Pennsylvania Station

Pennsylvania Station dates from the Gilded Age of architecture, when railroads were the economic force of Baltimore and train stations were monuments of civic pride. Designed by Kenneth M. Murchison, it opened the night of September 14, 1911 to a crowd of 5,000 Baltimoreans who came to inspect the new gateway to the city. Murchison's elaborate Beaux Arts classical design featured granite, terra cotta, and cast iron on the exterior, and an interior of Sicilian marble walls, domed skylights of leaded glass, and Rookwood ceramic tiles. Rookwood was once the country's foremost manufacturer of art pottery, producing artistic ceramic tiles for major hotels, churches, and train stations, and the tiles in Pennsylvania Station are one of the few installations left intact. The site had previously held the old Union Station, erected by the Northern Central Railway in 1873. In 1884, the Pennsylvania Railroad acquired the Northern Central Railway line, tying Baltimore into the eastern seaboard rail network. By the early twentieth century, the old facility could no longer accommodate the growing number of passengers, and Union Station was demolished in 1907.

Baltimore, Maryland · United States