Ned Harris looked relaxed in a seat that could hardly be called comfortable.
On Saturday, the Chesapeake retiree was aboard Hampton streetcar 390, only he wasn’t taking a ride. He was following the journey of restoring an iconic streetcar that was once a fixture on the tracks between Newport News and Hampton.
Streetcar seats weren't built for comfort back then, though.
“The springs give after a good while,” said Harris, sitting in tan rattan seats, reminiscing about when a loop in a streetcar was one way to find fresh air on a humid afternoon. Harris remembers riding the Norfolk streetcar with his grandfather, back when a ride cost 5 cents.
Harris was part of a crowd at a recent open house at Fort Monroe to see the progress on restoring Hampton’s last streetcar, built in 1917. The event was also a fundraiser to keep the Hampton Streetcar 390 Project moving toward its goal. The project, with a price tag of $300,000 so far, needs an additional $1.5 million to build an educational pavilion to house the streetcar.
The city of Hampton matches every donation and the pavilion is planned for the front of the Hampton History Museum. In addition to 16 gift baskets raffled off at the open house, Hampton artist Gloria Coker made a unique contribution. She was painting an Impressionist version of the streetcar, “A Busy Afternoon on Queen Street,” and will sell limited prints to benefit the project.
Sitting beside the front of the trolley, Coker was applying the finishing touches to the 1930s scene, which depicts the streetcar stopping in front of the Hotel Langley, which was on East Queen Street until 1974. She wasn't going for a replica.
“I only had black and white photos,” she said. “There wasn’t a way you could find out what it looked like on the inside because there was no inside.”
Project chair Greg Siegel remembers when he first saw the stripped-down streetcar: “It had the original dust.”
Siegel is spearheading the preservation that relies on volunteers committing their Saturday mornings to come to Fort Monroe for hands-on tasks. His interest is sparked by a curiosity about how the country changed during the Industrial Revolution.
“When I found out about the car, it was an opportunity to save history.”
Streetcar 390 was among the last cars to be taken off the rails on Jan. 16, 1946; the final route was from the main line (Electric Avenue) in downtown Newport News to Hampton. Buses then became the modern mode of public transportation.
York County resident John Anderson bought the old trolley for $100 and moved it to 14 acres along Route 17 in York County, where it became home for him and his new bride, Mary.
That was during a time, Siegel said, when “old cars became houses, motels, even diners.” The Andersons added a potbelly stove for heating and cooking and divided the space into three rooms. The car never had running water.
When Mary moved in with a nephew in 1976, True Value Home Center used the car for storage. A year later, a member of the Baltimore Streetcar Museum, vacationing in Virginia Beach, spotted it. The hardware store donated it to the museum, but it was never restored.
Years of discussion between a local committee working with the Hampton History Museum and the Baltimore Streetcar Museum culminated in the trolley's return to Hampton in 2017.
Volunteer Mike McHenry accompanied Siegel to retrieve it; it was put on a flatbed for the trip down Interstate 95. Consistent traffic jams made for a long trip.
“When cars would pull up and see what it was, they’d back up and take pictures,” McHenry said.
Restoration began in 2018, with a professional restorer disassembling and reassembling the streetcar. Since then, it has taken hundreds of man-hours from 26 volunteers to clean it, strip the paint, refinish the wood, add new paint and install the seats.
Siegel, author of the book, “The One That Survived: The Story of Streetcar 390 and the Era of Streetcar Service,” flew to Ohio and brought back in a U-Haul seats that were original to this type of streetcar. Volunteers sandblasted the frames, painted them and replaced the rotten wood. The streetcar seats 52 and has 40 straps for standing passengers.
While the car's interior is being restored to its 1917 appearance, the exterior dates from the late 1920s and early 1930s.
“That way we can show folks two different eras,” Siegel said.
With refurbishment nearly complete, additional funds will go toward the pavilion, which will feature multimedia displays highlighting the streetcar’s history and its role in shaping the cultural development of the lower Peninsula.
Visit the Project 390 Facebook page for more information.