https://columbusneighborhoods.org/photograph/horses-hoster-and-high-line/
550 South High Street
High Line Car House
German Village Stories | Behind the Bricks by John Clark
With all the talk in recent years about bringing light rail to downtown Columbus, it may be surprising to know that the city used to have a thriving rail system-even back to the days when "horse power" meant just what it said.
High Line Car House
German Village Stories | Behind the Bricks by John Clark
With all the talk in recent years about bringing light rail to downtown Columbus, it may be surprising to know that the city used to have a thriving rail system-even back to the days when "horse power" meant just what it said.
https://columbusneighborhoods.org/photograph/horses-hoster-and-high-line/
The first rail cars, pulled by horses debuted on High Street in 1863. Their top speed was 5 or 6 miles per hour, but it still beat walking. In 1888, electricity was coming into vogue, and in just a few short years, electric streetcars had put the horses out to pasture.
WOSU
Maintenance and storage of the streetcars, both horse-powered and electric, required the construction of several "car barns" throughout the city. Today, two of these historic buildings are still standing at the edge of German Village. The one at 555 City Park Avenue-just inside the historic district-likely was built in 1890s, just as the use of horses was being phased out. Today, rail historians believe it was used primarily for storing track maintenance equipment, such as snow sweepers.
The first arches, used to light areas during the Grand Army of the Republic convention, were made of wood and used gas lighting. The arches installed in 1896 were of metal, with electric lights. They became used to support electric streetcars' overhead lines. They were illuminated at night, providing a luminous glow especially in wet or icy conditions.
Wikipedia Columbus Streetcars
November 20, 1873 article in the Columbus Dispatch about the South High Car House and Stable. //www.columbusrailroads.com
http://www.columbusrailroads.com/new/?menu=03Streetcars&submenu=03Stables_%26_Car_Houses
http://www.columbusrailroads.com/new/?menu=03Streetcars&submenu=03Stables_%26_Car_Houses
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The facility now known as 550 South High Street-just outside the historic district-was of more importance. By 1873 a wooden car barn on North High Street was falling apart. Streetcar officials decided to relocate it to South High Street at East Beck Street. Using many of the materials from the old barn, workers constructed a two-story building in a large depression in the southern end of the lot. This allowed horses to pull their cars up a slightly inclined ramp from High Street for a distance of forty feet to a second-floor entrance. Once inside and unhitched, the horses were led down a second, internal ramp to their stalls.
A small house was also built on the property for the use of rail employees, and a second one was planned. Another building housed a blacksmith shop, and a smaller building, toward the back of the property, was used to store feathers. Yes, feathers.
Maps show by 1887 this structure or possibly a replacement, had been extended west, right up to the edge of High Street. By 1901, the house and smaller buildings were gone (presumably along with the feathers) and the car barn covered the entire lot. By 1921, the maps show todays configuration, with a brick car house occupying the northern third of the property and southern two thirds empty. As electric street cars were being phased out because of trolley buses, which did not require track, company officials decided to retire the car barns, as well.
Over the years, the large brick building would house a brake service, a tractor sales company, two businesses that sold dictating machines, and at least two restaurants and bars.
https://columbusneighborhoods.org/photograph/horses-hoster-and-high-line/
In 2011, 550 South High Street got its first new owner and first new renovation in decades, Angela Petro, a German Village resident, who already had the successful Two Caterers catering business, remade the car barn into a event rental space called the High Line Car House. A new mezzanine houses catering offices. Cooking is done in a large kitchen in the back of the building. And on the main floor, just above the old tracks, up to 350 guests can dance, dine and drink the night away.
Having stood for more than one hundred years, as horsecars and streetcars fade into distant memories, this magnificent old building is serving us again.
Having stood for more than one hundred years, as horsecars and streetcars fade into distant memories, this magnificent old building is serving us again.
https://columbusneighborhoods.org/photograph/horses-hoster-and-high-line/
Incidentally, South Columbus once had a near-famous streetcar employee. Born in Vinton County, Ohio, the employee known as Frank, moved here in the late 1890's, when he was barely 20 years old. He quickly found work as a streetcar motorman, the person that actually drove the cars. Whittier Street was one of his more frequent runs. But this was before the motorman was enclosed, and the harsh Columbus winters quickly took there toll on him. After a year of frostbitten fingers, Frank decided he would be better off in sunny, Southern California. There, he married a girl from Indiana and raised five boys, one of whom would grow up to be President Richard M. Nixon.
Frank Nixon father of President Richard M. Nixon is on the right.
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HISTORIC High Line Car House 550 South High Street ISSUE XIV
