From Car Barn to Condos

There is a lot of new construction going on in Salem at the moment, but fortunately there are some adaptive reuse projects in the works as well. I don’t have high hopes for the former, but it’s always interesting to see industrial or institutional buildings transformed into something altogether different:  generally, but not exclusively housing. My husband is working on an interesting project right now: the transformation of the “car barn” of the former Lynn & Boston Electric Railway Company into six residential units–two townhouses and four flats–with some parking inside the building, which seems appropriate, if not convenient. I’ve admired this building for a while: like many buildings of its era (1887) it reminds me that “aesthetic” and “utilitarian” need not necessarily be contradictory terms.

I know it doesn’t look like much with that big dumpster parked out in front, and it was difficult to take pictures of its sides as it fills its lot entirely, but the window frames are lovely, and plentiful–which is evident in the interior shots below. Obviously one of the big bay doors was filled in at some point; I couldn’t find a picture earlier than what appears to be the 1970s (from MACRIS).

The Lynn & Boston Electric Railway Company serviced a network of “broomstick trains” running all over the North Shore, housed in “barns” like this one when they were not in service. After the Lynn & Boston was absorbed into the Boston & Northern Street Railway Company its network became even larger, encompassing both the local and the regional. The railway maps from a century ago reveal just how linked communities were in the past, before the other cars came in.

Boston Public Library.