Shore Line Interurban Railway

The Detroit, Lake Shore, and Mt. Clemens Railway, also known as the Shore Line, began interurban rail service on September 28, 1898. The twenty six mile route from Detroit followed Jefferson Avenue through Grosse Pointe and St. Clair Shores to Crocker Boulevard and on into Mount Clemens. The interurban was a major factor in the growth of Detroit’s suburbs in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It made the city easily accessible to those who lived along the line and brought Detroiters to the St. Clair Shores area for summer outings. Rail service between St. Clair Shores and Mount Clemens ended in 1927. Interurban railroads were eventually eliminated as automobiles and buses grew in popularity.