Streetcar #85 was manufactured in Charlotte in 1927 by the Southern Public Utilities Company. Powered by overhead electric wires, it ran in the city for 11 years and was the last streetcar still operating when a 1938 ceremony marked the end of streetcars in favor of city buses. During the late 1980s, the Director of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission found the trolley being used as housing and in deplorable condition, and the Commission raised the funds needed to restore it. From 1996 to 2003, the Charlotte Trolley Powerhouse Museum offered popular two-mile rides on the streetcar, but when tracks were no longer available, it was placed into storage. In 2016, the Landmarks Commission agreed that the trolley would be leased and moved to the museum.