This past year our volunteers have been working hard to finish the restoration. We’re not quite done yet, but we are sure you will be surprised.
Come visit award-winning local artist Gloria Coker from 1–3pm as she will be putting the finishing touches on a Streetcar 390 painting in her unique style. We will be taking pre-orders for a limited number of prints.
Other activities taking place during the open house:
Over a dozen gift baskets to bid on from local merchants.
Logo t-shirts, tote bags, and our book, “The One That Survived: The Story of Streetcar 390 and The Era of Streetcar Service on the Lower Peninsula” will be available for purchase.
A kids’ area with a working 390 model streetcar, make-it-take-it coloring and puzzle pages, and more.
Now that we’re nearing the end of this phase of the project, it’s time to turn our focus to the Education Pavilion we need to build to house the completed Streetcar 390. When you come out to see Streetcar 390, please consider making a generous donation to our Educational Pavilion Building Fund. We’d sure appreciate it.
A Brief History of Hampton’s Streetcar 390
Built in 1917 and delivered to Hampton in 1918, the 390 was in use until January 1946. It was one of 20 remaining streetcars running before all streetcars were discontinued in favor of buses.
The 390 was built by the J.G. Brill Company of Philadelphia, PA. The car was of the type called a semi-convertible. This model featured windows that opened completely to let the air flow throughout the car, making for a more comfortable ride for passengers than other models of the era. When the 390 arrived in Hampton it was 8’6” wide and 46’7” long, and could carry 52 seated passengers and approximately 40 standing—although this number was often exceeded during peak periods.
After it was pulled from service, the 390 was sold to John and Mary Anderson for $100. It was moved to their Grafton property in York County, where the couple turned the car into their home, where they lived until December 1976.
While returning to Baltimore from Virginia Beach with his family in the summer of 1977, one of the members of the Baltimore Streetcar Museum noticed the streetcar along the side of Route 17 and stopped to inquire about it. The semi-convertible model was once common in Baltimore, but the museum did not have one in its collection. Arrangements were made to have the car donated to the Baltimore Streetcar Museum.
The 390 had been sitting at the Baltimore Streetcar Museum since then. The museum periodically performed restoration work on the car over the years but decided in 2013 to offer the 390 to Hampton to bring it back home. The 390 was welcomed back to Hampton with a ceremony on August 2, 2017, and in 2018 the restoration started.
The restoration was spearheaded by Hampton’s Streetcar 390 project with support from the Hampton History Museum and the City of Hampton. The facility where the restoration is being done is provided by the Fort Monroe Authority. Restoration work is being done by Keith Bray, who has restored a number of streetcars for organizations around the country, with support from a group of volunteers.
After restoration, plans call for the streetcar to be placed in a custom-built pavilion in Downtown Hampton that will become a part of the Hampton History Museum.
The pavilion will be not just home to the 390 but will act as a learning venue featuring multi-media displays. Along with this, there will be interactive displays about how the streetcar system functioned and how it shaped the physical and cultural development of the Lower Virginia Peninsula.
