May 2026.
The South High Street Carhouse was formerly the southern terminus of Columbus’s streetcar lines. Like its North High Street counterpart, it has been demolished, but there are more remnants of it standing today.
This post is also distinctive in that it features the final photos of Columbus I took as a resident of the city, as I left for my hometown for the summer after taking them. As of right now, I may end up retaking more or visiting places that I previously missed, but that will not be for several months at the earliest.
The South High Street Carhouse was located at 542-556 South High Street in the German Village neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. It was bordered by Hoster Street to the north, an Italianate commercial building to the south, Pearl Street to the east, and High Street to the west. Its remnants are numbered 550 South High Street and 555 City Park Avenue today.
History
Columbus’s earliest streetcars were stored in a barn on North High Street between Goodale Street and Poplar Street (then known as University Avenue) beginning in 1863. A decade later, the company moved the buildings to their current site, on South High Street between Hoster Street and Beck Street.
In 1885, the stables caught fire, suspected to be a spark from boys having a bonfire nearby. A new storage barn was being built at the time, and the man supervising its construction, P. J. Lofland, first noticed the fire and sounded the alarm. Though the horses were saved, the buildings were almost completely destroyed by the fire.
The South High Street Carhouse as it existed after 1885. (Columbus Railroads)
To replace the wooden barn that burnt down, a larger storage house was built in the Romanesque Revival style. It had brick walls with a wooden roof, offering more fire resistance, and a portion had a wooden frame but was clad in iron. As built, it could hold 28 cars, in addition to the smaller barn across Pearl Street that could hold 15 additional streetcars (mostly ones for a different season and the snowplows).
In 1889, an addition was built onto the north end of the barn, which was used for maintenance and washing the streetcars. Also built of brick though similar in appearance, this is the only portion on High Street that stands today. When the streetcars were electrified, the department that built and maintained the electric lines operated out of the northeast corner of this addition.
Recently cleared site of the carhouse, c. 1940. (Columbus Railroads)
As the streetcars were retired and replaced with buses beginning in 1933, the South High Street Carhouse could no longer fit the larger buses. The 1885 building was demolished sometime that decade, and the site was sold in 1940. It has presumably remained vacant since.
The barn in use as a car wash. (WOSU)
The only surviving portions were the 1889 addition and the barn across Pearl Street, both of which have been converted to other uses. The addition, since it faced High Street, had several uses over the years. These included a mechanic, a tractor dealership, two dictating machine manufacturers, and multiple bars and restaurants. It has since been renovated into a wedding venue. The barn was a car wash as of the 1950s, one of the first in the area, and it became the Old World Bazaar in the 1960s. It is now used as law offices.
Photos
A view of the exterior today:
The portion in front that stands slightly taller and has larger openings is an alteration. The original building is behind it.
West facade:
Ah, repetitive industrial brick construction. At least the windows aren’t boarded up here.
Some of the original openings are still apparent:
The northeast corner:
The rear:
The segmentally arched brick windows give away its age, even though the brick is painted:
The second storage barn from Pearl Street:
This is the side where streetcars entered, though the facade has since been altered. The telltale industrial construction is visible here as well:
The City Park Avenue side has been modified with doors and windows. This design feels very 1970s or 1980s to me.
You can see where original openings have been bricked up and modified for the current configuration:
The building’s placement has also been weird to me…imagine living next door to a barn with noisy, clanking streetcars being moved in and out.
This was a building I wasn’t aware of until much later, hence my super late coverage of it versus the rest of German Village. The irritating thing is that when I do my research, I usually find sources that detail more hidden buildings that I didn’t know about previously. (For instance, one detailed a bunch of Yost & Packard houses that I had no idea existed.)
Sources:
Columbus Neighborhoods by Tom Betti
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrRgPFbEAkg
https://www.columbusrailroads.com/new/pdf/articles%20newspaper/1885%20car%20stable%20fire.pdf
https://www.germanvillagemagazine.com/historic-high-line-car-house.html
https://digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org/digital/collection/columbusmaps/id/4674/rec/8
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