John Stephenson (coachbuilder)

John G. Stephenson (1809 in County Armagh, Ireland - 1893 in New Rochelle, N.Y.), an American coachbuilder, invented and patented the first streetcar to run on rails in the United States. Stephenson also designed the New York and Harlem Railroad which was formally opened on 26 November 1832. Twelve days later a horse-drawn streetcar built at Stephenson's works and named John Mason after the president of the railroad company, started the public service. Stephenson is therefore remembered as the creator of the tramway. Stephenson was the great-grandfather of Alan Stephenson Boyd, the first United States Secretary of Transportation.

John Stephenson emigrated to the United States from Ireland with his parents, James and Grace Stephenson, when he was two years old. After attending public schools in New York City, he completed his education at the Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. At the age of 19, he became an apprentice to Abram Brower, the pioneer of the Broadway stage lines.

Stephenson died at his summer home in New Rochelle, New York in 1893.

In May 1831, Stephenson started his own business, the John Stephenson Company, on 667 Broadway where he built omnibus cars for Brower until a fire destroyed his shop in March 1832. He immediately moved to a new site on Elizabeth Street near Bleecker where he continued to build omnibuses which proved to be a huge success on the streets of New York.

However, soon afterwards he received an order from John Mason, a successful merchant and banker, to build a horse car for the New York and Harlem Railroad which had just been granted a charter authorizing a route from Fourth Avenue and the Bowery north to the Harlem River. The first stretch was opened from Prince to 14th Street on November 26, 1832, with a procession of the four cars developed for the company. Stephenson's car, named "John Mason" or simply the "Mason" after the company's president, was in the lead with the mayor and other dignitaries. He had modeled it after the English four-wheeled passenger railroad car but dropped the body down over the wheels for easier access. Four horses pulled the car and it carried up to 30 passengers in its three compartments. It was Stephenson's design which was finally adopted. In April 1833, he obtained a U.S. patent for it.

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