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Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum

Engineer / Architect: Baldwin and Pennington
Location: Pratt and Poppleton Streets,
Baltimore, MD
Year Built: 1884
Structural Form: passenger train car shop (now museum); iron and steel roof trusses
Historical Details: At one time a thirty-two building complex, employing 3000 people, today the area is home to only a handful of building which have been converted into the B&O Railroad Museum. The most well-known of these buildings is the former passenger car shop, or roundhouse.
Technical Details: The roundhouse (actually a 22-sided polygon) is 123 feet high and 235 feet in diameter. It was equipped to handle / house 22 cars at once. In 2002 the roof collapsed due to excessive snow loads, but it was restored and reopened in 2004.
Image Source(s): Rachel Sangree
References: J. Dorsey and J.D. Dilts, A Guide to Baltimore Architecture (Third Edition), Tidewater Publishers, Centreville, MD (1997), p. 232;
M.E Hayward and F.R. Shivers, Jr., the Architecture of Baltimore: An Illustrated History, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore (2004), p. 165;
Historic American Engineering Record, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad: Mount Clare Passenger Car Shop. HAER No. MD-6. Retrieved May 2, 2005 from: Link