Employees of PRL&P's transit division often worked 365 days a year and were expected to perform a variety of tasks including selling tickets, collecting fares, operating and cleaning streetcars, and writing reports.

[2] The Sellwood Division clubhouse, carbarns, and power plant were part of Portland's interurban and city trolley system.

Although similar complexes were built for the Ankeny, Piedmont, and Savier divisions of the street railway system,[2] the Sellwood Division buildings and one building of the former Ankeny carbarn complex are the only surviving remnants of the eight carbarns that once served the Portland area's past electric railway system.

[3] In 1939, the United States Forest Service took over the building for use by the Civilian Conservation Corps and bought the clubhouse and the car barns three years later.

After vacating the building, the Forest Service used the adjacent property and outbuildings for storage through 1993, selling everything (with a protective historic-resource covenant for the clubhouse) to private owners in 1996.