The Georgetown Car Barn, historically known as the Capital Traction Company Union Station, is a building in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D. C. It was built between 1895 and 1897 as a union terminal for several Washington and Virginia streetcar lines. The International Police Academy, an arm of the Central Intelligence Agency, operated out of the Car Barn in the 1960s and 1970s. Today, it is used as an academic building by Georgetown University.
About Georgetown Car Barn in brief
The Georgetown Car Barn, historically known as the Capital Traction Company Union Station, is a building in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D. C. Designed by the architect Waddy Butler Wood, it was built between 1895 and 1897 as a union terminal for several Washington and Virginia streetcar lines. The adjacent Exorcist steps, later named after their appearance in William Friedkin’s 1973 horror film The Exorcists, were built during the initial construction to connect M Street with Prospect Street. Today, it is used as an academic building by Georgetown University. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2019. The building’s original foundation supported a warehouse constructed in 1761 to store tobacco for auction unloaded from ships docked at the location of the present-day Key Bridge. The warehouse was converted to keep horses and their trolleys around 1861. The three-story, 180-by-242-foot building was opened on May 27, 1897, containing offices for the several tenant trolley companies and waiting rooms that were decorated with red oak wainscot panelling, ornate iron stair railings, and stuccoed ceilings.
It operated as Washington’s only cable car terminal for less than a year before being converted to operate as a passenger station. Almost immediately after the building opened, the system was electrified and the Car Barn was convert to accommodate electric streetcars. The International Police Academy, an arm of the Central Intelligence Agency, which operated out of the CarBarn in the 1960s and 1970s, was based in the building. It has undergone several renovations, the most extensive in 1911, when the original Romanesque Revival façade was significantly modified and the interior was almost completely gutted. Its tower, which reached a height of 140 feet, contained an elevator that shuttled between the terminals. Many of the building’s decorations reflect its original function.
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This page is based on the article Georgetown Car Barn published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 30, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
