Yonkers Trolley Barn

In 1892, electrified trolley cars began replacing slower horse cars to connect the center of Yonkers to its outskirts. Previously, most of the population needed to be near the city center to be in walking distance of its factories, stores, and other businesses. Middle and upper-class residents of Yonkers left the inner city’s congestion as well as its social problems. Along the trolley lines, there was a boom in the development of streets and the building of new homes.

A major component to the new complex infrastructure of the trolley car system was the trolley barn, which served to facilitate the storage, cleaning, and servicing of the cars. Built in 1903 and designed by A.V. Porter for the Yonkers Railroad Company, the steel-framed brick building was constructed along Buena Vista Ave.[1] The uphill end housed an electrical substation that transformed high-voltage alternating current, transmitted from generators in the Bronx, to the lower voltage direct current needed for trolley motors, however, most of the building was dedicated to the storage barn.[2]

The trolley cars were the predominant form of mass transit in the city for over half a century; after World War II, almost all the remaining trolley lines in the country were replaced by buses. The Yonkers system was able to hang on until November 1952. Many of the interior of the building have been cleared out; for a time after its service ended, the building served as a city office building. In 2014, The Yonkers Brewing Co. announced its intention to move into the trolley barn to attract beer tourists from the Metro North.[3]

[1] National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form,” United States Department of Interior-National Parks Service, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75323314

[2] Williams, Grey. Kenneth T. Picturing Our Past: National Register sites in Westchester County. New York. 2003.

[3] Ernie Garcia, “Yonkers Brewing hopes to tap Metro-North bar crawls,” Lohud., March 1, 2014.