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Huntington Railroad Museum

Bowie
Bowie Tower and Depot Dec 08.JPG
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
Penn Line
Until 1989
toward Perryville
BSicon LOGO Amtrak2.svg Amtrak
Chesapeake
1978-1983
toward Philadelphia
Pennsylvania Railroad
Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad
toward Philadelphia
Bowie Railroad Buildings
Bowie Railroad Buildings is located in Maryland
Bowie Railroad Buildings
Bowie Railroad Buildings is located in the US
Bowie Railroad Buildings
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.


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Wikipedia

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