San Francisco Municipal Railway No. 1 is one of America’s most historic streetcars, for it was the first publicly-owned big city streetcar in the United States. It was built in San Francisco by W. L. Holman for $7,700, part of Muni’s first order of ten streetcars. Mayor James Rolph, Jr. personally piloted this streetcar out Geary Street on December 28, 1912 to formally open Muni. He paid his own fare with one of the first 40 nickels minted at the San Francisco Mint. Fifty thousand San Franciscans turned out to celebrate. Between 2009 and 2010, it was completely restored by Brookville Equipment Company of Pennsylvania under a $1.8 million contract that included total rebuilding of the trucks, motors, and running gear, as well as reconstruction of the car body and installation of low voltage electrical circuits for lighting, switch control, and communications.
