A Streetcar Named Brightwood georgia avenue and peabody street nw the large structure across Georgia Avenue opened in 1909 as a “car barn” that could service more than 40 streetcars at once, and often did so late at night. As a young boy in the 1950s, Thomas Reardon remembered the busy barn as “a scary place” where streetcars’ lights gleamed in the darkness “like the eyes of monsters.” Powered at first by horses, the streetcars by 1893 ran on electricity provided by overhead lines. Congress prohibited overhead lines south of Florida Avenue, so southbound streetcars stopped there to switch to an underground conduit. With two quick rings on the bell, the conductor alerted passengers that he was about to move. At night, residents recalled, the hum of the streetcar could be heard for blocks. Buses replaced streetcars here in 1960 (and citywide in 1962). Subsequently the car barn housed a series of auto dealerships. Next door at 5921 Georgia Avenue, Sidney Hechinger opened his third building-supply store in 1927. Three years later he built a substantial Art Deco style store on the site. The long-stand- ing and prosperous Hechinger family business had begun in 1911 with a wrecking and salvage company located at Sixth and C streets, SW. Three generations of Hechingers directed the company with a strong sense of civic responsibil- ity. John Hechinger, Sr., served as chairman of the first City Council of the 20th century. The family sold the business in 1997, and the buyers closed its doors forever two years later.
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