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The former Yonkers Trolley Barn is located on Main Street in
Yonkers Yonkers () is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. Developed along the Hudson River, it is the third most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City and Buffalo. The population of Yonkers was 211,569 as enum ...
, New York, United States. It is a massive
steel frame Steel frame is a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical steel columns and horizontal I-beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame. The developm ...
brick building in the
Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...
style built at the beginning of the 20th century. In 2002 it was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
as the last remaining trolley barn in
Westchester County Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population o ...
and the only remnant of Yonkers' trolley system. After a half-century of use in the city's trolley network with its hub in
Getty Square Getty Square is the name for downtown Yonkers, New York, centered on the public square. Getty Square is the civic center, central business district, and transit hub of the City of Yonkers. A dense and growing residential area, it is located in ...
(downtown Yonkers), it was taken out of service. For another two decades it served as a city government office building. It was then vacant for almost 30 years, until a developer converted it into
loft A loft is a building's upper storey or elevated area in a room directly under the roof (American usage), or just an attic: a storage space under the roof usually accessed by a ladder (primarily British usage). A loft apartment refers to larg ...
apartments, gutting the interior in the process. After the partners in that effort were unable to complete the building due to the lawsuits they filed against each other, another developer bought it and finished the project. Today it is home to many tenants. A chase scene in the film ''
Catch Me If You Can ''Catch Me If You Can'' is a 2002 American biographical crime comedy-drama film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks with Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, Nathalie Baye, Amy Adams and James Br ...
'' was filmed on the sidewalks around it. In 2014, a local
brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of be ...
announced that it would be moving into the Trolley Barn.


Building

The trolley barn building is located in downtown Yonkers on the lot between Buena Vista Avenue on the east, Main Street to the north and the railroad tracks used primarily by
Metro-North Metro-North Railroad , trading as MTA Metro-North Railroad, is a suburban commuter rail service run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a public authority_of_the__is_a_type_of_Nonprofit_organization">nonprofit_corporation_char ...
's Hudson Line commuter rail service on the west. The surrounding
Getty Square Getty Square is the name for downtown Yonkers, New York, centered on the public square. Getty Square is the civic center, central business district, and transit hub of the City of Yonkers. A dense and growing residential area, it is located in ...
neighborhood of downtown Yonkers is densely developed and urban. Terrain is generally level, reflecting the nearby
Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between New ...
, rising slightly toward the east, away from the river, and more steeply to the south, along Buena Vista. On its north is a small concrete plaza with trees, a pickup and dropoff area for the
train station A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing suc ...
and
Bee-Line Bus The Westchester County Bee-Line System, branded on the buses in lowercase as ''the bee-line system'', is a bus system serving Westchester County, New York. The system is owned by the county's Department of Public Works and Transportation. History ...
to its own north. Northeast, across the intersection of Main and Buena Vista, is the Yonkers post office, also listed on the National Register. On the east is a parking garage; to the south along the west side of Buena Vista are smaller commercial and industrial buildings of a similar era as the barn. Southeast, across the Hudson Street intersection, is a block with parking lots, some undeveloped open space and a few residential properties. The trolley barn building covers almost the entire lot. There is a sidewalk and parking area on the north side, along Main Street. A statue of singer
Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...
, who grew up in Yonkers, is mounted on the sidewalk. Another sidewalk, much narrower, is located along Buena Vista. There are two sections to the trolley barn. The main building, a three-story 11-by-5-
bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a na ...
brick
steel frame Steel frame is a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical steel columns and horizontal I-beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame. The developm ...
structure, reflects the unusual shape of the lot, with its north facade joining its east one at an oblique angle. Attached to the south is a two-story brick building that served as an
electrical substation A substation is a part of an electrical generation, transmission, and distribution system. Substations transform voltage from high to low, or the reverse, or perform any of several other important functions. Between the generating station and ...
.


Exterior

Along all its street elevations the building shows an exposed
foundation Foundation may refer to: * Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization ** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S. ** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...
faced in rusticated brick topped by a
terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...
water table The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water. It can also be simply explained as the depth below which the ground is saturated. T ...
. Above that it is faced in extruded brown brick with iron spots, laid in common bond. The slope along Buena Vista allows for an entrance at the southeast of the building on the second floor, complementing the original main entrance along Main. The north (front) facade, along Main Street, is the most detailed. There are two storefronts on its east, and a larger set of openings, separated by three
cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...
piers, on the west. Atop the first story is a granite sill
course Course may refer to: Directions or navigation * Course (navigation), the path of travel * Course (orienteering), a series of control points visited by orienteers during a competition, marked with red/white flags in the terrain, and corresponding ...
with a terra cotta corbel. The second story has 15 segmental-arched windows in groups of three, set with nine-over-nine double-hung
sash A sash is a large and usually colorful ribbon or band of material worn around the body, either draping from one shoulder to the opposing hip and back up, or else running around the waist. The sash around the waist may be worn in daily attire, bu ...
. It is set off from the third story by a granite sill course without the terra cotta found on its counterpart below. Rising from it are round-arched nine-over-nine double-hung sash. A secondary entrance is located on the southeast, near the substation section. Above them is another terra cotta belt course. The roof of the main building is flat, while the substation comes to a
gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aest ...
. Both buildings have
parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Wh ...
s at their rooflines. The main building's is stepped along the north face and topped with granite
coping Coping refers to conscious strategies used to reduce unpleasant emotions. Coping strategies can be cognitions or behaviours and can be individual or social. Theories of coping Hundreds of coping strategies have been proposed in an attempt to ...
. In the center is a large terra cotta-trimmed recessed panel. A similar, smaller stepped parapet along its gable sets off the roofline of the substation. Windows on the east profile have a similar treatment. Those on the south and west, not visible from the street, are more restrained. They have
bluestone Bluestone is a cultural or commercial name for a number of dimension or building stone varieties, including: * basalt in Victoria, Australia, and in New Zealand * dolerites in Tasmania, Australia; and in Britain (including Stonehenge) * fel ...
sills; the roof has bluestone coping supported by unglazed terra cotta corbels.


Interior

Inside, the building has been converted from its original purpose of storing and repairing the city's trolleys to residential use. Tracks that remained in the building at the time it was listed on the Register have been removed. It has been subdivided into
loft A loft is a building's upper storey or elevated area in a room directly under the roof (American usage), or just an attic: a storage space under the roof usually accessed by a ladder (primarily British usage). A loft apartment refers to larg ...
s of , some with ceilings. Its original structural system for the upper stories is retained. They were supported by segmented terra cotta tiled arches spanning the spaces between the steel beams, connected by
tie rod A tie rod or tie bar (also known as a hanger rod if vertical) is a slender structural unit used as a tie and (in most applications) capable of carrying tensile loads only. It is any rod or bar-shaped structural member designed to prevent the separa ...
s. Where they were exposed, they were parged. The roof has flat terra cotta slabs set in T-shaped steel purlins, supported by built-up
truss A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so that the assembla ...
es. The terra cotta arches are supplemented by built-up steel latticework columns.


Substation

The substation's east (front) facade has similar extruded brown brick as the main building over its steel frame, but laid in a
stretcher bond Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called '' courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall. Bricks may be differentiated from blocks by si ...
pattern. Its base is rusticated
granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies underg ...
laid in an
ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...
pattern topped with a granite sill course. On the first story it has a round-arched main entry flanked by two round-arched 9-over-15 double-hung sash windows. Above them another granite course, denticulated and projecting, separates the first and second stories. The windows on that story are also round-arched, with nine-over-nine double-hung sash. A terra cotta belt course separates that story and the parapet. More terra cotta forms the corbels below the parapet's granite coping. Atop the roof is a monitor with metal
cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...
covered by
galvanized Galvanization or galvanizing ( also spelled galvanisation or galvanising) is the process of applying a protective zinc coating to steel or iron, to prevent rusting. The most common method is hot-dip galvanizing, in which the parts are submerged ...
siding. The interior has also been converted into loft apartments. Like the main building, its structural system includes terra cotta tiled roofs supported by steel trusses. An original
mezzanine A mezzanine (; or in Italian, a ''mezzanino'') is an intermediate floor in a building which is partly open to the double-height ceilinged floor below, or which does not extend over the whole floorspace of the building, a loft with non-sloped ...
level was removed when the building was redeveloped.


History

Until the 1840s, Yonkers was a quiet farming community that relied on the
Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between New ...
to ship its produce the short distance south to
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, its major market. Later in that decade, the construction of the
Hudson River Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...
brought the city closer and allowed Yonkers to industrialize. By 1855 its population reached 5,000. The growth continued after the
Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policie ...
, and Yonkers incorporated as a city in 1872. To allow the workers who had moved to the city to more easily get to their jobs at plants like the Alexander Smith Carpet Mills, some distance from downtown, the city commissioned the Yonkers Railroad Company to develop a trolley system. It opened in 1886. Initially it ran just along Main Street through
Getty Square Getty Square is the name for downtown Yonkers, New York, centered on the public square. Getty Square is the civic center, central business district, and transit hub of the City of Yonkers. A dense and growing residential area, it is located in ...
, but it soon needed to be expanded to the rest of the city. In the 1890s it was
electrified Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic history ...
. The
Third Avenue Railway The Third Avenue Railway System (TARS), founded 1852, was a streetcar system serving the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx along with lower Westchester County. For a brief period of time, TARS also operated the Steinway Lines ...
Company, operators of streetcars along that street in
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of counties in New York, origin ...
and elsewhere in the region, bought the Yonkers Railroad Company in 1898. Five years later, in 1903, the trolley barn was built to serve as a storage and maintenance facility as well as the company's office. City newspapers of the time hailed its construction as a sign that Yonkers, whose population had increased almost tenfold from the middle of the century as it became as much as suburb as an industrial community, had arrived as a city. Little is known about the building's credited architect, Albert V. Porter, although it is believed he was a native of the city. His work combines standard
Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...
decorative features such as the
coping Coping refers to conscious strategies used to reduce unpleasant emotions. Coping strategies can be cognitions or behaviours and can be individual or social. Theories of coping Hundreds of coping strategies have been proposed in an attempt to ...
and the unusual iron-spotted brick with the trolley company's considerable functional requirements, taking advantage of the unusual lot shape and its southward slope. Trolleys entered and exited through the garage doors at the northwest corner. Tracks throughout the building branched out to allow them to be stored and repaired. An elevator in the rear could bring them up to additional space on the second floor, part of which was devoted to the company's offices as well as reading and recreation rooms. The third floor was devoted entirely to trolley storage and maintenance. At the trolley system's peak the barn serviced 85 cars. The barn helped the trolley network grow with the city to nine lines total. It made connections with other Third Avenue Railway System lines such as across the county in
Mount Vernon Mount Vernon is an American landmark and former plantation of Founding Father, commander of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, and the first president of the United States George Washington and his wife, Martha. The estate is on ...
. The Broadway lines connected to the
New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...
's Broadway–Seventh Avenue line at the Van Cortlandt Park—242nd Street station in the Bronx, their southern terminus and the subway's northern end. By 1911 it was carrying over 14 million passengers a year. It spread over the city, helping Yonkers suburbanize as residents who could afford to begin moving from the industrial downtown to former farm properties that were being subdivided into residential building lots. In 1922 the trolleys were carrying 70,000 passengers a day over of track. Some changes were made to the original building. The entrance along Buena Vista near the southeast corner was added. The openings at the northwest corner were rebuilt and expanded, and the
cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...
piers added. Private automobiles became more affordable and more common in the years after that, and trolley systems began closing down in favor of buses during the 1930s. The Yonkers Railroad Company continued to operate until 1953. Its tracks were torn up and the cars sold, but the barn remained. The city's Street Lighting Bureau moved into the offices and remained there until 1975. The effects of spreading out the city's population became more apparent in the last quarter of the 20th century. With most of the city's more prosperous citizens not living there anymore, they had less interest in maintaining a healthy downtown. When the industries that were still located there moved elsewhere or closed, urban decay became apparent. At the time it was listed on the Register, in 2001, most of the long-vacant trolley barn's windows were boarded up. The city made restoring the trolley barn its top priority for revitalizing its downtown. Early in the 21st century, the building got some visibility when its exteriors were used as the background for a chase scene in the film ''
Catch Me If You Can ''Catch Me If You Can'' is a 2002 American biographical crime comedy-drama film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks with Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, Nathalie Baye, Amy Adams and James Br ...
''. Shortly afterward the rebuilding began as a developer bought the barn and began converting it to
loft A loft is a building's upper storey or elevated area in a room directly under the roof (American usage), or just an attic: a storage space under the roof usually accessed by a ladder (primarily British usage). A loft apartment refers to larg ...
apartments. It opened in the mid-2000s, with a local firefighter and artist its first tenant. The project soon fell victim to lawsuits between the four partners who had redeveloped it. Tenants waited as amenities they had been promised such as a gym and laundry room remained unbuilt. "We were in a warehouse," complained the firefighter who had pioneered the space. In 2009 Metro Partnership bought the trolley barn and began completing it under the name Metro92. Rents climbed, but the tenants, mostly artists, were grateful that long-promised improvements were materializing. In 2014, the Yonkers Brewing Company announced that it would be moving into the Trolley Barn. One reason cited was access to the intermodal transit hub in the
Getty Square Getty Square is the name for downtown Yonkers, New York, centered on the public square. Getty Square is the civic center, central business district, and transit hub of the City of Yonkers. A dense and growing residential area, it is located in ...
neighborhood, especially the access to the Metro-North commuter rail station. It hoped to attract an increasing amount of beer tourists from the city who use trains to travel between breweries.


See also

*
National Register of Historic Places listings in Yonkers, New York This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places entries in Yonkers, New York. See also National Register of Historic Places listings in Westchester County, New York for all others in the county. This is intended to be a complete lis ...


References


External links


Metro92
site of building owner and redeveloper {{National Register of Historic Places in New York Railway buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) Renaissance Revival architecture in New York (state) Transport infrastructure completed in 1903 Buildings and structures in Yonkers, New York National Register of Historic Places in Yonkers, New York