In 1888, as Marlborough was growing rapidly, entrepreneur, shoe manufacturer, and “Father of the City” Samuel Boyd set out to bring a trolley system to Marlborough. He built and started a horse-drawn system in 1888 and converted it to an electric system in 1889 with 2.1 miles of track, making it one of the earliest electrified systems in the country. In the early days, trolley use dropped on Sundays when the shoe factories were closed, so Boyd began operating circuses, baseball games, exhibitions, and entertainment on a large field at the corner of Maple Street and Framingham Road, and Sunday trolley travel soon became brisk. In 1900, the city granted a franchise to the Marlborough and Westborough Street Railway to construct an electric railway between the two communities. The line ran from Main Street down Florence Street, across Ossfield, South, and Brigham Streets, across the Marlborough/Southborough line, and into Westborough. As trolley systems in the area grew and consolidated, connections became possible to Framingham, Boston, Worcester, Hudson, and from these to most cities and towns in Massachusetts. The introduction of the automobile reduced ridership in the 1920's, and by 1928 the trolleys had given way to bus lines.