Silver Spring station (Baltimore and Ohio Railroad)

Silver Spring, MD
Silver Spring station in 2012
Construction
Accessible	No
History
Opened	1878
Closed	1986[1][2] (Amtrak)
Rebuilt	1945
Former services
Preceding station MARC Following station Kensington towards Martinsburg or Frederick Brunswick Line Closed 2000 Union Station Terminus Preceding station Amtrak Following station Rockville toward Martinsburg Blue Ridge Discontinued 1986 Washington, D.C. toward Washington, D.C. Preceding station Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Following station Woodside toward Chicago Main Line North Takoma toward Jersey City
Silver Spring Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Station
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Show map of Maryland Show map of the United States
Location	8100 Georgia Avenue Silver Spring, Maryland
Coordinates	38°59′24″N 77°1′37″W / 38.99000°N 77.02694°W / 38.99000; -77.02694
Area	0.5 acres (0.20 ha)
Built	1945 (1945)
Built by	Steiner Construction Co.
Architect	Engineer of Buildings, B & O RR Co.
Architectural style	Colonial Revival
NRHP reference No.	00001035[3]
Added to NRHP	August 31, 2000

Silver Spring station (listed as the Silver Spring Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Station on the National Register of Historic Places) is a former train station on the Metropolitan Subdivision in Silver Spring in Montgomery County, Maryland. It was built in 1945 by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad on the foundation of a previous station, a Victorian-style brick structure built in 1878.^[4] It served intercity trains until 1986 and commuter rail until 2000. Today, it is owned and operated as a museum by Montgomery Preservation, Inc., a non-profit organization.^[5]

History

The station was designed in the Colonial Revival style and built from standardized plans developed for B&O stations in the mid-1940s.

In the Baltimore & Ohio era, the station was the first stop out of Washington on westbound long-distance trains. The roster in 1956 included:^[6]

• Ambassador (Baltimore–Detroit)
• Capitol Limited (Jersey City–Chicago)
• Cleveland Night Express (Baltimore–Cleveland)
• Columbian (Washington–Chicago)
• Diplomat (Jersey City–St. Louis)
• Metropolitan Special (Jersey City–St. Louis)
• National Limited (Jersey City–St. Louis)
• Shenandoah (Jersey City–Chicago)
• Washington-Chicago Express (Washington–Chicago)

Amtrak's Blue Ridge to Cumberland served the station from 1973 until it was discontinued in 1986.^[7]

MARC Brunswick Line service at the station ended in 2000, and trains now stop at nearby Silver Spring station where transfer to the Washington Metro is available.

The station was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000 and restored in 2002.^[3][5] It retains its original 1940s waiting-room furniture and recessed fluorescent lighting fixtures. Exhibits on the history of Silver Spring and the B&O Station are provided by the Silver Spring Historical Society and Montgomery Preservation.^[8]

The eastbound waiting room, a small rectangular building of similar design, stood on the south side of the tracks. Built along with the station in 1945, it was rebuilt in 1976 to make way for tracks laid for the Washington Metro. An underground pedestrian tunnel connected the two buildings beneath the track bed.^[9] In 2008, the building was demolished to make way for other development.^{[10][unreliable source?]}

References

External links

• Silver Spring B&O Railroad Station, Montgomery County, Inventory No.: M: 36-15, including photo in 2004, at Maryland Historical Trust website
• Silver Spring Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Station - Information from the Town of Silver Spring

This page was last edited on 1 November 2023, at 04:24