowitz, Ring) - Zawodzie line, after which Schikora & Wolff completed electrification of four additional lines. In 1912, the first short 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ( 1,435 mm ) standard gauge line was built in Katowice . In 1913, a separate standard gauge system connecting Bytom with suburbs and villages west of

5893-487: Was common. Receivership was a common fate when the interurban company could not pay its payroll and other debts, so state courts took over and allowed continued operation while suspending the company's obligation to pay interest on its bonds. In addition, the interurban honeymoon period with the municipalities of 1895–1910 was over. The large and heavy interurbans, some weighing as much as 65 tons, caused damage to city streets which led to endless disputes over who should bear

5976-601: Was completed in August 1981, Block's consolidated the two Bloomington locations into the new 60,000-square-foot (5,600 m ) store. The store was converted into a Lazarus store in October 1987 and eventually closed in 2003. After Block's had left the corner of Indiana and Kirkwood avenues, the location was occupied by the Space Port Video Arcade from 1980 until it was forced to leave in 1995 when site

6059-494: Was converted to a covered mall in the 1960s. Until Glendale's construction, most major department stores in Indianapolis were located only in the Downtown district . Glendale was frequently the first local branch store away from the established flagship locations downtown. Following the opening of The Fashion Mall at Keystone two miles (3.2 km) north, Glendale began to lose many of its better-known tenants. The original mall

6142-491: Was demolished March 1, 2007. New construction and design returned it to being an open-air shopping center in early 2008. The complex is currently owned by Kite Realty. 39°51′58″N 86°07′09″W  /  39.86611°N 86.11917°W  / 39.86611; -86.11917 William H. Block Co. The William H. Block Company was a department store chain in Indianapolis and other cities in Indiana . It

6225-421: Was founded in 1874 by Herman Wilhelm Bloch, an immigrant from Austria-Hungary who had Americanized his name to William H. Block. The main store was located at 9 East Washington Street in Indianapolis in 1896. The company also identified itself as The Wm. H. Block Co. , and Block's . In 1910, a new eight-story store was constructed to designs by Arthur Bohn and Kurt Vonnegut Sr. of Vonnegut & Bohn on

6308-482: Was granted a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) construction permit for television station WWHB, channel 3. The station's call letters had changed to WUTV by 1949, when Block's tried to sell the permit to radio station WIRE before asking for its cancellation, stating that it did not desire to enter into broadcasting. The William H. Block Co. was acquired by Allied Stores in 1962 for $ 7.5 million (~$ 57.9 million in 2023) in cash and stock. In 1987, Block's

6391-425: Was often local with salesmen going door to door aggressively pushing this new and exciting "it can't fail" form of transportation. But many of those interurbans did fail, and often quickly. They had poor cash flow from the outset and struggled to raise essential further capital. Interurbans were very vulnerable to acts of nature damaging track and bridges, particularly in the Midwestern United States where flooding

6474-437: Was passed to his three sons: M. S. Block, R. C. Block, and E. A. Block. The store was expanded to nearly double in size in 1934. The architect for the 1934 expansion was Kurt Vonnegut, Sr. During the expansion the building's interior and exterior was redesigned in a moderne style, including furnishings, stainless steel escalators, and two-story polished black marble and stainless steel facade entrances. Architectural drawings of

6557-648: Was progressively closed in the 1970s but parts of it were reused as the outer parts of the Milan Metro . Development of Japanese interurbans strayed from their American counterparts from the 1920s. The second boom of interurbans occurred as late as the 1920s and 1930s in Japan, with predecessors of the extensive Kintetsu Railway , Hankyu , Nankai Electric Railway and Odakyu Electric Railway networks starting life during this period. These interurbans, built with straighter tracks, electrified at 1500V and operated using larger cars, were built to even higher standards than

6640-590: Was purchased by the University for the construction of Carmichael Center. Starting in 1958, Block's opened stores that served as the original anchors at Glendale Shopping Center (1958), Southern Plaza (1961), Lafayette Square Mall (1969), and Washington Square Mall (1974), all in Indianapolis, and also at Tippecanoe Mall (1974) in Lafayette and Markland Mall (1974) in Kokomo . Block's also opened

6723-542: Was replaced by a branch of Union Federal Savings & Loan. After several name changes and bank mergers, this financial institution is still in operation at the same location as a branch of the Huntington National Bank . In 1942, during the Second World War , Block's constructed its first branch store outside of Indianapolis in the city of Bloomington at 104 S. Indiana Avenue, just across

6806-466: Was sold to Federated Department Stores , at which time the Block's name was discontinued and many store locations were rebranded as Lazarus department stores. After having been merged into the Block's operating unit in 1987, the two Herpolsheimer's locations in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area were also re-branded as Lazarus locations. These locations closed for good in 1990. Lazarus closed

6889-621: Was the first stretch of underground railway in all of Asia, predating the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line by two years. Meanwhile, existing interurbans like the Hanshin Electric Railway started to rebuild their street-running lines into grade-separated exclusive rights-of-way. After the war, interurbans and other private railway companies received large investments and were allowed to compete not only with mainline trains but also with each other, in order to rejuvenate

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