20th century The present Pennsylvania Station is the third railroad depot on its
North Charles Street site. The first one was a wooden structure built by the
Northern Central Railway, a subsidiary of the
Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), that began operating in 1873. This was replaced in 1886 by the Charles Street Union Station, which featured a three-
story brick building situated below street level with a sloping
driveway that led to its entrance and a
train shed that measured . It was demolished in January 1910, for construction of the present edifice, which opened on September 15, 1911. Between the 1920s and 1940s, Savarin Restaurants provided full-service dining rooms at Baltimore Pennsylvania Station,
Washington Union Station, and others. The Savarin Restaurant, located at the west end of Baltimore's station, was originally decorated with Chesapeake Bay-themed murals and had an entrance and exterior signage directly fronting Charles Street. By the early 1960s, the Savarin had ended table service and offered
counter-service only. The PRR operated local and intercity service on both the Northeast Corridor and the Northern Central. Northeast Corridor service included the PRR's own trains, as well as long-distance trains from southern railroads. The northeast Corridor was electrified through the station in 1935. Service on the Northern Central ended in the late 1960s. Penn Station was used by the
Western Maryland Railway until 1958. The
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad instead used nearby
Mount Royal Station until 1961, while the
Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad used a small station at North Avenue until 1954. On September 23, 1952,
Richard Nixon, then a U.S. senator from California and the
Republican Party's nominee for vice president, gave what became known as the
Checkers speech, in which he said his dog Checkers had been held for him at "Union Station in Baltimore," the station's former name. As part of the Northeast Corridor Improvement Project, the station was restored to its 1911 appearance in 1984. Baltimore Light RailLink service began in 1997.
21st century In 2004,
Baltimore, through its public arts program, commissioned sculptor
Jonathan Borofsky to create a
sculpture as the centerpiece of a re-designed plaza in front of Penn Station. His work, a -tall aluminum statue, named
Male/Female, has generated considerable controversy ever since, with
The Baltimore Sun reporting what it called a "maelstrom of criticism". Its defenders cite the contemporary imagery and artistic expression as complementing an urban landscape, while opponents criticize what they decry as a clash with the station's
Beaux-Arts architecture and detracting from its classic lines.
The Baltimore Sun editorially characterized it as "oversized, underdressed, and woefully out of place". The Camden Yards–Penn Station light rail service was suspended in September 2019 and replaced by a bus bridge due to a lack of available operators. Service later resumed, but was again suspended in 2022 due to Amtrak construction at Penn Station. Light rail service to Penn Station resumed in June 2025.
Redevelopment plans Several proposals have been made to convert the upper floors of the station into a hotel. Proposals from 2001 and 2006 were announced but never completed. In 2009, Amtrak reached an agreement with a developer for a 77-room hotel to be called The Inn at Penn Station. This project stalled along with many other hotel proposals in Baltimore. In December 2017, Amtrak awarded a contract to Penn Station Partners for improvements to the station and redevelopment of nearby property owned by the passenger railroad. The partnership is composed of Beatty Development Group and Cross Street Partners. In April 2019, it was announced that development would encompass a transit-oriented hub of apartments, shops, offices, a hotel, and redevelopment of nearby property owned by the passenger railroad. Amtrak describes the plan as creating a premier regional transportation hub to accommodate passenger growth as the
next generation of high-speed Acela Express trains start running along the
Northeast Corridor in 2021. In a June 8, 2021 editorial,
The Baltimore Sun reported that the controversial
Male/Female statue was not shown in the development team's conceptual drawings for the station plaza. The developers said no decision had been reached about its future, and the newspaper called for public input on the issue. == References ==