St. Joseph Railway, Light, Heat & Power Company Shops Building, 713-723 Highland Avenue, Saint Joseph, Buchanan County, MO

Significance: The St. Joseph Railway, Light, Heat and Power (SJRLHP) Company Shops Building, St. Joseph, Missouri, was used continuously as a transit and repair facility throughout the twentieth century, from the era of the golden age of the electric trolley (1890-1920) through the age of the gas and diesel powered bus. The entire transit system of St. Joseph was under the management of the SJRLHP Company at the time of the construction of this property in 1902-03. In addition, the SJRLHP Company Shops Building is significant as a representative example of a large-scale, turn-of-the-century urban trolley car barn and the oldest extant facility of its kind in St. Joseph, Missouri. Furthermore, the car barn directly reflected the economic growth and suburbanization of St. Joseph, Missouri. It is important to note that the electric traction system of St. Joseph was the first system west of the Mississippi and purportedly the last to operate in the country.
Survey number: HABS MO-1930
Building/structure dates: 1902- 1903 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: 1969 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1978 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1996 Demolished