Development In 1852, the board of directors of the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) approved the purchase of five blocks of land fronting on Camden Street at a cost of $600,000 for the construction of a new
passenger and
freight station to serve the city of Baltimore from a larger, more centrally located site than the B&O's 1830s–1850s depot,
Mount Clare Station. Architectural renderings for Camden Station were submitted by the firm of
Niernsee and
Neilson in 1855. Construction began in phases in 1856 under the supervision of Baltimore architect Joseph F. Kemp, who also partly designed the final version, a three-story brick structure with three towers in the
Italianate architectural style. The center section was substantially completed by 1857; thereafter, the station was used by the B&O's passenger trains until the 1980s, one of the longest continuously operated railroad terminals in the U.S. The station's center tower was originally high.
Civil War years In February, 1861,
Abraham Lincoln transferred from the President Street station, to the Camden Station on his way to
Washington, D.C. to be inaugurated as
President of the United States. News of the
Battle of Fort Sumter, beginning the
Civil War, first reached Baltimore on April 12, 1861, at the B&O's Camden Station telegraph office. Trainloads of wounded soldiers and
Confederate POWs came through the station following the
Battle of Antietam, west of Baltimore on September 17, 1862. In July 1877, the station was the site of riots and clashes between the
Maryland National Guard and strikers during the
Baltimore railroad strike, which occurred as part of the
Great Railroad Strike of the same year. Some in the crowd attempted to set fire to the station, and nearby buildings associated with the
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, but were largely unsuccessful. Beginning in 1897, Camden Station also had lower-level platforms for B&O's New York–Washington passenger trains, which used the
Howard Street tunnel to reach
Mount Royal Station. The first mainline
electrification of a steam railroad in the U.S. occurred at Camden Station on June 27, 1895, when an electric locomotive pulled a
Royal Blue train through the Howard Street tunnel.
20th century #51, the first streamlined, non-articulated diesel locomotive, on
B&O's
Royal Blue at Camden Station's lower level in 1937 In 1912, the B&O remodeled the central waiting room, enlarging it and adding oak panelling with marble
wainscoting for the
Democratic National Convention, held in Baltimore that year. The Annapolis & Baltimore Short Line Railroad also used Camden Station for its trains to
Annapolis, Maryland, beginning in 1887. Except for an interval between 1921 and 1935, when the successor
Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway (WB&A) used a separate station at Howard and Lombard Streets, frequent electric
interurban trains to Maryland's capitol served Camden station until February 5, 1950, when WB&A successor
Baltimore and Annapolis Railroad replaced rail passenger service with buses. The first streamlined, non-articulated
diesel locomotive in the U.S.,
EMC EA-EB #51, began using Camden Station's lower-level platforms in 1937, pulling the B&O's famed
Royal Blue. In addition to its New York–Washington service and frequent commuter trains to Washington, the B&O also operated extensive long-distance service at Camden Station to such cities as
Chicago,
Detroit,
Cleveland, and
St. Louis. Declining rail passenger traffic in the 1950s and 1960s led to substantial reductions in passenger train arrivals and departures at the venerable station. On April 26, 1958, the B&O discontinued all passenger service to Philadelphia and New York, and Camden Station's lower-level platforms were used thereafter only for a few trains that continued to Mount Royal Station. When Mount Royal closed in 1961, the lower-level platforms were removed. Today, the lower level tracks and the Howard Street tunnel continue to be extensively used by freight trains of B&O's successor
CSX Transportation, as part of its mainline system. The inception of
Amtrak on May 1, 1971 marked the demise of all B&O long-haul passenger service. Thereafter, only B&O's local commuter trains, mostly
Budd Rail Diesel Cars, continued to use Camden Station.
The Baltimore Sun commentator Jacques Kelly described Camden Station in its twilight years of B&O operation in the 1980s: "Spotlessly maintained, it radiated the goodwill and a non-arrogant style typical of B&O employees ... its golden oak benches and large overhead lamps were maintained in the same pristine condition as when they welcomed delegates to the 1912 Democratic Presidential Convention." == Current operations ==