Led by W. G. Swenson, a group of investors formed the Abilene Street Railway Company in 1908, with the first cars running by November of that year. The first line started at the Texas and Pacific Railway depot (SB20) and ran north on Pine Street toward Simmons College and south to S. 7th Street. Other routes were added, and the system operated until 1931, when financial problems and competition from widespread automobile use caused it to close.
The barn was used to store streetcars from 1910 until 1931. The simple gable-ended structure is sheathed in corrugated metal and has a monitor roof that runs nearly the entire length of the building. This large structure is now stranded within a neighborhood of small houses, with no evidence of the many tracks that would have brought the streetcars here.