Trolley Museum in Washington, Pa., breaks ground on Welcome and Education Center

The Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in Washington, Pa., has been a destination for trolley fans for decades.

But now, the museum is embarking on construction of an imaginative expansion project for which over $14 million has been raised.

Ground broke Thursday for the building of a new 21,000-square-foot Welcome and Education Center.

Based on what museum officials are saying about the new center, the plans call for an even more immersive experience for trolley buffs.

But there also are practical reasons for the expansion.

“We have a small visitor’s center, but it’s only about 2,000 square feet, so it’s pretty small,” said Scott Becker, Pennsylvania Trolley Museum executive director. “Of course we have the trolley barns. But we’ve run out of room, especially when we have special events.”

The new, larger space will house the visitors’ center, interactive exhibits, classrooms and event rooms. The center will enable the museum to better display and interpret exhibits that tell the history of the Trolley Era as well as STEAM-related exhibits to educate and engage visitors.

The museum is working in partnership with the Carnegie Science Center.

“The Carnegie Science Center is right now designing interactive STEAM exhibits,” said Becker. “They’re going to be on different topics like electricity, braking; and we even have one called ‘Rolling Melting Pots’ that talks about all the diversity that trolleys were able to foster because people of all different backgrounds were able to ride the streetcar together.”

The expanded visitor’s center will have a dedicated classroom — a first for the museum; larger museum store; and a brick street with two trolley tracks running its length.

“It’s set up like a movie set,” Becker said. “It has old fashioned street lights, old fashioned traffic lights, and it’s going to have curbs on it so we can park antique cars as the trolleys roll down the street.”

Becker added the new setup is conducive to having 1940s-, ‘50s- and ‘60s-themed weekends at the museum.

“It’s really going to give us a lot more latitude to provide some great programming,” he said.

Museum officials hope the project will be completed by the second half of 2022.

“With the signing of this construction project, the Trolley Museum continues to cultivate a partnership with Waller Corporation that has existed for over 25 years, and it is the largest construction project ever awarded by the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum,” said campaign chair Ray Betler.

According to the Pennsylvania Economy League of Greater Pittsburgh, the new center will add $10 million to the region’s economy and create 116 full- and part-time jobs.

The Pennsylvania Trolley Museum is located just off the intersections of I-79 and I-70. Built in 1954, it has a collection of 50 trolley cars from Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, along with New Orleans’ famous streetcar named Desire.