Camden Station

THE B&O was the nation's first real railroad. Its undertaking was probably the greatest business decision ever made in Baltimore. The downtown emblem of that daring innovation, Camden Station, sits abandoned and unused, as it has since its exterior was restored 10 years ago to serve as the frontispiece for Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The best way to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the founding of the B&O Railroad would be to return Camden Station to its traditional use. It's the oldest major metropolitan railroad station in the United States.

100 Years Ago Errant engine A Serious Railroad Accident "The passenger train that left Camden Station a few minutes before 4 o'clock Wednesday afternoon for Frederick, Winchester and intermediate stations was derailed in Union Dam tunnel, two miles west of Ellicott City, on the old main line, at 4:58. "The accident was caused by the engine No. 814 attached to the train leaving the tracks and taking the baggage car and two coaches with it. ... The west bound track was cleared at 9 o'clock.

Baseball's All-Star Game in Baltimore is still 21 weeks away, but the preliminaries have begun.Between now and July, Baltimoreans and out-of-town visitors can get a realistic foretaste of things to come at a preview center that has opened at Camden Station. The Civil War era landmark's ground-floor waiting rooms now contain 4,000 square feet of exhibits about some of the most remarkable moments in baseball history.Displays are devoted to the history and development of Baltimore baseball since the 1870s, to Negro League players and, of course, to Babe Ruth and the nearby museum honoring the Baltimore-born legend.

Bolton Hill baseball and travel writer Charlie Vascellaro normally can be found hanging out at ballparks. So the opportunity to spend a night in late April at the Sports Legends Museum at Camden Station after hearing tales about ghostly occupants was something he wanted to experience — but, understandably, not alone.

For those who have been eager to see the interior of Camden Station ever since Oriole Park opened, the big day has finally arrived.A locomotive's steam whistle will sound at 10 a.m. today to mark the opening of the "Coca-Cola All-Star Week Preview Center." The interactive baseball museum was created in the waiting room on the eastern end of the 1865 station.The temporary exhibit was set up by the Orioles and the Maryland Stadium Authority to promote the July 13 All Star Game in Baltimore and a baseball theme park called FanFest that will be set up July 8-July 14 in the Baltimore Convention Center and Festival Hall.

Camden Station's new top hat goes on this week.Construction workers are putting the finishing touches on downtown Baltimore's landmark rail terminal, which sits on Camden Street alongside the new baseball stadium. By the end of the week, the old terminal should resemble the way it looked in the era of Abraham Lincoln.A crane will lift a tiered, wedding-cake-style clock tower atop the station. With its columns and fancy victorian brackets, the new headpiece should make a loud statement, one that will call needed attention to an overlooked piece of local history.

At last, a sound idea has surfaced for the fate of Camden Station.This important mid-1850s Baltimore landmark is now being studied as a potential baseball shrine and sports museum by the Babe Ruth Museum, the Baltimore Orioles Museum, the Maryland Baseball Hall of Fame and the newly formed Babe Ruth League Hall of Fame.That is just the ticket for one of the city's treasures of architecture and history. The venerable terminal has sat empty, without a purpose.The odd thing about Camden Station is that it is not an endangered building.

Poor Camden Station. For far too long, this historic rail terminal has been rotting away in the shadows of a downtown hell bent on new office construction.The old terminal, once the corporate headquarters of the mighty Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, sits on Camden Street, between Howard and Eutaw, just east of the new ballpark. In case you're not familiar with the area, the station is adjacent to the north end of the massive B&O brick warehouse. It's the building that seems lost and forlorn.

Utilizing the Camden Railroad Station, truly one of the most historic buildings in Baltimore, into the baseball complex that serves the Baltimore Orioles is an appropriate undertaking. It could be a perfect fit, a bonanza of an idea.Camden Station, where Lincoln paused to and from his trip to deliver the Gettysburg Address, fronts the property where the Orioles play. Not to be confused with the ponderous Camden Warehouse, it's an unused railroad depot, 137 years old, that's in need of rehabilitation and a new purpose in life.

The long-awaited renovation of Camden Station received a boost this week when lawmakers gave preliminary approval to an $8.5 million plan to rehabilitate the historic downtown structure to house commercial offices and a regional sports museum. The station, from which the adjacent Camden Yards stadium complex got its name, was cosmetically repaired when Oriole Park opened in 1992. But various plans for its reuse came and went with no action while the empty shell deteriorated. The Legislative Policy Committee, which consists of the top-ranking members of the General Assembly, on Tuesday approved in concept a proposal by the Maryland Stadium Authority.

There needs to be a wider vision for the proposed slots parlor on Russell Street. Moving the Preakness to a new world-class facility in the Camden-Carroll industrial park would reinforce the slots parlor opposite Russell Street and feed off the success of Camden Yards. Also, adjacent to the site is the mouth of the Gwynns Falls that empties into Ridgley's Cove. This presents an opportunity to restore a natural landscape feature and demonstrate Baltimore's leadership in environment and recycling.

One hundred forty-seven years ago Monday, Abraham Lincoln made his only appearance in Baltimore as president, when he stepped off a special B&O train at Camden Station to address the Sanitary Fair Commission, whose purpose was raising funds for wounded Union soldiers. Shortly after 6 p.m. on April 18, 1864, as the presidential special braked to a stop at Camden Station, Lincoln prepared to get off and be welcomed to the city by a large crowd that had gathered outside the station and on the platform and cheered him for 20 minutes.

Last year Baltimore's tourism officials encouraged visitors to find their "happy place" and created the world's largest smiley face to help lift the region out of its doldrums. In previous years, they coaxed city visitors and residents to see jellyfish at the aquarium and celebrate Edgar Allan Poe's 200th birthday. For 2011, the tourism agency, Visit Baltimore, plans to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War's start by promoting local museum exhibits and cultural attractions with connections to the war. Visit Baltimore officials will hold a briefing Wednesday at Camden Station to outline details of the $65,000 tourism campaign.

With an unusual dispensation from security-conscious CSX Transportation, Gov. Martin O'Malley was permitted to ride along in the gleaming new MARC locomotive that made a maiden trip from Locust Point to Camden Station on Wednesday. But he had to temporarily give up his ever-present BlackBerry. As the state transportation secretary, the head of Maryland Transit Administration and other dignitaries followed in a separate car, the governor rode shotgun on the 15-minute crawl from a CSX rail yard to a news conference where the $3.5 million, state-of-the-art diesel locomotive made its ceremonial debut.

While passing a vacant Baltimore Street shop, I considered a March day 35 years ago. I'd slipped away from the old New American's city desk on a quick break and made a sharp, unexplained turn into that space, then occupied by a PanAm Airlines sales office. Although out for nothing more than a sandwich, I found myself spending Easter week in England. A persuasive sales agent named Rita overcame all my natural Baltimore fear of destinations beyond New York and Ocean City. My Baltimore travel reference points had been primitive.

About this time of the year a set of news stories appear to reveal how the spectator side of thoroughbred racing is about to perish. I read the accounts about Pimlico's fallen glory days and that the stands are empty, except for Preakness day. When it comes to racing, I am not unprejudiced. I grew up learning about the track and was smitten by the beauty of the horses and the social tone and demeanor of the colorful spectators.

Developer Richard Swirnow's plan to build a $600 million medical trade mart and conference center east of the Camden Yards stadium has won the backing of the Maryland Stadium Authority.After receiving a recommendation that the medical mart represented a "once in a lifetime" development opportunity for the state, Stadium Authority members voted unanimously yesterday to give Mr. Swirnow's group a nine-month "exclusive negotiating privilege" to prove it can move ahead with the project.The Parkway/Swirnow Group Ltd., a joint venture of Parkway Holdings Ltd. of Singapore and the Swirnow Group of Baltimore, is building the $600 million HarborView condominium complex along Key Highway.

Orioles owner Peter Angelos presented a $1 million check yesterday to the future home of the Babe Ruth Museum's exhibit at historic Camden Station, where city officials have high hopes for a major tourist attraction.Angelos called the museum's planned exhibit "a unique and unmatched tourist attraction" that will complement the historic baseball feel of Camden Yards."We have great hopes for this wonderful museum," said Angelos, standing in front of the future site of the Babe Ruth Museum's Baseball Center at Camden Station.

Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Thomas Ward says he is "98 percent" recovered from his recent bout with a neurological disorder, Guillain-Barre syndrome. At age 80, he'll be back on the bench next month. Although technically retired, he also has a 1,600-acre cattle and timber farm that spreads out along the Cheat River in West Virginia to keep him busy, as well as his daily Baltimore walks, which take him from his Bolton Hill home to Pennsylvania Station, where he likes to watch the city's ever-increasing passenger train traffic pass.

TODAY ENGLISH-LANGUAGE VOTE -- The Taneytown City Council will meet at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall, 17 E. Baltimore St. The agenda includes voting on a resolution to make English the official language in the city. 410-751-1100. TOMORROW CITY SCHOOL BOARD -- The Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners will meet at 6 p.m. at Digital Harbor High School, 1100 Covington St. It is the first in a series of school board meetings to be held in neighborhoods instead of system headquarters. 410-396-8709.