Historical Marker

Shelby St. Streetcar Barn

Historical marker location:

Louisville, Kentucky

( 1303 South Shelby St., Louisville)

By 1895, this area was used by the Louisville City Railway Company as a car barn, when electric cars replaced mule-drawn cars. It was the primary operator of streetcars, which were the main mode of mass transit in Louisville from 1864 through the late 1920s, when they were replaced with buses. The last streetcar ran on Derby Day, 1948.

This road was once part of the Shelby St. streetcar line, which connected Germantown to downtown Louisville. This included the famous “Schnitzelburg Loop.” Completed in 1907, the loop helped transform Schnitzelburg, Germantown, and Shelby Park from farmland to urban neighborhoods. The line was abandoned after World War II.