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In 1888, the City of Greenville acquired five brush-arc electric generators and a coal-fired steam engine for driving direct-current generators to power 11 arc streetlights. A power plant was constructed circa 1890 to house the equipment on Broad Street. This is believed to be the one of the earliest electric power generating plants in Greenville. It is one of the few remaining Victorian structures in downtown Greenville.
In 1890, the City of Greenville sold the electric properties to R. R. Asbury and his son, A. D. Asbury, who had already obtained the city’s gas company in 1875. On Dec. 22, 1891, Asbury and son converted the Greenville assets into a stock company, the Greenville Gas, Electric Light & Power Company.
In 1898, the horse-drawn railway system that had operated in Greenville for twenty-five years gave way to the electric railway. George M. Bunting of Philadelphia, Pa., purchased the power company from the Asburys and secured a franchise for the city’s new transportation system. The Greenville Traction Company, organized in 1899, converted the generators at the Broad Street facility to supply direct current electric power to the trolley system. Thus the facility became known as the trolley barn. Greenville’s first electric streetcar ran on Jan. 12, 1901, under the direction of the Greenville Traction Company.
After diesel buses replaced the electric trolley system in 1956, the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981. In 1985, Duke Power, who then owned the building, donated it to the Warehouse Theatre. In the 1990s, it was purchased first by Spaghetti Warehouse and then by Big River Grill. In 2000, DP Properties purchased the building and converted it to office and retail use.
