Capital Traction Company Car Barn
Among the seven remaining streetcar barns in DC, the Capitol Traction Car Barn is one of the most architecturally impressive.
Text
Also known as the Decatur Street Car Barn and the Northern Bus Garage, the Capital Traction Company Car Barn, built in 1906, is one of only seven (of the original thirty) streetcar barns in the city. Around the turn of the twentieth century, the Capital Traction Company began to improve streetcar service along Fourteenth Street by extending its Fourteenth Street line from the Park Road terminus to Colorado Avenue. The extension opened up previously undeveloped portions of the city, particularly north of Piney Branch Parkway.
At the “new” end of the line, the company constructed this Italian Renaissance Revival car barn building to promote the expanded service as well as to attract new residents to the area. Soon after the completion of the high-style car barn, designed by prominent local firm Wood, Donn and Deming, residential development, schools, and small businesses followed.
DC Inventory: September 27, 2012
National Register: May 22, 2013
