Mount Clare Shops facts for kids
The Mount Clare Shops is the oldest place in the United States where railroad equipment was made. It is located in Baltimore, Maryland. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) started it in 1829. Many new ideas and inventions for railroads came from Mt. Clare. Today, it is home to the B&O Railroad Museum. The museum and the Mt. Clare station became a National Historic Landmark in 1961. This means they are very important historical sites.
Contents
History of Mount Clare Shops
The land where Mount Clare Shops stands was once part of a large property. It belonged to Charles Carroll (barrister).
Early Days: Horses and First Locomotives
When the B&O railroad first started, it used horsecars. These were like streetcars pulled by horses. The first buildings at Mt. Clare were a depot and stables for these horses. This was one of the very first passenger stations in the United States.
In 1830, the first U.S. steam locomotive was built nearby. After this, the B&O began building its own locomotives at Mt. Clare. They also built freight cars, passenger cars, bridges, and other railroad tools. Important locomotive designers like Ross Winans and Phineas Davis built their new machines here. By 1839, about 100 people worked at the shops.
Growth and New Inventions
The B&O built an ironworks at Mt. Clare in 1850. This is where they made things from iron. The first iron railroad bridges were built here in the 1850s. These bridges were designed by Wendel Bollman. During this time, a roundhouse (for storing engines), car shops, and a new depot were also built.
After the American Civil War, the railroad added more buildings. These included a foundry (for melting metal), a blacksmith shop, and more car shops. In 1882, they added a shop just for making bridges.
The Giant Circular Building
A very large, round building was finished in 1884. It was designed by architect E. Francis Baldwin. This building was for working on passenger cars. It was sometimes mistakenly called a roundhouse. When it was finished, it was the biggest circular industrial building in the world. It was about 235 feet (71.6 meters) across and 123 feet (37.5 meters) high.
The number of workers at Mt. Clare Shops grew a lot. By 1852, there were 1,000 workers. In the 1920s, over 3,000 people worked there!
Modern Changes and Decline
Between 1900 and 1920, the B&O built even more large shops. These included a big locomotive shop, a sawmill, a machine shop, and a grain elevator. In the late 1920s, air-conditioned passenger cars were developed here. This was a joint effort by the B&O and the Carrier Corporation.
The last steam locomotive built at Mt. Clare was in 1948. In the 1950s, railroads started using more diesel locomotives. This meant less work for steam locomotive repairs at Mt. Clare. The large circular car shop was no longer used by the railroad in 1953. It was then given to the museum.
In 1962, a fire destroyed the locomotive repair shop at Mt. Clare. The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) bought the B&O that same year. After this, most locomotive repairs moved to other B&O shops. Only car repairs continued at Mt. Clare until 1974. By then, many buildings were old and falling apart. Most were torn down by 1976, except for those used by the museum. CSX Transportation, the railroad company that followed, sold parts of the property. The museum now owns about 40 acres (160,000 square meters) of the original Mt. Clare site.
