You are here

Maryland » Central Maryland » Carroll County » Union Bridge » WESTERN MARYLAND RAILWAY BUILDINGS

WESTERN MARYLAND RAILWAY BUILDINGS

-A A +A
1902, Jackson C. Gott. 41 N. Main St.
  • (Lisa Pfueller Davidson and Catherine C. Lavoie)

Instrumental to the development of Union Bridge was the Western Maryland Railway (WMR) that arrived in Union Bridge in 1862. Replacing the original shop facilities, the current buildings comprise a separate brick passenger station and office building joined by a frame baggage room, breezeway, and bracketed sheltering overhang. Once completed, the office building became the new WMR headquarters, which was moved here from Baltimore as the railway progressed into Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The WMR was central to the economy of Carroll County, providing additional markets for its farm produce and manufactured goods. Light industries developed along its tracks, such as the extant c. 1883 grain elevator and the cement plant that began in 1910 as Tidewater Portland Cement Company (40 N. Main Street).

Gott’s design for the station and office buildings reflects the fashion for classicism. They were built by local contractor and carpenter Joseph Wolfe and then-partner John Rakestraw, using the “best hard run of kiln Berlin Junction [Pennsylvania] bricks” and white Baltimore County limestone “free from blue streaks.” As the railway reduced services to light freight only, the Western Maryland Railway Historical Society was formed in 1967, now maintaining a museum in the former office building.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Lisa Pfueller Davidson and Catherine C. Lavoie
×

Data

Timeline

  • 1902

    Built

What's Nearby

UNION BRIDGE BANKING AND TRUST BUILDING
JOSEPH WOLFE HOUSE
LINWOOD GRAIN ELEVATOR
MCKINSTRY’S MILL
HOPEWELL FARM

Citation

Lisa Pfueller Davidson and Catherine C. Lavoie, "WESTERN MARYLAND RAILWAY BUILDINGS", [Union Bridge, Maryland], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MD-01-CM51.

Print Source

Buildings of Maryland, Lisa Pfueller Davidson and Catherine C. Lavoie. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2022, 265-265.

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,