Brunswick Heritage Museum

Last updated
Brunswick Heritage Museum
Brunswick Heritage Museum logo.jpg
Museum logo
USA Maryland location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Brunswick Heritage Museum
Location within Maryland
Former name
Brunswick Railroad Museum
Establishedc. 1966, 1974
Location40 West Potomac Street, Brunswick, Maryland 21716, USA
Coordinates 39°18′47″N77°37′41″W / 39.3129637°N 77.6280838°W / 39.3129637; -77.6280838
Type Railroad and history
Key holdings Model railroad
CuratorRebecca O’Leary
Owner Brunswick Potomac Foundation
Public transit access Brunswick (MARC station)
Website brunswickmuseum.org
Red Men's Lodge
Brunswick Heritage Museum - Former "Red Men Hall".png
The building with pharmacy, c. 1978
Built1904
Built byHarry B. Funk
Architectural style Early Commercial
Part of Brunswick Historic District (ID79001128 [1] )
Added to NRHPAugust 29, 1979.

The Brunswick Heritage Museum is a railroad and history museum in Brunswick, Maryland.

Contents

History

The Brunswick Potomac Foundation was founded during the town's 75th Anniversary Diamond Jubilee and originally focused on hosting local events including Railroad Days, an annual street festival held during the first full weekend in October. [2] In 1974, the group purchased a building from a fraternal lodge to host a museum. Founded as the Brunswick Railroad Museum, the museum originally focused exclusively on railroads. In 2013, the name was changed to Brunswick Heritage Museum and the mission of the museum expanded to include the history of Brunswick, a company town of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. [3]

Building

The museum is housed in the former Improved Order of Red Men fraternal lodge, a group that despite its name was limited to white men at that time and bases their rituals on perceived Native American customs. [4] [5] The clubhouse building or "wigwam" was built by the Delaware Tribe No. 43 who occupied the building until 1936. [6] The Fraternal Order of Eagles Brunswick Aerie No. 1136 purchased the building on June 1, 1936 and removed the Native American statue from the entrance. That statue is now on the second floor of the museum. [7] The museum chose the building because it is located less than a block from the Brunswick Line MARC commuter line and four tracks of the CSX mainline.

The 1904 building reflects an early commercial architectural style. The three-story brick facade is dominated by five bays consisting of tall, narrow arches which contain the second and third story windows. The brickwork uses a Flemish bond pattern with glazed headers. The top of the building is partial story consisting of a dentilled cornice with modillions underneath and short pilasters above. [4]

Collection

Model of the Point of Rocks Station BrunswickTrainM3.jpg
Model of the Point of Rocks Station

The first floor has a younger children's play and dress up area. The second floor focuses on life in Brunswick during different time periods, and on the C&O Canal. The third floor consists of an HO scale model railroad layout depicting the B&O Railroad's Metropolitan line (the MET) from Washington, DC to Brunswick, Maryland in the late 1950s. [7] The model also includes the Brunswick classification yards, which were completed in 1907 and measured 5 miles (8.0 km) long, the largest and most modern in the nation to serve only one railroad company at that time.[ citation needed ]

Brunswick Visitor Center

The Brunswick Visitor Center is also on the first floor and is maintained by the National Park Service as a tenant. [7] This is a unit of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harpers Ferry, West Virginia</span> Town in West Virginia, United States

Harpers Ferry is a historic town in Jefferson County, West Virginia, in the lower Shenandoah Valley. The town's population was 269 at the 2020 United States census. Situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, where Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia meet, it is the easternmost town in West Virginia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brunswick, Maryland</span> City in Maryland

Brunswick is a city in southwestern Frederick County, Maryland, United States. The city is located on the north bank of the Potomac River; Loudoun County, Virginia occupies the opposite shore. The population of Brunswick was 8,211 at the 2022 Census. There are three schools serving Brunswick: Brunswick Elementary School, Brunswick Middle School, and Brunswick High School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roslyn, Washington</span> City in Washington, United States

Roslyn is a city in Kittitas County, Washington, United States. The population was 950 at the 2020 census. Roslyn is located in the Cascade Mountains, about 80 miles east of Seattle. The town was founded in 1886 as a coal mining company town. During the 20th century, the town gradually transitioned away from coal, and today its economy is primarily based on forestry and tourism. The town was the filming location for The Runner Stumbles, Northern Exposure, and The Man in the High Castle. Many of the town's historical structures have been preserved, and its downtown was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dealey Plaza</span> Dallas, Texas, U S. historic place

Dealey Plaza is a city park in the West End Historic District of downtown Dallas, Texas. It is sometimes called the "birthplace of Dallas". It was also the location of the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963. Thirty minutes after the shooting, Kennedy was pronounced dead at Parkland Memorial Hospital. The Dealey Plaza Historic District was named a National Historic Landmark on the 30th anniversary of the assassination, to preserve Dealey Plaza, street rights-of-way, and buildings and structures by the plaza visible from the assassination site, that have been identified as witness locations or as possible locations for the assassin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">B&O Railroad Museum</span> United States historic place

The B&O Railroad Museum is a museum and historic railway station exhibiting historic railroad equipment in Baltimore, Maryland. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) company originally opened the museum on July 4, 1953, with the name of the Baltimore & Ohio Transportation Museum. It has been called one of the most significant collections of railroad treasures in the world and has the largest collection of 19th-century locomotives in the U.S. The museum is located in the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's old Mount Clare Station and adjacent roundhouse, and retains 40 acres of the B&O's sprawling Mount Clare Shops site, which is where, in 1829, the B&O began America's first railroad and is the oldest railroad manufacturing complex in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harpers Ferry National Historical Park</span> Park at confluence of Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland in the United States

Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, originally Harpers Ferry National Monument, is located at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers in and around Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. The park includes the historic center of Harpers Ferry, notable as a key 19th-century industrial area and as the scene of John Brown's failed abolitionist uprising. It contains the most visited historic site in the state of West Virginia, John Brown's Fort.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States National Register of Historic Places listings</span> Register for landmarks in the United States

The National Register of Historic Places in the United States is a register including buildings, sites, structures, districts, and objects. The Register automatically includes all National Historic Landmarks as well as all historic areas administered by the U.S. National Park Service. Since its introduction in 1966, more than 90,000 separate listings have been added to the register.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Brown's Fort</span> Building in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, United States

John Brown's Fort was initially built in 1848 for use as a guard and fire engine house by the federal Harpers Ferry Armory, in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. An 1848 military report described the building as "An engine and guard-house 35 1/2 x 24 feet, one story brick, covered with slate, and having copper gutters and down spouts…"

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antietam National Battlefield</span> Historical area from the American Civil War

Antietam National Battlefield is a National Park Service-protected area along Antietam Creek in Sharpsburg, Washington County, northwestern Maryland. It commemorates the American Civil War Battle of Antietam that occurred on September 17, 1862.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canal Place</span> State park in Cumberland, Maryland

Canal Place is a 58.1-acre (235,000 m2) heritage area located in Cumberland, Maryland at the western terminus of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Queen Anne's Railroad</span> Defunct railroad in Maryland and Delaware, US

The Queen Anne’s Railroad was a railroad that ran between Love Point, Maryland, and Lewes, Delaware, with connections to Baltimore via ferry across the Chesapeake Bay. The Queen Anne's Railroad company was formed in Maryland in 1894, and received legislative authorization from Delaware in February 1895. The railroad's original western terminus was in Queenstown, Maryland, and was moved via a 13-mile (21 km) extension to Love Point in 1902, which shortened the ferry trip to Baltimore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gaithersburg station</span> MARC rail station in Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States

Gaithersburg station is a commuter rail station located on the Metropolitan Subdivision in downtown Gaithersburg, Maryland. It is served by the MARC Brunswick Line service; it was also served by Amtrak from 1971 to 1986. The former Baltimore and Ohio Railroad station building and freight shed, designed by Ephraim Francis Baldwin and built in 1884, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Gaithersburg B & O Railroad Station and Freight Shed. They are used as the Gaithersburg Community Museum.

Historic preservation in New York is activity undertaken to conserve forests, buildings, ships, sacred burial grounds, water purity and other objects of cultural importance in New York in ways that allow them to communicate meaningfully about past practices, events, and people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Clare (Maryland)</span> Historic house in Maryland, United States

Mount Clare, also known as Mount Clare Mansion and generally known today as the Mount Clare Museum House, is the oldest Colonial-era structure in the City of Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. The Georgian style of architecture plantation house exhibits a somewhat altered five-part plan. It was built on a Carroll family plantation beginning in 1763 by barrister Charles Carroll the Barrister, (1723–1783), a descendant of the last Gaelic Lords of Éile in Ireland and a distant relative of the much better-known Charles Carroll of Carrollton, (1737–1832), longest living signer of the Declaration of Independence and the richest man in America in his later years, also the layer of the First Stone of the new Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, just a short distance away in 1828.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brunswick Historic District</span> Historic district in Maryland, United States

The Brunswick Historic District includes the historic center of the railroad town of Brunswick, Maryland. The district includes the 18th century former town of Berlin, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad yards along the Potomac River, and the town built between 1890 and 1910 to serve the railroad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cumberland station (Western Maryland Railway)</span> Railway station in Cumberland, Maryland, US

Cumberland station is a historic railway station in Cumberland, Allegany County, Maryland. It was built in 1913 as a stop for the Western Maryland Railway (WM). The building was operated as a passenger station until the WM ended service in 1959, and it continued to be used by the railway until 1976. It was subsequently restored and currently serves as a museum and offices, as well as the operating base for a heritage railway.

The Mizpah Lodge Building on Front St. in Sheldon, North Dakota was built in 1905. It has also been known as Mel's Country Grocery. It is a fraternal/commercial block building. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Lodge Number 878</span> Clubhouse in Queens, new York

Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Lodge Number 878 is a historic Elks lodge on Queens Boulevard in the Elmhurst neighborhood of Queens in New York City. The 3+12-story Italian Renaissance-style main building and two-story annex were both built in 1923–1924 and designed by the Ballinger Company. A three-story rear addition was added in 1930.

References

  1. "National Register Information System  Brunswick Historic District (#79001128)". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. November 2, 2013. Retrieved May 3, 2024.
  2. "Come and Visit Brunswick…". City of Brunswick. Archived from the original on 25 October 2014. Retrieved 25 October 2014.
  3. Doyle, Kim (2013-03-21). "New name for museum". Brunswick Citizen. Brunswick, MD.
  4. 1 2 Koenig, Connie; James, Pamela (March 15, 1978). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form: Brunswick Historic District". National Archives . National Register of Historic Places . Retrieved May 2, 2024.
  5. Deloria, Philip J. (1998). Playing Indian . Yale University Press. pp. 59–65.
  6. Rubin, Mary H. (2007). Brunswick. Mount Pleasant, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing. p. 99. ISBN   9780738536590 . Retrieved 2014-10-24.
  7. 1 2 3 Wexler, Ellyn (2023). "Brunswick Heritage Museum Preserves, Celebrates, and Shares a Small Town's Unique History". Eastern Home & Travel Magazine . Pulse Publishing. Retrieved May 2, 2024.

39°18′47″N77°37′41″W / 39.3129637°N 77.6280838°W / 39.3129637; -77.6280838