Trolley Square

Trolley Square occupies a block of converted Victorian-era streetcar barns on the east side of downtown. The red-brick industrial buildings have been transformed into a shopping and dining complex with an eclectic mix of restaurants, bars, and independent shops arranged around an interior courtyard. The complex was designated a National Historic Site.

The architecture is the real draw — high ceilings, exposed ironwork, and original brickwork give the space a character entirely absent from the city's newer malls. It is a practical stop for an evening out, with several good restaurants and a lively bar scene at weekends.

things to do sight architecture
A story
The trolley barns were built between 1908 and 1910 to house Salt Lake City's electric streetcar fleet. When the trolleys were decommissioned in 1945, the barns sat unused for decades before being converted into a retail and dining complex in the 1970s — one of the early examples of adaptive reuse of industrial architecture in the United States.