Ellicott City station

The Baltimore and Ohio Ellicott City Station Museum in Ellicott City, Maryland, is the oldest remaining passenger railway station in the United States, and one of the oldest in the world. It was built in 1830 as the terminus of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad line from Baltimore to the town then called Ellicott's Mills, and a facility to service steam locomotives at the end of the 13-mile (21 km) run. The station, a National Historic Landmark, is now used as a museum.

Baltimore and Ohio Ellicott City Station Museum
Front of the station house in 2020
Ellicott City station is located in Maryland
Ellicott City station
Ellicott City station is located in the United States
Ellicott City station
LocationEllicott City, Maryland
Coordinates39°16′2″N 76°47′43″W
Arealess than one acre
Built1830 (1830)
NRHP reference No.68000025[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHPNovember 24, 1968
Designated NHLNovember 24, 1968
Old Main Line
in 1917
mi
Baltimore Terminal Sub.
0.0
 Relay
Washington Branch
2.5
 Orange Grove
3.2
Ilchester Tunnel
3.5
Ilchester Bridge
3.6
 Ilchester
4.4
 Lees
4.7
 Gray
5.7
 Ellicott City
6.2
Sucker Branch Bridge
7.9
Union Dam Tunnel
9.2
HS Tower
9.5
 Hollofield
10.6
Daniels Bridge
10.9
 Alberton
11.6
Brice Run Bridge
12.1
Dorsey’s Run Tunnel
12.7
Eureka Bridge
12.8
Line Run Bridge
12.9
Davis Tunnel
13.3
 Davis
13.8
Davis Branch Bridge
14.6
 Woodstock
17.1
 Marriottsville
17.7
Henryton Bridge
17.8
Henryton Tunnel
17.9
 Henryton
19.7
 Gorsuch
21.6
 Sykesville Station
22.4
Sykesville Tunnel
22.9
Gaither
24.2
 Hood’s Mill
26.1
 Morgan
26.5
Woodbine Tunnel
26.8
 Woodbine
26.9
Gillis Falls Bridge
29.5
 Watersville
30.6
Watersville Junction
31.8
 Mount Airy
32.6
Mount Airy Tunnel
33.9
Mount Airy Junction
37.4
Bush Creek Bridge
39.5
 Monrovia
40.0
Monrovia Tower
42.9
 Ijamsville
44.1
Hartman Tunnel
46.1
 Reel’s Mill
47.4
Monocacy River Bridge
47.5
Frederick Junction
Frederick Branch
43.5
Frederick
(South Market Street)
48.9
Ballenger Creek Bridge
50.0
 Lime Kiln
51.7
 Buckeystown
53.7
 Adamstown
53.9
Adamstown Junction
Adamstown Cutoff
58.0
Point of Rocks
Washington Junction
Metropolitan Branch
58.5
Point of Rocks Tunnel
60.1
Catoctin Tunnel
to Brunswick

Description

The station was built in 1830 at the end of the Oliver Viaduct, of local stone (Ellicott City Granodiorite) provided by one of the quarries owned by the Ellicott family, which had founded the town and local flour mill in 1772.[2] The two-story stone building is built against the viaduct. A gabled roof is topped by a wood ventilating cupola. The upper level of the station is at the level of the tracks on the viaduct.

The Oliver Viaduct was the second major stone bridge built by the railroad (after the Carrollton Viaduct). It was 123 feet (37 m) long and comprised three 20 feet (6.1 m) arches.[3]: 94  The viaduct was damaged by Hurricane Agnes in 1972, and has since been reconstructed.[4]

The station building was designed to allow engines to be pulled in on the upper level so that they could be worked on from below. A turntable with a diameter of 50 feet (15 m) was fitted in 1863 to permit locomotives to be turned around. The turntable was filled in after the rail line was extended, but the granite foundations remain.[2]

The railroad built an adjacent freight house, designed by E. Francis Baldwin, in 1885. The station is now used as a museum.[5]

History
Ellicott City station in 1970

The railroad's inaugural trip from Baltimore to Ellicott's Mills has held on May 22, 1830, with horse-drawn rail cars. Regular passenger service began on May 24.[6]: 27 

The B&O demonstrated its first locomotive, the Tom Thumb, at Ellicott's Mills in a famous race against a horse later in 1830.[3]: 94–5  The railroad began using locomotives for passenger trains in 1832.[6]: 30 

The station is the terminus of the original B&O railroad, which was intended to re-establish Baltimore as a major terminus of inland commerce after the opening of the Erie Canal. It was also meant to help the city compete against regional rival Washington, D.C., where construction was starting on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.

From Ellicott's Mills the tracks reached Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, in 1834, Cumberland, Maryland (the eventual terminus of the C&O Canal) by 1842, and Wheeling, West Virginia, on the Ohio River in 1852.[4]

B&O passenger service from Baltimore to its Ellicott City station was discontinued in 1949, although freight service continued until 1972.[7]

Museum

Today, the Ellicott City Station is part of the Baltimore & Ohio Ellicott City Station Museum.[7] The museum was operated by the B&O Railroad Museum with Howard County from 2006 to 2017.[8] Since September 2017, the museum has been managed by Howard County's Department of Recreation & Parks.[9] Admission is free, with fees for some special events and tours.[9]

The B&O Ellicott City Station Museum includes:

  • the original 1831 freight station with car house, later converted to a passenger station and now outfitted with period waiting rooms, a ticket/telegraph office, and office and living quarters for the freight agent[7]
  • a turntable, constructed in 1863 to turn engines so they could return to Baltimore[7]
  • the replacement freight station, designed by Ephraim Francis Baldwin and built in 1885[7]
  • a caboose dating from 1927.[7]

An HO-gauge model train layout is housed in the 1885 freight house; the layout depicts "the original 13 miles of commercial rail track stretching from Baltimore to Ellicott Mills",[8] and train videos are projected onto the wall behind. Other static displays include memorabilia explaining the role of the B&O Railroad and the station in the American Civil War. The car house also hosts a holiday train layout in December.[9]

The Museum also offers living history interpretation,[8] reenactments,[7] guided group tours,[7] visiting exhibits,[7] educational programs and special events for school groups, families, and adults.[9]

See also

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. Maryland Department of Planning, Crownsville, MD. Maryland Historical Trust. "Ellicott City Station, B & O Railway." Inventory No. HO-71. Accessed 2011-12-24.
  3. Dilts, James D. (1996). The Great Road: The Building of the Baltimore and Ohio, the Nation's First Railroad, 1828–1853. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-2629-0.
  4. Mendinghall, Joseph Scott (February 25, 1975). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination: Ellicott City Station". National Park Service. Retrieved March 21, 2009.
  5. "Ellicott City Station". Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum. Archived from the original on March 28, 2013. Retrieved March 30, 2013.
    • Harwood, Jr., Herbert H. (1994). Impossible Challenge II: Baltimore to Washington and Harpers Ferry from 1828 to 1994. Baltimore: Barnard, Roberts. ISBN 0-934118-22-1.
  7. "Baltimore & Ohio Ellicott City Station Museum". Recreation and Parks Facilities. Howard County, Maryland. Retrieved December 22, 2017.
  8. "IMPORTANT CHANGES in the MANAGEMENT of the ELLICOTT CITY STATION MUSEUM". Ellicott City Station. B&O Railroad Museum. August 14, 2017. Archived from the original on August 14, 2017.
  9. "Howard County Recreation & Parks new managers of Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Station at Ellicott City" (Press release). Ellicott City, Maryland: Howard County, Maryland. July 19, 2017. Retrieved December 22, 2017.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ellicott City Station.
Preceding station Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Following station
Oella
toward Point of Rocks
 Old Main Line Gray
toward Baltimore Camden
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