The car house of the Springfield Street Railway, seen from the corner of Main and Bond Streets in Springfield probably in 1892. Image from Picturesque Hampden (1892).
The scene in 2023:
As explained in more detail in the previous post, these two photos show one of the trolley barns that was used by the Springfield Street Railway. The top photo was probably taken right around the same time as the one in the previous post, since both photos show the same shadows in the same positions on the front of the building.
The top photo was taken shortly after the Springfield Street Railway system was electrified in the early 1890s. Prior to this time, the cars rode on rails in the streets but were pulled by horses. The switch to electric trolleys meant that the railway no longer had the expense of keeping several hundred horses, but instead the company needed facilities to store, maintain, and repair trolleys.
The building in the top photo was built sometime around the late 1880s or early 1890s, and it stood on the east side of Main Street between Carew and Bond Streets. The railway also had facilities around the corner on Bond Street and a little to the north of here on Hooker Street, both of which had much larger storage capacities than this one here on Main Street. However, during the mid-1890s this was the only one with pits beneath the tracks, meaning that every car in the system had to be rotated through here on a nightly basis for inspections.
Over time, the railway added new trolley barns, including one on the north side of Carew Street in 1897, along with a new one at Hooker Street in 1916. The old building here on the south side of Carew Street appears to have remained in use into the 20th century, but by the 1930s the trolley lines were steadily being replaced by buses, with the last trolley service ending in 1940.
The 1897 trolley barn on the north side of Carew Street is still standing, and the corner of the building is visible on the far left side of the second photo. However, the earlier trolley barn that is shown in the first photo is long gone. After the demise of the trolleys it was converted into commercial and retail use, and it stood here until December 1971, when it was destroyed by a fire. Its former location is now a gas station, as shown in the second photo.
I remember the fire. I had thought that it was on New Year’s Day, but since the text says December, then the fire must have started on New Year’s Eve. There was a railroad salvage store in the building–not the chain store with Choo-Choo in the ads, but a real surplus store that was interesting to wander through, with a dog roaming the aisles. There was also a branch of Security National Bank on the corner. The bank was broken into by someone who went through the wall in common with the neighboring business.
Hi Fred,
I was pleased to see your mention of the Security National Bank. I worked there from 1964 until it closed in March of 1973. And you were also correct, someone did break into the bank by breaking into the Legal Services Office next door and cutting hole in the wall between into the bank. They managed to break into our Coin Vault and make off with a couple of bags of coins. But since they had set up our motion alarm and the bags were so heavy (a bag of quarters weighs 25 lbs), they were apprehended less 50 yards away on Bond Street. The Bank was also held up during November 1972.
The bank occupied the Main Street/Carew Street corner storefront. During December 1972, (a bitter cold Sunday morning as I remember. The bank’s alarm system (ADT) called me indicating the alarm had gone off, and I had to go to the bank), the building suffered a severe fire. The fire started in the Railroad Salvage store which occupied the main, center part of the building (the area with a 2nd floor only). While the part of the building were the bank was located survived the fire, the building was sufficiently damage as to be a complete loss. The bank branch closed and the remainder of the building was eventually torn down during the following March, 1973. While the red brick building was built as the Springfield Street Railway’s ‘HORSE CAR Barn’ in 1869, the yellow building to the left was built (I believe in the early 1890s) for the electric trolleys and the last I knew is still there.
Hi, I worked for the Security National Bank’s North End Branch during the 1960s until 1973 when the building was torn down because of the fire. The fire happened on bitterly cold Sunday morning during January, 1973. The ADT alarm company called me to come to the bank because the fire had set off the alarm in the Railroad Salvage store. The fire department was already there and was containing the fire to the Railroad Salvage store (by the way Choo-Choo was not part of this Railroad Salvage, she advertised the one in Connecticut). And yes, I remember the dog (actually dogs, plural) very well, although, they were not there at the time of the fire. Lennie, the owner had taken them to his country place for the weekend. The other employees and the president of the bank arrived shortly after I did. The president of the bank wanted to go into the bank and while I was not particularly happy about the idea, he was the boss. And since there was a stout fire-wall between the fire and the bank, I though it was safe. We went into the bank and all was well as far as the appearance of the premises was concerned. The firemen seeing us go into the bank asked if they could come in and change their wet outer jackets in the relative warmth of the bank, and of course, we said yes. About 1/2 hour later, the fire chief came in and said he would prefer if we were not in the building since the fire was not completely out and he was worried about embers entering the empty apartments above the bank and spreading the fire. So, we went back out into the cold. Meanwhile, a large crowd of local folks (many our bank customers) had gathered to watch the fire. One of them, a Mrs. Pepin, invited us to her home on the next street and since even the bank president was feeling the cold as much as we were, we were grateful for the invitation. We were grateful for the warmth of Mr. & Mrs. Pepin’s home. She served us hot coffee and biscuits to warm us up, another gratitude. The bank president was very impressed at the gesture of a customer and neighbor and later sent the Pepin’s a personal letter of gratitude for her kindness. Mrs. Pepin later came into the bank to show it to us the letter. She was very pleased to have received it. Because the fire devastated the building, it was not salvageable and was eventually torn down during March 1973. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. You also mentioned the “break in,” and yes I was there then, too. I came in that morning and all seemed normal except I discovered a hole in the wall between the bank and the office of the Legal Services next door. Apparently, the thief had broken into their office and then cut the hole into the bank. He could not get into the main vault since it was on an alarm and time-lock. He did manage to break into my Coin Vault, however, and made off with several trays of quarters & dimes in a bag, about $500. That would have weighed about 90/100 lbs. He then made his way back through the Legal Services office and across the parking lot to Bond Street. Since he did set off the motion-premise alarm, the police arrived just in time to catch him as he got to Bond Street. The weight of the bag of coin had slowed him down sufficiently. I arrived at the bank shortly after. As I was trying to figure out what happened when the police knocked at the door, told me what happened and returned the coin the robber had taken. We had to notify the main office of the bank of the break in. The hole was repaired and additional alarms were added to the premises. 1972 &1973 were very “active” years for the North End Branch of Security National Bank. Along with the break-in and fire we had had a hold-up just before Thanksgiving, but that is another story.