Brunswick Heritage Museum facts for kids
Museum logo
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| Former name | Brunswick Railroad Museum |
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| Established | c. 1966, 1974 |
| Location | 40 West Potomac Street, Brunswick, Maryland 21716, USA |
| Type | Railroad and history |
| Key holdings | Model railroad |
| Owner | Brunswick Potomac Foundation |
| Public transit access | Brunswick (MARC station) |
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Red Men's Lodge
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U.S. Historic district
Contributing property |
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The building with pharmacy, c. 1978
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| Built | 1904 |
| Built by | Harry B. Funk |
| Architectural style | Early Commercial |
| Part of | Brunswick Historic District (ID79001128) |
| Added to NRHP | August 29, 1979. |
The Brunswick Heritage Museum is a cool place in Brunswick, Maryland. It's a museum all about trains and the history of the town. You can learn how Brunswick grew because of the railroad.
Contents
How the Museum Started
The museum's story began around 1966. A group called the Brunswick Potomac Foundation was formed. They started by holding fun local events. One popular event was Railroad Days, a street festival held every October.
In 1974, the group bought a building to create a museum. It was first called the Brunswick Railroad Museum. Back then, it only focused on trains and railroads.
Later, in 2013, the museum changed its name. It became the Brunswick Heritage Museum. This change meant the museum would also share the history of Brunswick itself. Brunswick was once a "company town," meaning a town built and owned by a company, in this case, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
The Museum's Historic Home
The museum is located in a very old building. It used to be a meeting place for a group called the Improved Order of Red Men. This group used the building until 1936.
Later, another group bought the building. They removed a statue that was at the entrance. Today, that statue can be seen on the second floor of the museum. The museum chose this building because it's very close to the train tracks. It's less than a block from the Brunswick Line MARC commuter line. It's also near four tracks of the CSX mainline.
The building was built in 1904. It has an "early commercial" style of architecture. This means it looks like old shops or offices. It's a three-story brick building. The front has five tall, narrow arched sections. These arches hold the windows on the second and third floors. The bricks are laid in a special pattern called "Flemish bond." The very top of the building has a decorative edge. This edge has small block shapes called "dentils" and supports called "modillions." There are also flat, column-like shapes called "pilasters."
What You Can See Inside
The museum has different things to see on each floor.
- The first floor is a fun area for younger kids. They can play and even dress up!
- The second floor shows what life was like in Brunswick long ago. It also teaches about the C&O Canal, which was an important waterway.
- The third floor has an amazing model train display. This is an HO scale model, which means it's a smaller version of real trains and tracks. The model shows the B&O Railroad's Metropolitan line. This line ran from Washington, DC to Brunswick in the late 1950s. The display also includes the huge Brunswick "classification yards." These yards were finished in 1907. They were about 5 miles (8 kilometers) long. At the time, they were the biggest and most modern train yards in the country for a single railroad company.
Brunswick Visitor Center
You can also find the Brunswick Visitor Center on the first floor of the museum. The National Park Service runs this center. It is part of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park.
See also
- List of museums in Maryland
- List of Improved Order of Red Men buildings and structures
