Silver Spring station (listed as the Silver Spring Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Station on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

) is a former

train station A train station, railroad station, or railway station is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight, or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track, and a station building providing suc ...

on the

Metropolitan Subdivision The Metropolitan Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation in Washington, D.C. and Maryland. The 53-mile line runs from Washington, D.C., northwest to Weverton, Maryland, along the former Metropolitan Branch of ...

in Silver Spring in

Montgomery County, Maryland Montgomery County is the most populous County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 United States census, the county's population was 1,062,061, increasing by 9.3% from 2010. The county seat is Rockville, Maryland ...

. It was built in 1945 by the

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the oldest railroads in North America, oldest railroad in the United States and the first steam engine, steam-operated common carrier. Construction of the line began in 1828, and it operated as B&O from 1830 ...

on the foundation of a previous station, a Victorian-style brick structure built in 1878. It served intercity trains until 1986 and

commuter rail Commuter rail or suburban rail is a Passenger train, passenger rail service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting Commuting, commuters to a Central business district, central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter town ...

until 2000. Today, it is owned and operated as a museum by Montgomery Preservation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

History

The station was designed in the

Colonial Revival The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the arch ...

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: *''

Ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...

'' (Baltimore–Detroit) *''

Capitol Limited The ''Capitol Limited'' is a temporarily discontinued daily Amtrak train between Washington, D.C., and Chicago, running via Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Service began in 1981. On November 10, 2024, Amtrak temporarily combined the ''Capitol Limit ...

'' (Jersey City–Chicago) *''

Cleveland Night Express The ''Cleveland Night Express'' was an American named train of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) on its route between Baltimore, Maryland, and Cleveland, Ohio, with major station stops in Washington, D.C., and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The B ...

'' (Baltimore–Cleveland) *'' Columbian'' (Washington–Chicago) *''

Diplomat A diplomat (from ; romanization, romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, nongovernmental institution to conduct diplomacy with one ...

'' (Jersey City–St. Louis) *'' Metropolitan Special'' (Jersey City–St. Louis) *''

National Limited The ''National Limited'' was the premier train of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) on its route between Jersey City, New Jersey, and St. Louis, Missouri, with major station stops in Washington, D.C., and Cincinnati, Ohio. (Buses took passeng ...

'' (Jersey City–St. Louis) *'' Shenandoah'' (Jersey City–Chicago) *'' Washington-Chicago Express'' (Washington–Chicago)

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

's '' Blue Ridge'' to

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...

served the station from 1973 until it was discontinued in 1986.

MARC Marc or MARC may refer to: People * Marc (given name), people with the first name * Marc (surname), people with the family name Acronyms * MARC standards, a data format used for library cataloging, * MARC Train, a regional commuter rail system ...

Brunswick Line The Brunswick Line is a MARC commuter rail line between Washington, D.C., and Martinsburg, West Virginia, with a branch to Frederick, Maryland. It primarily serves the northern and western suburbs of Washington. The line, MARC's second longest ...

service at the station ended in 2000, and trains now stop at nearby Silver Spring station where transfer to the

Washington Metro The Washington Metro, often abbreviated as the Metro and formally the Metrorail, is a rapid transit system serving the Washington metropolitan area of the United States. It is administered by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority ...

is available. The station was added to the

in 2000 and restored in 2002.Montgomery Preservation, Inc. Rockville, MD
"Historic Silver Spring Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Station."
Brochure. Accessed 2010-09-09. It retains its original 1940s waiting-room furniture and recessed

fluorescent lighting A fluorescent lamp, or fluorescent tube, is a low-pressure mercury-vapor gas-discharge lamp that uses fluorescence to produce visible light. An electric current in the gas excites mercury vapor, to produce ultraviolet and make a phosphor ...

fixtures. Exhibits on the history of Silver Spring and the B&O Station are provided by the Silver Spring Historical Society and Montgomery Preservation. 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

. An underground pedestrian tunnel connected the two buildings beneath the

track bed The track bed or trackbed is the groundwork onto which a railway track is laid. Trackbeds of disused railways are sometimes used for recreational paths or new light rail links. Background According to Network Rail Network Rail Limited is t ...

. In 2008, the building was demolished to make way for other development.

References

External links

*, including photo in 2004, at Maryland Historical Trust website
Silver Spring Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Station
- Information from the Town of Silver Spring {{National Register of Historic Places in Maryland Downtown Silver Spring, Maryland Railway stations in the United States opened in 1878 Railway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland Railway stations in the United States opened in 1945 Railway stations in Montgomery County, Maryland Former Baltimore and Ohio Railroad stations Colonial Revival architecture in Maryland Former Amtrak stations in Maryland 1878 establishments in Maryland National Register of Historic Places in Montgomery County, Maryland 2000 disestablishments in Maryland Railway stations in the United States closed in 2000