Public Service Railway Company, Newton Avenue Car Shops, Bounded by Tenth, Mount Ephraim, Border & Newton Avenue, Camden, Camden County, NJ

Significance: The Newton Avenue Car Shops have been found significant as among the last structural remains associated with the history of trolley transportation in the City of Camden. By the close of the 19th century, trolleys constituted a major form of transportation in Camden. Their development was tied to the emergence of the city as a major industrial center and to the generally poor condition of city streets and of the privately-run turnpike roads between Camden and its suburbs. Camden's trolley system, initially developed by local firms beginning in the early 1870s, became in 1907 the nucleus of the Southern Division of the Public Service Railway Company, which developed the Newton Avenue Car Shops as the division's headquarters for repair, maintenance and operations. Subsequent expansion and contraction of the facility, and conversion of the system to buses by 1935, left the core of the Newton Avenue facility largely intact, although alterations have been made to accommodate the repair requirements of a bus fleet. The Newton Avenue facility remains today the administrative headquarters of the bus system operated by New Jersey Transit Bus Operations, Inc. in Southern New Jersey.
Survey number: HAER NJ-65
Building/structure dates: 19h1 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: 19t1