As a follow-up to last week’s Mt Royal Station post, this is the train shed behind the station, which joins the north end of the Howard Street tunnel.
June, 2010
15
Jun 10
Mount St. Mary’s
A picture of the Seminary building at Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg. On a recent trip to Gettysburg, we found ourselves staying at a hotel with many alumni from the school who were back for a reunion. It peaked my interest enough to make a trip through the campus.
14
Jun 10
Baltimore Baseball
If you’ve been following the Daily Camden at WelcometoBaltimoreHon.com you may have noticed a picture over the weekend from a MDP writer. Here’s another one from before Saturday night’s game. I’ve always enjoyed the cast iron emblems on the sides of each row.
11
Jun 10
UMBC
This is a different view of the UMBC campus as yesterday. I know very little about this building except for the fact that I like those reeds in front of the place.
10
Jun 10
Rock and Tree
This rock’s placement next to a tree is no coincidence. If you look in the background you’ll see another rock next to a similar tree. This is one of a few parks around the Baltimore area that are part of a sculpture project by artist Joseph Bueys. This particular park happens to be on the UMBC campus. The artist created this as part of a larger project originated in Germany, where the artist collected stones next to a single oak tree. Each time one of those stones was moved to a new location, they planted an oak tree next to the stone. I’ll let you read more about the project here.
9
Jun 10
The Stack: Part II
Returning to the topic of a post from about one year ago, I have fulfilled the request of one of the comments to that post by providing the view of the stack from I-695. I was able to do this as I was stuck in traffic under the stack last night. From the bottom level you can see all four layers of traffic.
8
Jun 10
In the House
In college, I would often make my friends come with me (or take me when I didn’t have a car) to a favorite eating establishment: Denny’s. Some folks, usually from the south, didn’t want to come on the grounds that they had grown up frequenting another late night eatery: The Waffle House. For years and years, other than the occasional reference in pop culture, I had no idea what a Waffle House was like. Though living south of the Mason Dixon Line, it seemed like I just wasn’t far enough south to find out about waffle house. Recently this has changed. While I finally experienced a waffle house in Virginia a few years ago, I’ve also seen signs for Waffle Houses in various parts of Maryland. You can even see one on I-95 near Joppa. This one off of I-270 near Buckeystown called to the hungry MDP ers on Friday Morning.
7
Jun 10
Mount Royal Station
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.
4
Jun 10
Clock
This clock comes from a significant Baltimore landmark. Why is it significant? Why was it built? These answers and more next week.
3
Jun 10
Bank Building-Town Hall-Museum
This Poolesville building has seen many purposes. It started it’s live just over a century ago as the home of Poolesville National Bank. The bank didn’t survive long. After being absorbed by another bank and another, the building was eventually vacated. It was vacant for a while until it was donated to the town. It’s unclear from my research exactly when these things happened, but it was apparently also a store and a church. What’s clear is that the building eventually became the town hall. While some people call it the old bank building, it’s generally referred to as the old town hall. “Old” town hall because leaks and other structural issues, along with a lack of space and a lack of access for the disabled, led the town to move to a new space across town. This left the building vacant again and there were any number of possible ends for the space. Fortunately, thanks to a very involved community, the town didn’t allow the building to be destroyed. It was re-purposed into a museum.