This is the B&O’s Mt. Royal Station. It was built in 1896. You can guess who the architect is. (for a hint you can go here) It was built as part of the B&O’s most expansive and significant construction project: the Howard Street Tunnel.
Prior to 1896 The Pennsylvania Railroad had direct service from DC to NY through Baltimore. Their station, still in operation today, is only a few blocks away from today’s picture. The B&O could get it’s customers and its cargo to NY but only by means of a complicated system of transfers, sometimes involving a ferry across Baltimore harbor. This was due to the fact that most B&O lines terminated at Camden Station/Mt. Claire or at the docks, still on the south side of the harbor. By the time this lack of service presented a competitive problem for the railroad, the city had built out to the extent that there was almost no way for the B&O to navigate a series of tracks through town. The solution to this issue came in the form of a tunnel. The Howard Street tunnel extends from the south end of today’s Raven’s Stadium underneath Howard Street and ends just behind the station in today’s picture. The capstone of the tunnel was this station. It would represent a direct challenge to the PRR’s service.
The B&O succeeded as a competitior to the PRR, but not a great competitor. Despite a new station and first class train service, the B&O would always have problems getting to NYC. For one, they didn’t own the full right of way. B&O train lines were frequently (as in every couple of years or so) re-routed depending on the agreements the B&O had in place with other lines, often including the Pennsylvania Railroad. The other significant problem came at the NY terminus for the B&O. That terminus was actually in Jersey City, NJ, where passengers took a ferry to the city. In 1910 the PRR opened tunnels under the Hudson that ended directly in the city. At times, mostly during war, the B&O was granted access to the tunnels, but for the most part B&O passengers took the ferry. The B&O kept operating lines to Jersey City through the late 50′s, but it became a lost cause. In 1964, the Mt. Royal station closed.
The good news is that the station didn’t sit vacant for long. In an adaptive re-use success story, the space was bought by the Maryland Institute College of Art, and has been used as a studio and classroom space ever since.
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1 MD Train « Maryland Daily Photo // Jul 22, 2010 at 12:14 AM
[...] is painted. It ran on the high end Royal Blue line from DC to New York. (a route which I talk of here) I like how companies used to tout their home towns and states, and I enjoy thinking of all the [...]
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