Grand Avenue Repair Barn

Existing as an afterimage of its former glory, the Grand Avenue Repair Barn now quietly resides opposite a vacant lot. The barn was used until 1948, the end of trolley service in New Haven. Built in 1925, it was one of many repair barns placed throughout the city in order to service the Connecticut Company’s monopoly on trolleys in the area. Several barns were necessary in order to service the large fleet now connecting New Haven to its neighboring cities. The men employed in these barns were skilled enough to have received a pay increase in the 1920s when the trolley union secured a 5 cent raise for them. Repair men could be seen through the large garage doors as they worked on the city’s most important mode of transportation. The constant noise of repairs and workers themselves would have created a cacophony to passersby. Now a sleepy lot, the hustle and bustle this repair barn once saw is hard to imagine. Most of the evidence of these barns is now obsolete, but the Grand Avenue location still remains, most likely due to its use after the golden age of trolleys as an automobile factory.

To proceed to our next tour stop, Power Station A, follow the sidewalk in front of the repair barn west along Grand Avenue. Pass Grand Audio Sport and continue to Power Station A, now labelled "The Powerhouse Building," on its brick facade. This is the third stop on the tour. If you need GPS [really?!?!], the address is 835V+8Q Grand Avenue, New Haven, CT.

Research courtesy of the Library of Congress and Preservation Connecticut