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Albert William Austin
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Businessman.
Born at Toronto, Ontario on 27 March 1857, son of the founder of the Dominion Bank at Toronto, he came to Winnipeg in 1880 and founded the Winnipeg Street Railway Company in 1881, opening the line with horse-drawn cars in 1882. The cars were operated on runners in the winter. Austin electrified the system in 1891 to produce the first commercial electric transit system in Canada. He developed Elm Park as a destination for city streetcars.
In 1892, he sold his holdings to the Winnipeg Electric Railway Company and returned to Toronto and, after the death of his father in 1897, became President of the Dominion Bank. He died at Toronto on 5 July 1934 and is commemorated by Austin Street in Winnipeg.
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Elm Park (Riverdale Avenue, Winnipeg)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Havergal College / Rupert’s Land Girls School (122 Carlton Avenue, Winnipeg)
Winnipeg’s Horse-Car Service
Manitoba Pageant, Volume 4, Number 3, April 1959
1901 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.
“A. W. Austin, who gave city its first electric trams, dies in east at age of 77,” Winnipeg Tribune, 5 July 1934, page 1.
“Court is asked for order to reseal will,” Winnipeg Tribune, 24 October 1934, page 4.
Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.
We thank Nathan Kramer for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 9 November 2014
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