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Saturday (tomorrow) is national train day, so stations and museums across the country will be having special train-related events; good for kids, good for adults, good for adults that act like kids. Just don’t act too much like a kid in Hagerstown, or you might end up in this building.
You know this is a police department because of the police cars strewn out about the lot in front. However, you can probably guess the former purpose of this building. Built in 1912, this was the Western Maryland Railroad’s Hagerstown train station. As the WM stopped serving passengers here, it became administrative offices for the railroad. After the consolidation of the WM into the Chessie System, with the merged B&O and C&O (the latter of which was sadly based out of Virginia) the building fell out of use. In the ‘70’s the town of Hagerstown renovated it (obviously pulling up any remaining tracks) and it later became the Police Department headquarters. Like so many historic buildings that have recently seen a new life, I suppose we have to be grateful that it is still standing, even if not for its original purpose. In this case, I am happy that they retained features like the platform and overhang, which retain a taste of the building’s railroad heritage.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Actually Born in MD // May 9, 2008 at 2:55 pm
one time i got in a fender-bender on the street that runs between the police department and the dunkin donuts. the other car and i pulled into the police dept parking lot and exchanged info. it was minor and there was very little damage. the cops came by but we said we didnt want to involve them. then two weeks later the people in the other car went to the emergency room and said they had bad neck pain. also, i found out that their insurance was bogus. what a headache. i should have gotten the police involved from the beginning.
2 SPUNKY // May 10, 2008 at 1:08 am
Sorry that I haven’t been back to your site sooner, but better late than never. As long as your still on train subjects, your Western Maryland loco was a BL2 from the late 40’s. the forerunner of the Geeps. It was an EMD. Bryan got that correct. Ciao, Unc!
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