Bowie Railroad Buildings

Bowie
Bowie Tower and freight station in December 2008
Location	8614 Chestnut Avenue, Bowie, Maryland
Operated by	Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Pennsylvania Railroad Amtrak MARC
History
Opened	1872
Closed	1989
Services
Former services   Preceding station   MARC   Following station Seabrook toward Union Station Penn Line Until 1989 Odenton toward Perryville Amtrak Capital Beltway toward Washington, DC Chesapeake 1978-1983 Odenton toward Philadelphia Pennsylvania Railroad Glendale, Maryland toward Washington, D.C. Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Jericho Park toward Philadelphia
Bowie Railroad Buildings
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Show map of Maryland Show map of the US
Coordinates	39°0′26″N 76°46′46″W / 39.00722°N 76.77944°W / 39.00722; -76.77944Coordinates: 39°0′26″N 76°46′46″W / 39.00722°N 76.77944°W / 39.00722; -76.77944
Area	less than one acre
Built	1913
Architectural style	Queen Anne
NRHP Reference #	98001261
Added to NRHP	November 4, 1998

The Bowie Railroad Buildings comprise three small frame structures at the former Bowie train station, located at the junction of what is now the Northeast Corridor and the Pope's Creek Subdivision in the town center of Bowie, Maryland. The complex includes a single-story freight depot, a two-story interlocking tower, and an open passenger shed. The station was served by passenger trains from 1872 until 1989, when it was replaced by Bowie State station nearby. The buildings were restored in 1992 as the Bowie Railroad Museum and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.

Even before its opening, the construction of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad (B&P) prompted land speculation including the 1870 founding of Huntington City. In August 1870, Benjamin Plumb, who laid out the town, sold two lots to the railroad under the condition they be used as a station and an engine house by 1875.

The line opened from Baltimore to Washington via Huntington on July 2, 1872; the section from Washington to Bowie was originally a branch line but soon became the more important route. The Pope's Creek Branch - the original mainline - opened from Huntington in January 1873. By this time, Bowie station was open at the junction. It was named after Oden Bowie, the railroad's proprietor, who served as the governor of Maryland from 1869 to 1872. The city was renamed Bowie as well in 1880.

In the 1880s, the development of the interlocking system allowed a single worker in an interlocking tower to control multiple railroad switches by means of electric control levels. Bowie Tower, which controlled the junction of the mainline was opened in the 1890s and burned in 1910. The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), which had controlled the B&P since the 1870s and acquired it outright in 1902, immediately constructed a replacement.