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
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Front of the station house in 2020
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Location	Ellicott City, Maryland
Coordinates	39°16′2″N 76°47′43″W
Area	less than one acre
Built	1830 (1830)
NRHP reference No.	68000025[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	November 24, 1968
Designated NHL	November 24, 1968

v t e Old Main Line
Legend
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

• National Register of Historic Places portal
• Trains portal
• Maryland portal

• List of Howard County properties in the Maryland Historical Trust
• Old Main Line Subdivision
• Trolley Line Number 9 Trail
• List of National Historic Landmarks in Maryland
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Howard County, Maryland

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.
6. • 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.

External links

• Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. MD-13, "Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, Ellicott's Mills Station, South Side of State Route 144, Ellicott City, Howard County, MD", 13 photos, 2 photo caption pages

Preceding station	Baltimore and Ohio Railroad			Following station
Oella toward Point of Rocks		Old Main Line		Gray toward Baltimore Camden