Hope you enjoy the upcoming holiday weekend.   Maryland plays Navy at the Ravens Stadium on Monday so I thought this picture from the upper deck would be appropriate.

I hope you aren’t sick of these scenes from Chesapeake Beach.   I’ll throw something random into the mix tomorrow.

Shooting into the sun seems to be a regular theme on MDP these days.  This is a picture looking back at the Chesapeake Beach hotel from its boat docks.  The bar where the pier meets the land seemed to be a real hot spot.

The town of Chesapeake beach began as a resort community, servicing visitors from Washington DC who came by rail and visitors from Baltimore who came by ship to the western shore of the bay.  In 1935 the railroad closed after the depression took its toll on vacation traffic.   Today the town doesn’t serve the huge crowds each weekend that it did at the turn of the last century, but it’s still a popular weekend spot.

You probably thought this would be a post about the Orioles, given the title. After the very verbose posts of last week, is seemed like a good time for mdp to take a relaxing trip.   These birds are hanging out on the rocks of Chesapeake Beach.   As you’ll see this week, they are not alone.

This is the Thomas Farm.  This field was was held by both sides, back and forth throughout the afternoon.  To your left is where the Worthington Farm, as pictured yesterday, is located. To your right is where the Union formed their lines to meet the confederates.  Straight ahead is the tree line that marks the river.

The red house that is here obscured by trees is the actual Thomas house, which was occupied at times by Union sharpshooters.  To the far right, well off the side of the picture is the Gambrill Mill, which was the site of the Unions field hospital.

Behind you (although pretty far behind you) is Washington, and to the right would be  Baltimore.  Keep in mind that this battle was being fought by Wallace with many untrained soldiers and with 7 cannons against 15,000 regular Confederates and their 40 guns.  It’s doubtful that union commanders on this field thought that they could win the battle after they understood that they were fighting an entire corps of the enemy army.  Still the battle waged on, delaying the confederate advance until they finally broke the Union line in the late afternoon.

While it was being fought, troops were being rushed to Washington from Virginia to protect the defenseless city. The  union soldiers on this field held back the larger opposing force for the entire afternoon.  By the time the battle had ended, the Confederates would have to make camp for the night and continue on their way to DC the next morning.  The battle cost them a day, and it was just enough to allow DC to protect itself before the attack.

There are a lot more stories about this battle that I haven’t shared.  While I’ve focused on the river, the bridges, and the crossing, I’ve really only covered the center and the left of the Union line.  There is a history on the right flank as well.   I have pictures of specific places and specific things on the field that were not appropriate for this overview and that I’ll trickle into the future MDP flow of things.  I hope that some of you can stop by the battlefield, check out the visitor center, and see it for yourself.

We are now on the south side of the river. The treeline that is directly in front and moving to the right of this picture is on the banks of the Monocacy river.  Straight ahead is where the confederates crossed the river, and about half a mile behind us is where Wallace’s men were.

Wallace’s Union soldiers had known that the confederates were coming.  They laid waiting not too far back from here in a concealed position and attacked the Cavalry as it first moved in.  The line of battle would remain just a little behind where this picture was taken in a place called Thomas farm.

Today’s picture is Worthington farm.  It was occupied by confederates from the moment they arrived there until the end of the battle. As the fighting waged on, and the confederate infantry arrived, this field and the farmhouse, as pictured below, were used as a confederate field hospital.  This was also the position from which  the artillery would attack the Union soldiers just to the east.

Today the field between Thomas farm, where the lines of battle were, and Worthington Farm, pictured today is cut in two by I-270.  Trees lining the highway prevent one from standing here at Worthington Farm and looking out at the Thomas farm.

I would encourage everyone to go to the visitors center, wherein there is an excellent topographical battlefield diorama, which lights up to show the battles progression throughout the day.

Of the three battle monuments at the field today the 14th New Jersey Infantry’s monument is the most substantial.  It’s placed where the hardest action occurred during the first phase of the battle of July 9th.  It is essentially the spot where the canon from yesterday’s picture is aimed.  To your right are the railroad tracks and to the left is the river.   Most of Wallace’s union troops were on the other side of the river, to the south.  Most of early’s were across the tracks on the right, to the north.

Wallace had Skirmishing units in this spot on the north side of the river and only the covered bridge to tie them with the rest of the army.  In this area between the tracks and the river, the men of the 14th New Jersey held back the confederates from the bridge.

Of course, there were two problems for the Union defenders.  The overwhelming number of confederates was one problem.  But the other problem was that Jubal Early directed his cavalry to find another way across the river to get to the bulk of the union forces.  They found one just a mile or so downriver and suddenly the confederates brought a two sided attack.    Once the cavalry found a way across, a confederate infantry division found its way across and the fiercest fighting began on the other side of the river.

To avoid facing a battle on two sides, the union troops burned the covered bridge connecting the two banks of the river at this point.  The soldiers left here on the north side fought as long as they could until they had to retreat by struggling across the railroad bridge.

This isn’t a story about trains (I know you are upset) but they do play a major role.

On June 29, 1864 news came of a Confederate invasion of Maryland.  It was news that came from the station officers to the president of the B&O railroad.

That man, John W. Garrett, then tried to lobby Washington for support and protection of the railroad between Frederick, where the confederates were, and Washington DC, which was possibly where they were going.

General Grant had moved almost all of the garrisons out of DC to help support his campaign through Virginia.  This left DC unguarded from the north.   Lee  had split his army, as we was wont to do from time to time.  Lee and much of his army would be fighting off Grant’s advance in Virginia, while he tasked Jubal Early to secure the Shenandoah valley, cross into Maryland, and take DC from the North.

You may remember Jubal Early as the namesake of the boat at White’s Ferry.

While nobody in Washington could help Garrett, his notice did serve as a warning for Grant to move troops back north to protect the district.  Meanwhile, Garrett did attract the attention of Lew Wallace, the Union General who was situated in Baltimore at the time.    Wallace moved his troops westward between Jubal Early in Frederick and his otherwise completely open path to DC.

He settled at a place called Monocacy Junction.  The monocacy river has been pictured so many times on this website that it should have its own category.  So if you are wondering if there’s a connection, there is.   Monocacy junction was a point just south of Frederick and along the Monocacy river.  At this place there was crucial railroad junction of tracks moving to Frederick and to the west as well as a bridge moving the tracks over the river and east to Baltimore.  This was a part of the B&O main line.

Just as the confederates previously attempted to destroy the aqueduct where the C&O canal crossed the Monocacy river, they frequently chose the railroad bridge over the Monocacy as another favorite target.   From this junction, Wallace could protect the critical bridge but he could also safely assume that the confederates would pass by on their way to either Baltimore or DC.   It was a good place to make a nuisance for the invaders and it was a place from which he could also the move to defend either city.

At the junction there was also a covered bridge to take a roadway over the river.  It was the only practical means of getting across the river if you weren’t on a train.  Wallace’s 2,800 troops set in to protect the junction and the nearby bridges over the Monocacy river.  Most of his troops were on the south bank of the river and Early was coming from the North.

By the morning of July 9, Early brought the first of his 15,000 confederate troops to within a mile of the junction and the bridges.  He laid his artillery out between what is today the north end of the battlefield park, and an area to the southwest known as Best Farm, after the family that owned it.  This picture is taken from Best farm.  The canon you see is in the position that one of those confederate cannons would have been just after the first shots were fired.  To the right of this picture, trees obscure the railroad tracks that run directly behind them and the river that runs just 100 feet or so beyond the tracks.

Lew Wallace, his men, and their 7 cannons would spend the day fighting off 15,000 confederates and 40 cannons. (only 19 of which were used)  Outnumbered from the start, they had little chance of protecting the railroad assets.  What they could do was use the geography of the area to delay Early as long as possible while Union troops continued to move from Petersburg up to DC, hoping to be in position to defend the city before Early could get there.

MDP is in!   It always makes me excited for any event when I receive the tickets for it in the mail.  It’s one of those feelings that the internet is trying hard to destroy.  This past Saturday I enjoyed it like never before as I’ve never had season tickets to anything before.  So when MDP’s package of tickets came in the mail there was a very “Kid at Christmas” response.     Let’s hope that this score is not repeated.

These tickets aren’t the only MDP highlight of the weekend.  There’s a lot of history coming your way this week.

Here’s another perspective on the sunset from Monday’s post.   Have a good weekend.

Sorry for today’s delayed post.   How often do you find a spoon with  the name of your state one it?  The image below it is obscured by years of dust. It doesn’t look like it could be the seal, so I’m a little lost.   I will save the owner of the spoon from dust based embarrassment, but feel free to chip in if you think you might know what this is trying to depict.

Most people just ask for a picture.  This guy went in for the whole deal.  The bird, cool character that he is, knew exactly how to respond.

Just a picture that I enjoyed from the former bank that is now a dentists’ office in Glyndon, a place you may remember from our picture of the town’s train station, which is now a post office.

One more picture from Ocean City, this one is looking west from Northside Park, which affords some amazing bay views to the public.

One more amusement park photo from Ocean City.

Spending some time in Ocean City this past weekend, I have plenty of pictures to help the MDP community celebrate the summer.   I couldn’t help but take a picture of these inner tubes.

As a child, the concept of an inner tube as anything other than a pool toy seemed foreign to me.  The days of passenger tires with inner tubes had come and gone.  It wasn’t until I had my first flat bike tire that the “inner” in “inner tube” ever made sense.

What is this?  Where is this Grotto?  Believe it or not, it’s in the middle of Howard county.  I’ve mentioned this place before but never shown a picture . This is the site of the quarry in Guilford that was formerly the reason for the existence of the truss bridge pictured here.   It looks amazingly welcoming.   You would never know that it was surrounded by office parks and by route 32.  In fact, it’s so inviting, I can see why someone would be tempted to go closer.  However, as with most abandoned quarries (although not all–as will be shown in later posts) it is best not to trespass or to swim.

If you guessed it was the World Building in Silver Spring, you were correct.  The unique building only has windows on one side (which faces north, not to the South where a window would show the Washington monument and the Capitol Building.)  It has this one giant wall because they believed there would be another building next to it that would block it’s view.  Obviously that didn’t happen.  So in place of another building or a wall of windows we get an unbeatable branding opportunity.

What in the world does this belong to?

I remember from my childhood a day when my father came home from a business trip with the tourist book from the town he had visited. He didn’t have much to say about this place and I remember that in the tourism guide there was a picture of railroad tracks, which were made to be a major attraction.  To this I remember my father saying something along the lines of this: when a town is so boring that they have to promote it with a picture of railroad tracks, it’s probably not somewhere you want to go.

To that end, even though I’m showing you the tracks becasue I’m out of highlights and because the retaining wall of old railroad ties is pretty cool,  I still have to say that Boring MD is far from the most boring place I’ve ever been.

It’s hard to confirm this outside of the internet, so if you have any knowledge you should feel free to add to the discussion.  However, I understand that this building, which is today the post office (the sign from which you saw earlier) was the train station for the Western Maryland railway, around which the town of Boring grew.

Even I won’t take the bait on this church that is located in Boring, MD.

Yesterday’s “perfectly normal” picture was a clue as to this week’s theme, which is:  The town of Boring.  It was not named for a lack of excitement, but rather for  an old post office worker (at least according to wikipedia)

So it seems appropriate to show the post office here.  There are a few places across the United States that are referred to as “Boring.”  However, I could find only one other that has its own zip code.

The town is located in Baltimore County near the Carroll county border, just north of Reisterstown.  While some may call it Boring, I can easily say that it is far from the sleepiest town I’ve seen in the state or even in the area.  In fact, yesterday’s fire hall picture was home to the local bingo game.

This perfectly normal picture of a Firehall is the first in a series of many pictures this week that cover a certain town in Maryland.

I won’t declare the theme until tomorrow.

I said before that I’d offer you a reminder that this Sunday marks the start of shark week.  Chompy is ready!

It’s been a while (at least a week) since the last, completely self indulgent, train picture went up.

However, if you are like me and you are wondering about the status of modern day trains, this is an opportunity to share a great article on the shape of American railroading  that ran recently in the Economist.

It’s a building that people are trying to preserve, not because of its link to solvent based cleaning but because of the architecture and specifically because of the tile roof.  To truly see the tiles is difficult from the ground.  Luckily I knew a way to view it from above.

One thing that noticed from above is that the graffiti artists have taken most of the free space on the roof, but they haven’t done anything to the tiles.

As for the future of the building, according to the county website it will be turned into condos.

After taking last week’s picture of Norman Lane’s statue, I went to a building in Silver Spring where a few friends live.  They were nice enough to bring me to their roof to take some shots.   We were a little surprised to see that Byrd Stadium on the UMD campus was so clearly visible on the horizon.

As a side note, some MDP visitors may recognize the apartments in be background as the former residence of  an MDP photographer.

Last Thursday, MDP took a trip to Aberdeen to see the Orioles’ short season A team, the Aberdeen Ironbirds.  The team was brought there by Cal Ripken (and his family), who grew up in the area and who is an integral part of the experience at the park.   The team name is based off of the combination of Cal being the Iron Man and being an Oriole.

The ballpark, Ripken Stadium, (pictured previously here), is a great place. Every seat is close enough to the game to put you at risk of being hit by a foul ball.   I have pictures of the action from inside the stadium, but they are trapped on film right now.  So today we bring you this souvenir cap with the Ironbirds logo.   You can note Cal’s number 8 on the tail of the plane.

The picture above comes from contributing photographer, Royela, who was walking through Silver Spring at night and thought the statue of Norman Lane would make a good MDP post. I think she’s right.

Norman Lane was  homeless man who, in a strange twist, became beloved by his neighbors.   He was so well regarded, and so frequently found downtown, that locals affectionately began to refer to him as the Mayor of Silver Spring.   Today, this statue sits near an alley that has been named mayor lane, in his honor.   I can do little justice to the man’s story as I know nothing that I haven’t read or heard from others.

For that reason, I made a trip to photograph the statue in the daytime and to try to give you a better understanding of Norman by showing you the plaque below his statue.

As you can see, the years since 1991 haven’t treated that plaque very well.

I can offer another picture of the statue that I took in the daylight, and a few links to some other sources of information.

This article has a section about the artist behind the bust and tells a bit of the story of Norman giving flowers to local ladies.  http://silverspringhistory.homestead.com/ArtistsEye.html

The downtown silver spring organization has a summary of the statue as well  http://www.silverspringdowntown.com/go/the-mayor

Yesterday’s picture was a gauge from a railroad car inside the B&O museum.  (You are all undoubtedly suprised) That particular car, which will be pictured some other day, is used to measure the clearance of tunnel walls.  You need the gauges to tell you how much clearance you have.   

 Almost directly across the way from that car, sits the pullman coach on which this seal 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 people along the mid-atlantic who must have gazed at this seal as the train rolled into their town.

You might not be able to guess this picture’s relevance to the state of Maryland.  Rest assured it was taken in Baltimore.  This might give some MDP followers a clue as to what this gauge does.  You can probably guess the genre of machine from which it comes.  Some may have actually seen it before.   Regardless, I think it’s a nice picture, and I am also using it to make a (very weak) connection to tomorrow’s post.

Today’s post comes to us again from contributing photographer Matt, who captured the new Civic Center in Silver Spring.   The building contains a large public space as well as county offices. In front of the building there is a decent sized open area, including the space in the foreground of this picture.

I was a little skeptical when I heard about this place being built because I just didn’t see how the public would get to use the civic center.  It turns out that there is a large open space in the first floor of the place, which presumably is where events for the public and other such things will occur.

In my mind this place has some big shoes to fill as this land had been previously covered with nothing more than astroturf.   That might sound as if I am trying to be sarcastic, but I’m not.  The “turf” had become a place for people to hang out, toss a ball or frisbee, or just sit down for a while.  The community took to the turf in a way that nobody could have expected.  Though it was always meant to be a temporary solution, the turf set the standard for the community’s adoption of this space.

Most of the people I know who have been to the civic center agree that this is a pleasant and interesting area.  There is an overarching fear among some that all of this concrete will become a make-shift skateboard park.  I do not share that fear as I do not believe that this is still 1986.   Skateboards or not, the question is if there will be a large contingent of youths who permanently hang out there and harass passers-by or if the space will be a place for the whole community as the turf had been.

Just a quick monday morning snapshot of the Bel-Loc Diner in Towson.

I’m taking a cue from our friends at PDP and posting a gratuitous picture of the snow.   As bad as the heat can get, at least it doesn’t hinder our transportation.

When I first started MDP, I thought  this guy was one of the things that I could reliably feature on the site. However, as soon as MDP came into being, the shark disappeared.

If you aren’t sure where this is, it’s the headquarters for the Discovery Channel in Silver Spring.  When they take out the inflatable shark and make him look like he’s swimming through the building, it can mean only one thing: Shark Week is near.  One of the Silver Spring community blogs that I follow has named him “Chompy” and I have to follow suit because I think it is a great name.

I’ll post more pictures when shark week is closer, as it thing this should be satisfactory for now.

Of course, if you are the guy whose window now looks at the back of an inflatable shark, you would probably find this completely unsatisfactory.

With the MLB all star break, I thought it would be a good time to bring out this picture of a souvenir from when the all star game was in Baltimore in 1993.  This wasn’t from the game itself, but rather from the All-Star workout the day before. I remember that day very well.  Whenever I walk past the warehouse, I also look for the spot where Ken Griffey Jr’s ball hit the building that day.

It may seem odd today to give out watches, but back then “sports watches” were the hot give-away.  As far as I can tell, the “sport” was generally in trying to get them to keep good time or, in some cases (I’m looking at you Burger King sports watch), to get ones that didn’t leave a rash on your arm.

I wasn’t sure if I liked this picture of sunset at the Frederick Fair or not, but I’ve decided that it’s worthwhile to post it.

Sorry for the delay this morning.   Hope you all enjoy this picture of the ballpark from above.

Welcome new contributing photographer, Matt.  As a native of the town, he gives us this photo of a reflective Cumberland storefront taken at a recent reunion.

If you caught Adam’s comment from Tuesday’s MDP post, you might think this picture is an admission of guilt. After all, I did shoot a bank in Mt Airy.   However, I assure you that I only used a camera and that this bank has been shut down for some time.  I really liked the look of it’s clock.  The whole thing reminded me of going to the bank as a child, at a time when banks felt obligated to install large or strange clocks in each branch.

When I drove through Mt. Airy, this building caught my eye.  It is situated in what appears to be an open area.  When I drove in for a closer look, I realized that the building was sitting in the middle of a cemetery.   It didn’t look like a church.  The only thing about the building that tells you anything about it is the date above the door, 1846.    A sign near the door lets visitors know that this is the site of an old school house, but there is a lot that was left unexplained after my visit.

A quick internet search tells us that this building is called the Pine Grove chapel, but was originally called the Ridge Presbyterian Church.  While built as a place of worship, its basement was also used as a school.

Train tracks no longer run through Mt Airy as you can tell by the town’s train station, which has been put into new service as a doctor’s office.

On July 4 1828 this stone was placed at the location where ground was broken on the first Railroad in America.  The first dirt was shoveled on that day by Charles Carroll of  Carrollton, who at the time was the sole surviving signer of the declaration of independence.  As an investor in the railroad, it certainly seemed fitting that he should spend the fourth commemorating its start.

For the holiday weekend, I took a different route than the usual picture of a flag to show you a relic from a time when Maryland took the nation’s interest on the fourth of July.  (of course, to be fair, I should point out that the fourth of July as we know it wasn’t a full fledged- all out-holiday until after the civil war)

I’ve written before about competition for land based transportation in the early 1800’s and how other forms of transport threatened Baltimore’s competitive advantage as an inland port.   The railroad was a way to maintain Baltimore’s position as a trading hub.  While it certainly helped Baltimore, it helped other towns too.  Places like Mount Airy and Ellicott City would turn into busy towns simply because the railroad stopped there.   A few people who witnessed the groundbreaking in1828 might have imagined that it was the start of something big, but I doubt that even those people could have comprehended what was to come.

If you would like to celebrate the building of America’s first railroad, there’s an opportunity to do so this coming weekend.  The Thomas Viaduct, though completed some time after this stone was laid, is the oldest railroad bridge still in operation today.  It was completed in 1835, spanning the Patapsco river, which the B&O main line would follow thereafter to Ellicott City.  You can celebrate the viaduct’s completion from 11:00 to 2:00 on Monday, the fifth at Patapsco valley state park.

Welcome to Mt. Airy.   I drove through this town on Saturday to pick up meat for a barbeque competition from the local butcher shop in town, Wagners.  (the competition was out of state, so sadly we can’t include any pictures)   I snapped a few photos and I’ll share them over the next few weeks.

Though people had lived in the area since the prior century, the town really developed in the 1830’s as the B&O came through it and built a station there.  It’s the perfect example of how towns would develop throughout the 19th century around new sources of transportation.    For this reason, it is significantly intertwined with tomorrow’s post.    However, it’s also intertwined with this week’s other mini theme: the battle of Gettysburg.

If you are one of those people who follows the Maryland Civil War Trails signage, you are probably used to stories like that of Mt Airy.  During the civil war, troops occupied Mt Airy to largely protect the railroad.  Its other piece of Civil War trivia comes from the fact that on June 29th,  on his controversial path away from both armies and from the town of Gettysburg, J.E.B. Stuart and his cavalry passed through the town of Mt Airy.

One other fun fact about Mt Airy is that it straddles two counties: Frederick and Carroll.

This unassuming building plays many roles in our state’s history.  This is referred to as the “Stone House” on the grounds of the Sisters of Charity in Emmitsburg Maryland.  The Sisters of Charity is an organization created by Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American to become a Catholic Saint.  (generally referred to as Mother Seton) When she came to Emmitsburg to build a better system of education, she ended up founding a charitable organization that would stretch around the world.   This stone farm house was where that began.

What’s also significant about this place, and which ties to today, is that the grounds here and throughout the town itself were occupied by the Union army on the day of June 30 and the days preceding it in 1863.  In fact,  in the period leading to the battle of Gettysburg, Emmitsburg was thought to be one of the places where the Union may have engaged the Confederates.   As a result, the town was fortified and martial law was even instilled.  Of course, the battle didn’t happen there.  On July 1st, General John Reynolds would leave Emmitsburg on his way to relive the cavalry that had been holding off the confederates 12 miles north.

During the occupation of the town, the Sisters of charity provided food and shelter for the soldiers.  They were also among the first ones on the field to deal with the aftermath.

I was admiring the view of Silver Spring from the balcony of a friend’s apartment the other day and regretted not having my camera.   So thanks to contributing photographer Trish, who was able to take a picture from that vantage point and send it along.

I’m sure there is at least one frequent commenter on MDP who will recognize this place, even if I don’t write anything about it.  However, I will let everyone else know that this is the campus of Stevenson University  (formerly known as Villa Julie College) in Stevenson, MD.

I don’t like to include people in pictures most of the time (after all they aren’t nearly as interesting as the rest of the things in our state),  but I enjoyed seeing this person watching batting practice at Camden Yards the other day.    When I was a kid I always wanted to get to the game early and take it all in for as long as I could.