(The following article by Sabrina Jones was published in the Washington Post on May 15.)
WASHINGTON — For months, the B&O Railroad Station Museum in Ellicott City had planned to coordinate its 10-day summer celebration of the 175th anniversary of railroading with its historic partner in Baltimore.
But in February, the roof of the Baltimore B&O Railroad Museum’s 19th-century railroad roundhouse collapsed under the weight of a record snowfall, forcing the museum to cancel its long-scheduled showplace festival of train memorabilia. Back in Ellicott City, at the foot of Main Street, stunned museum officials thought about scrapping their event as well.
“It was devastating when it happened,” said Lisa Mason-Chaney, director of the Ellicott City museum.
After careful consideration, however, the Ellicott City planners decided to move forward with their commemoration of one of railroading history’s milestones — the founding of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, for which the first stone was laid on July 4, 1828. Officials plan to donate part of the event’s proceeds to restoring the Baltimore museum.
The Ellicott City museum, known as the first terminus of the first railroad in America, is sprucing up its exhibits on railroad history and the Civil War for the celebration, which will run from June 27 through July 6. Already, the museum has seen an increase in visitors who had originally planned trips to Baltimore, Mason-Chaney said.
The Ellicott City event will include an exhibit of the Fair of the Iron Horse, the B&O centennial celebration held in Halethorpe, Md. A re-creation of that exhibit was to be the highlight of the Baltimore exposition.
Among the museum’s other scheduled events are a weekend Civil War encampment. Other local historic sites participating are the Thomas Isaac Log Cabin (the oldest building on Main Street), the Howard County Historical Society Museum, the Firehouse Museum, the African Art Museum and the Patapsco Female Institute Historic Park.
Inside the station museum, Civil War relics, including a 1863 Springfield musket, will be displayed. Also featured is a second-story room where men and women waited in separate rooms, so the ladies in wide, flowing skirts would not be offended by the sight of men gambling, cursing and chewing tobacco. Other displays include a recently repainted caboose and a model replica of the B&O line, complete with miniature townspeople, rowhouses where Irish railroad workers lived and the Baltimore roundhouse.
“It would be great to [have] a big crowd,” said Janet Kusterer, president of Historic Ellicott City Inc., which oversees the museum. “Even in Howard County, people don’t recognize the gem in Ellicott City.”
The Baltimore museum has not assessed all the damage to its railroad artifacts, including wooden rail cars and an 1867 steam locomotive. The museum set up a restoration fund through Mercantile Bank & Trust Co. in Towson and has been receiving donations, said Courtney B. Wilson, executive director of the Baltimore museum. The museum is not expected to open before next year, although Wilson said that may be determined this summer.
“We’re at a point where we’re comparing bid documents for restoration of the roundhouse roof,” Wilson said.
Other railroad museums in the region have also scheduled events commemorating the B&O’s anniversary and plan to make donations to the Baltimore museum.In Sykesville, a former B&O stop, a railroad festival on historic Main Street is scheduled for July 5, featuring more than 40 model trains on display, food vendors and children’s rides on a miniature train, said Peggy Soper, the town’s tourism director. A rail car show is planned for Sunday at the Chesapeake Beach Railway Museum in Chesapeake Beach, said museum curator Harriet Stout.
The Hagerstown Roundhouse Museum will run excursion trains from Hagerstown to New Oxford, Pa., and from Hagerstown to Westminster on June 21 and 22, said Douglas R. White, national director for the Hagerstown chapter of the National Railway Historical Society.
“This dovetails nicely with the excursions planned by the B&O Museum in Ellicott City,” White said.
The Ellicott City B&O Railroad Station Museum will hold its celebration of the 175th anniversary of the founding of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from June 27 to July 6 at 2711 Maryland Ave., Ellicott City. The museum’s hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays and Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $4 for adults, $3 for students and seniors 65 and older, $2 for children 12 and younger, and free for children 2 and younger. For ticket and program information, call 410-461-1944 or visit www.ecbo.org.