Originally built as a carbarn (maintenance and operations base) for trolley cars, it has served numerous purposes during its years of existence (including as a warehouse and garage for garbage trucks) and is widely remembered as the brewery for Redhook Ale, considered by many to be Seattle's first craft beer brewery.

[4] Built in 1905 by Boston engineering firm Stone & Webster at a cost of $31,225 (equivalent to roughly $850,000 today), the building started out as storage space for Seattle's streetcars, its yard being large enough to accommodate up to 60 vehicles.

The last streetcar pulled into the barn on April 13, 1941; the building was subsequently taken over by the army and used for storage space during World War II.

During the late 1980s it began to be leased by Quadrant Corp. in preparation for the eventual takeover by Redhook Ale Brewery, who had previously been operating out of a former transmission shop in the Ballard neighborhood.

[8] Continued growth saw Redhook open a much larger brewing facility in Woodinville in 1994; in 1998 the company stopped production at the former trolley barn, with the Trolleyman pub closing four years later.