Photo Mystery Revealed
The photo above, which I have been calling “Abandoned Trailer” (and is also available to purchase as a print in the online store), was a mystery to me. I didn’t know why there were two of these sitting in the middle of a field all busted up with plastic wrapping laying on the ground all around them. I proudly displayed this photo at last year’s Kulture Klash Arts Festival, as well as received an honorable mention for it in the 2010 Coastal Carolina Fair photo contest. I had no idea about the actual history of my subject, until today.
I happened to be showing some of my work to some real estate agents at RE/MAX Advanced Realty in Mount Pleasant, SC, when the broker in charge, David Wertan, told me that he sold the two trolley cars a few years ago.
1/15th of a sec | f/11 | 11mm | ISO 200
David told me that the two trolley cars were actually somebody’s home in Charleston, and the owner, Jake Varner, had the two cars set together with an a-frame roof attached to the top and a porch in front all the way back in 1938. In 2005 David sold the two trolleys for Varner to the Magnolia Development group for $40,000. The group had planned to restore the cars in hopes to flip them for a profit. They tried to wrap the cars in plastic to protect them from the elements, but they have been vandalized so much that the task of restoring them has become very expensive.
1/30th of a sec | f/10 | 11mm | ISO 200
The local Charleston newspaper, The Post & Courier, has an article with all of the gory details. Now I know what they are and why the trolley cars are there – which was an unexpected thing to learn today, but I’m excited to now know. Do you have any photos that you’ve taken of something that was mysterious to you and wondered what the back story of the subject was? Did you ever find out?
Here’s some info and shot of the old trolley barn on upper Meeting that you see on the onramp to I-26: http://charleston.thedigitel.com/business/charleston-lease-old-trolley-barn-arts-school-5167-0725
Oh, and great shots of course!
Me and My partner Michael Smith owned these Trolley cars and had purchased them in 2003 and had them rented as a residence, we were approached by representatives of the Magnolia Development and they made an offer to buy them. They were in quite a hurry and we had to move the tenant, etc. This happened in late 2005 / early 2006. The Trolley cars were in good shape at that time with California Redwood flooring, Barrel Vaulted Cielings, etc.
They should be put inside of a building, there are plenty of warehouses sitting vacant. There was a lot of history to them and the previous owners had supplied us with old articles, etc, from when they were purchased and they would make a great restoration project. There are other cities that have restored these cars and you can find them online as well.
The only reason we sold them is that we thought they would be restored, we were keeping them up and had a roof over them, and they would still be in that condition if they would not have been left out open to the elements in an area ripe for vandalism.