Robert Hively, 78, Led Campaign For Seattle's Waterfront Streetcar
Robert Hively, an old-time railroad buff who's credited with the original idea for Seattle's Waterfront Streetcar, has died at age 78.
It was Mr. Hively who first proposed the Waterfront Streetcar and kept pressing for the idea in the 1970s, said City Councilman George Benson, who is widely credited with the streetcar proposal. Last week, the councilman recalled how Mr. Hively inspired him to pursue the proposal.
Historic railroads and the trolleys and streetcars that provided public transportation in Seattle and between Puget Sound area-cities prior to World War II were Mr. Hively's lifetime passion, friends and relatives say.
Walt Shannon, who worked on the area's interurban lines until they were dismantled, remembers meeting Mr. Hively in 1939 during the last days of the interurban. Mr. Hively was filming the final runs for posterity, said Shannon. The two men were friends for years, working on the restoration of historic streetcars and railroad engines and traveling together to railroad museums all over the country.
Over the course of his life, Mr. Hively, who was a meatcutter by trade, owned at least three trolley cars and one old-time railroad car. He sold the railroad car to the Puget Sound Railway Historical Association, which is based in Snoqualmie and runs a steam train between Snoqualmie Falls and North Bend.
Mr. Hively was president of the association for many years and during that time led the group in an unsuccessful effort to save the railroad tracks on what is now the Burke-Gilman trail. The railway association wanted to offer historic steam-train excursions on the former Burlington Northern line.
Mr. Hively was, of course, more successful in his campaign for the Waterfront Streetcar. One of the cars has been dedicated to him and bears his name.
The trolley cars he owned never ran on the Seattle waterfront as he'd hoped. For a while they were used on the railway association's Snoqualmie tracks. Now they're operated by the Yakima Interurban Line Club, of which Mr. Hively was a member, running between Yakima and its suburb, Selah.
His other memberships included the Northwest Rail Fan Club and the National Railway Historical Society.
Mr. Hively's fascination with railroading began when he was a boy growing up in the family's Seward Park home. He had model trains running all around their parents' basement, recalls Mr. Hively's sister, Phyllis Bailey.
In adult life, the models in the basement were replaced by a machine shop in his Mercer Island home, where Mr. Hively made parts that were otherwise unobtainable for the historic cars kept at Snoqualmie.
"He was like an inventor, making parts for things regardless of whether it was a watch or a lamp or a railroad car," said Winnie Cole, one of the founders of the railway historical association.
Even while serving with the Navy on Guam in World War II, Mr. Hively found ways to tinker with mechanical things. Running into him there, his cousin Bill Reynolds found that Mr. Hively had fashioned small railroad cars driven by windshield-wiper motors taken from wrecked Japanese cars.
Mr. Hively is survived by his sisters, Phyllis Bailey, of Port Ludlow, Jefferson County, and Dorithea Moore, of Seattle. A memorial service was held yesterday. The family suggests remembrances to St. Francis House, 169 12th Ave., or the Heart Fund.