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Weinstein said the plan was to donate it to a nonprofit in the area.
“So we ran a contest,” he explained, “and we had more than a dozen nonprofits in the region send us proposals for how they would use the trolley car.”
In the end, Weinstein decided to give it to the Fishtown Kensington Business Improvement District.
“Because they showed us that they were able to best use it and continue the tradition that we started,” he elaborated.
That tradition he’s referring to is selling ice cream, which Weinstein did out of the trolley car, and the business district will be doing the same.
“Even though we had to close the Trolley Car Ice Cream Shop, we did not want those memories to go away,” he said. “We specifically wanted to find a nonprofit user that could keep those memories alive and we would have a place to go even if it’s no longer in Mount Airy.”
Weinstein bought the trolley car — the last one to run to Willow Grove Park in 1957 — in the 1990s from SEPTA.
He sent it to Pittsburgh to be restored then brought it back to Mount Airy, where it sat outside the diner for 17 of the 19 years the restaurant was open.
“Sometimes things need a new life and a new location and I’m really excited that we were able to find that,” added Weinstein.
The trolley car’s next stop is outside the Fillmore.
You can start buying cool treats again from the car sometime in the spring.