A steam-driven elevated train puffs past the elaborate Third Avenue Car Barn -- from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York |
The Third Avenue Railroad Company was granted a franchise on
December 18, 1852. The horse-drawn cars
began operating around six months later, on July 3. The company was
instantly successful. A year after
taking on its first passenger, the company’s line was extended to 86th
Street. By 1859 the route ran to
Harlem, terminating around 129th Street.
The astounding success and growth of the company
necessitated a “car barn” where the street cars could be maintained and housed
and the teams of horses could be stabled.
The car barn was completed in 1861—a cutting-edge explosion of French Second
Empire architecture. The style would not
gain popularity in the United States for a few years, but the car barn introduced
it with gusto.
Providing a block-long expanse of floor space for
maintenance and stables, it housed the company's offices on the second
floor. Looking more like a railroad
depot than a maintenance shed, it sprouted tiled mansard towers, ornamented
dormers and spiky cast iron roof cresting.
The iconic Victorian structure would be closely mirrored a century and a
half later in Disney World’s pseudo-Victorian railway station.
When Berenice Abbott shot the car barn in 1936 as part of the Federal Art Project, little had changed since 1861 -- from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York |
In 1872, with the Civil War ended and the city expanding,
the Third Avenue Railway Company enlarged the car barn. It now engulfed the entire block from Third
to Second Avenue, from 65th to 66th Street. With extended routes and more and more cars
there came a problem. The horses were often
overworked and stifling summer heat took its toll. One passenger wrote that the trip
from Manhattan to Harlem took an hour and twenty minutes providing “no horse
balked or fell dead across the tracks.”
The Chicago City Railroad Company found a solution to the
problem when it opened its cable traction system in January 1882. The Third Avenue Railway Company took
note. The following year the company
contracted the Chicago Railway’s construction engineer to lay a test cable
system on 10th Avenue (later renamed Amsterdam Avenue).
After 1872 the massive building stretched back to 2nd Avenue -- from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York |
There had been a problem with Chicago’s system. If a cable snapped, the entire system went
down. The Third Avenue Railway Company
stepped around the problem by laying two cables—if one broke the other could quickly be engaged.
Although many of the company’s employees were dissatisfied
with the new system—it eliminated the jobs of some stable boys and the increased capacity of the new cable cars meant fewer drivers—the firm realized nearly 30
percent savings. For one thing, the life span of a car
horse was only about five years, thereby requiring consistent replacement. The public was elated, as well. Reduced stable odors, horse manure on the
streets and lessened damage to pavement by horse hooves were all welcomed side
effects.
A team of horses is whipped while a group of men attempt to push a streetcar through the snow -- Harper's Weekly, 1872 (copyright expired) |
A writer to The New York Times a month later celebrated the
passing of the horse-drawn cars. “Of
course, the first thought of every humane patron of the line is to present his
congratulations to the Third Avenue car horse on being extinct…In equine days
the Third Avenue car horse was the equine analogue of the yellow dog, that is
to say, the lowest of his kind.”
But while he was happy with the replacement of the horse
with electricity, the writer was not as pleased with the accommodations of the
new trolleys. He found the 32-inch wide
seats too confining.
“There was once a famous glutton who observed that a turkey,
though very good eating, was an inconvenient bird, being a little too much for
one and not quite enough for two. One
need not be a glutton to find that true of the seats in the new cars…Two stout
passengers who are doomed to occupy one of these seats in common glare at each
other’s unfair proportions with unconcealed, and, in the case of beamy and
candid female passengers, with articulately expressed disgust.”
By now Schribner’s magazine deemed the Third Avenue Railway
Company “the richest street railway corporation” in the nation. But the expenses of electrification and route
extension took its toll. The company
failed on February 28, 1900 and was put into receivership.
A cost-savings initiative was put into effect in 1907. The “car ahead” policy shortened routes,
requiring passengers to inconveniently change cars. The
passengers revolted. On August 23 of
that year the New-York Tribune reported that “Still another riot was added
yesterday to the many for which the “car ahead” rule is responsible, when the
passengers on a Third avenue car refused to change at the barns at 65th
street when ordered to by the conductor.”
Six men and one woman sat stubbornly on the car as it was
brought into the car barn around midnight.
After an hour, the car cleaners began to clean up and ordered the
passengers to leave. “The sweepers
outnumbered the passengers, and although the latter fought every inch of the
way, they were soon ejected from the barn.
Several passengers from another car joined in the melee, and then
missiles began to fly.”
The battle resulted in at least two arrests and some
bruises. The passengers, who would have
received a free transfer, continued on their way home having to pay a new fare,
somewhat worse for the wear.
But there was another opponent looming in the near
future: the subway system. Although the streetcars continued to be
used on Manhattan routes, the outlying routes were abandoned. The
Third Avenue Railway’s car barn was still constructing streetcars—about two per
week—through the 1930s.
At some point between 1936 and 1946 the car barn lost its mansard towers -- from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York |
Then in the first years of the 1940s the firm changed its
name to the Third Avenue Transit Corporation and abandoned the streetcar in
favor of motorized buses. By now the
magnificent car barn had lost most of its Second Empire detailing, the grand
towers sheared off.
A bus is under construction in the car barn in the mid-1940s. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York |
On July 15, 1946 The New York Times reported “To mark the
formal end o the era of surface trolley car transportation in Manhattan, the Third
Avenue Transit Corporation has decided to sell at auction its old car barns and
other properties that it has used for two generations or more.” The article noted that “The oldest and one of
the most valuable properties” was the Third Avenue car barn. “The three-story building there is a relic of
Civil War days and has been used for car barns, repair shops and offices.”
In 1952 the glazed white brick Manhattan House apartment
building rose on the site of the old car barn.
The 19-story apartment building still stands, an interesting example of
ambitious mid-century modern architecture; but not nearly so picturesque as its
predecessor.
Crisp 1950s architecture replaced the Victorian embellishments --from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York |
I think this is one of the most comprehensive posts about the history of transportation especially of car barn i have ever read. Every car lover must read it if he wants to know more about vehicles.
ReplyDeleteRegards;
Sara William
Click to know about vehicle transport companies
Equally of interest for fans of railroads and Victorian train station architecture of which the car barn closely resembles.
ReplyDeleteI will for sure refer my friends the same. Thanks street teams
ReplyDeleteYea. I remember taken the trolley from 66th St to Queensboro Plaza in LIC back in the 40's. I don't remember many buses around at that time. Whitey Ford, who I think lived on 2nd Ave as a kid, mentions the trolley barn as a kid when he was playing on the streets. A memorable time never to be forgotten.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering if anyone knew if there was a dining room/place at the company's headquarters. I have a silver fork marked Third AV. Ry. and was wondering if anybody has any info on that.
ReplyDeleteTom Miller; about the above question about the dining , you can email me at ri-embassy@att.net or on facebook ....... Mark Rea {from South Carolina }
ReplyDeleteThe Second Ave Side of the TARS building had the Powerhouse for the system. See "https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=NYCEL2&set=a.920643744680441".
ReplyDeleteThat’s a streetcar on the car lift. They’d lift the car far enough to roll the trucks out for service and other underfloor work.
ReplyDeleteI have a Reofect print of the 3rd Avenue Railroad barn that I am hoping to restore. It appears to have been varnished and it’s very difficult to see the details.
ReplyDelete