Elkton’s depression era station replaced a depot that had somehow managed to outlive its usefulness in just 80 years. It was in 1855, that the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad Company decided to replace the first station, which had been built when the railroad first arrived in town in the late 1830s. The company purchased five acres of land on the Howard farm at the edge of town and proceeded to building a “handsome brick station house,” which was similar in size and appearance to the one in Chester. It included separate waiting rooms for the ladies and gentlemen, as well a ticket and telegraph office. But by the time the great depression rolled around the county seat needed a modern facility. Once the 80 year old structure was no longer of use to the railroad company it was sold and moved to Locust Point where it was used as a summer cottage.
A steam locomotive rumbles past the 1855 station in this postcard from about 1912
In the middle of the Great Depression, the Pennsylvania Railroad electrified its mainline between New York and Washington and this resulted in a number of improvements in Elkton. In the center of town, a sharp curve in the tracks created a hazard so company engineers straightened the right-away, eliminating the dangerous bend. While they were at it they also eliminated three grade crossings and built two bridges to carry traffic safely over the busy railroad, one on North Street and the other on Bridge Street. Blue Ball Road was also slated for a bridge, recalls railroad historian Mr. Richard Hall, but the owners of the land demanded such a high price the plan was dropped. Since the goal was to do away with grade crossings the company built an improved road known as Elkton Blvd., to connect Blue Ball Road with Bridge Street. This first phase of work was completed in 1934.
The new Elkton Train Station is busy
The realignment also caused a need to replace the old Elkton Railroad Station, which had somehow managed to outlive its usefulness in 80-years. Thus in February 1935, The William M. Francis Company of Wilmington started building a new one, a one-story brick structure with a green slate roof. In a few months, the station opened to travelers. This modern facility, with all the latest conveniences, included baggage and waiting rooms, as well as an agent’s office. A pedestrian tunnel underneath the tracks connected the main station on the Philadelphia side with the tracks for southbound traffic. It replaced a structure built-in 1855.
As the William M. Francis Company assembled its construction equipment on Bow Street at the end of January the electrification project was wrapping up. One day a record-breaking electric train flashed through Elkton, en-route from Philadelphia to Washington and back again. Setting an all-time record for the Philadelphia to Washington Run, the nine-car train attained speeds of 102 miles per hour, making the trip in one hour and fifty minutes. The engineer pushing the throttle to the limit on this fast trip, Charles B. Morris of Wilmington, was a veteran of thirty-seven years of steam railroading.
Once the Elkton Railroad Station opened the company had completed the extensive improvements started by the railroad more than three years earlier. The sharp curve in the company’s tracks between North Street and the Big Elk Creek bridge has been eliminated, the tracks being about one-quarter mile further north than previously. The total cost of improvements made here, not including electrification were estimated at over $1-million.
For a generation of residents, the Elkton Station was an important community center, the place that linked them to the larger world. Passengers arrived and departed here, the mail came and went, and the Railway Express Agency brought in the freight, while morning and evening newspapers arrived from the cities. But as the golden age of railroading faded, regular passenger service ground slowly to a halt here by the mid-1960s. A brief attempt at providing commuter service ended in 1981. After that the station became little more than a storage shed and a workshop used by Amtrak’s right-away crews.
Today that symbol of the community’s railroad age still stands quietly alongside Amtrak’s mainline as Acela’s rush by. Mayor Joseph Fisonia has said that restoration of service to this station is important to the economic well-being of the central business district and for the region’s transportation needs.
Note: Thanks to Mr. Richard Hall for reviewing this article and providing additional information
John Berry, Jr., an African-American living at Mt. Zoar was authorized by the Cecil County Board of Education to raise money to help build a school at the small community a mile or so outside of Conowingo late in 1871. He successfully raised local funds and the school board matched it with the school tax that was paid by “the colored people.” Thus a contract was awarded to J. Dixon West and the Cecil Whig wrote: “Soon now we shall have a good house for the colored children in the 8th District and in the most central place, which will accommodate at least seventy-five children (Cecil Whig, Dec. 17, 1870).”
On February 25, 1871, a Pilot Town News Item in the Cecil Whig announced that “The colored public school in this district commenced on Monday. They have a very fine school room in the basement of Thad Stevens Hall on the road from Conowingo to Port Deposit.”
While we can say with certainty that there was an African-American School in Conowingo by 1871, it is not the building that survives there now as the physical description does not align with the surviving structure. For example, for the original Mt. Zoar School the article states that the contractor was to build a schoolhouse with a hall over the classroom.
When Mr. Berry died in 1879 his real estate was sold at an estate sale and the listing included: “All the interest of said deceased in the property known as Thaddeus Stevens Hall and School House (Cecil Whig, Sept. 27, 1897)
Request for bids for the Mt. Zoar School (Source: Cecil Whig, July 18, 1914)
The Maryland Historical Trust reports the “Mt. Zoar Colored School” near Conowingo opened about 1875. But the building pictured in this post went up in 1914, the Board of School Commissioners inspecting “the new colored school house at Mt. Zoar” that October, the Whig reported.1 The School Commissioners had allocated $2,000 for the project, but competitive bids came in and the contract was awarded to S. M. McCardell for $1,674.2 This current structure was used until the start of the 1941/42 school year.
The Cecil County School Board Records provide a partial listing of some of the teachers assigned to the school: 1918-Miss Lucy D. Jackson, Conowingo; 1921 – Miss Katharine Whiteside, Conowingo; 1931 – Bessie C. Harris, Conowingo & Albert B. Wilson, Conowingo; 1932 – Bessie C. Harris & Mrs. Ada J. Berry; 1934 – Bessie C. Harris, Rowlandsville & Mrs. Ada J. Berry, Rowlandsville, 1935-36 – Mrs. Bessie C. Harris, Goldsboro, and Mrs. Ada J. Berry, Conowingo; 1939 – Mrs. Ada J. Berry, Conowingo.
It closed for the 1941-42 school year, according to the minutes of the Board of Education (5/13/1941). After that, the children from the Mt. Zoar School were transported to the new school in Port Deposit.
Elkton Town Administrator, Lewis George, was at the Elkton station Saturday when the Obama Express came rolling past the old railroad depot. He said: “I took this photograph of then President-elect Barack Obama’s train blitz through Elkton on Saturday, January 17, 2009, at around 2:30 p.m………..as I stood in the midst of a very cold and patient, but warm and cheering crowd of citizens gathered along the Old North Road RR tracks near Immaculate Conception.”
Thanks Lewis for allowing us to post these excellent shots here.
On this historic day when people all along the northeast corridor between Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. greeted the nation’s 44th president, Barack Obama, we look at a few other times when the nation’s leaders came through the county on the rails. It was a frequent occurrence in the era before air travel became common.
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Riding Cecil’s First Railroad – The seventh president of the United States, Andrew Jackson, rode Cecil’s first little railroad, the New Castle and Frenchtown during his administration (1829 – 1837).
Lincoln Sidetracked at Elkton — The 16th President took a flying trip to West Point in June 1862. On his return to Washington, D.C. his train was put on the siding at Elkton to let a Philadelphia bound express pass by. During 15 to 20-minutes the “special lay off on the switch” a number of people shook the President’s hand and exchanged a few words of conversation with “Old Abe.” Two years later (June 1864) when Lincoln made an appearance in Philadelphia, the railroad let him pass right through without delay. It provided a special train for the wartime executive and the locomotive, gaily decorated with flags rushed past Elkton with a “shrill scream” from its steam Whistle.
Grant’s Destination, Elkton – May 18, 1872, was like no other day in Elkton history. On that day the distant smoke of a locomotive steaming toward the railroad station announced that President Ulysses S. Grant was approaching the county seat. The president and Mrs. Grant stepped from the train and were greeted by a crowd of people. The party was here for an overnight stay with Postmaster General Creswell.
President Taft in Elkton speaking at the Howard Hotel
Whistle Stop Tour Brings Taft – In May 1912, William Howard Taft in an all-day speech making tour campaigned in Elkton. Arriving by special train, he found houses and businesses elaborately decorated in his honor. Excitement filled the streets as he rode to the Howard Hotel in the automobile of William T. Warburton. Speaking for about an hour from the porch of the Howard Hotel, he hurried back to his train for whistle stop in Aberdeen.
Roosevelt Waits for at Perryville — The 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, left office in 1909 but in 1912 he decided to jump back into politics, running on the Progressive Ticket against William Howard Taft. On a speechmaking tour in May 1912, a locomotive dropped his coach at Perryville where it had to wait for another engine to take it across the bridge. When word spread everyone who could get away from him home or business gathered to get a glimpse of the ex-president. Hearing the cheering Roosevelt came out on the platform and spoke to the crowd.
Hoover Hurries Past – Immediately after Franklin Delano Roosevelt took the oath of office in March 1933, Herbert Hoover, the chief executive who had served when the stock market crashed and the nation spiraled downward into the depression, made his exit from Washington D.C. Speeding to New York City on the Pennsylvania Railroad, the weary ex-president was piloted by an engineer from Perryville, Harry Fay. As passenger extra 5385 swiftly passed through the county, the train averaged 60-miles an hour.
By the time the Whistle Stop Express rolled across the Mason-Dixon Line into Maryland at 2:17 this afternoon, the mercury was still a couple of points short of the day’s high, 19-degrees. But the artic air blanketing the Mid-Atlantic didn’t stop over 200-well wishers from waiting patiently in the bitter cold at the old Pennsylvania Railroad Depot in Elkton. On down the 20-miles of line in Cecil the train rolled southward while smaller clusters of people in the outlying areas waited to get a glimpse of it on this historic day. It was striking to see the lone people standing on a hillside not far from the tracks waving in this rural part of Maryland as the train came by, a CNN reporter aboard the press coach blogged.
When the locomotive pulling the 10 coaches came into view at Perryville’s restored passenger station the Mayor and Commissioners of Perryville and another crowd of over 200 people waved and cheered the president-elect’s party. The Amtrak special crossed over the Susquehanna into Harford County at 2:35 p.m. The vintage car faded slowly from view of the cheering crowd while President-elect Obama and Vice-President-Elect Biden seated comfortably inside rolled toward a date with history as they carried with them the hopes of the nation.
One of our fellow Cecil County Bloggers, “the Road to Compromise” has an interesting piece up about the respected, long time principal of George Washington Carver High School, Mr. Charles Caldwell. He served the county Board of Education until the Booth Street school closed at the time of integration in Cecil County. We thought our readers might find the piece to be of interest. Click here to surf over to the article.
The Associated Press produced a story on Dec. 22 concerning the president-elect’s route to the inauguration over the northeast corridor Amtrak Line between Philadelphia and Washington. The piece was carried widely by many of the nation’s daily newspapers, and we’ve clipped part of it here in case you didn’t see it. For the entire article click on the at the bottom, which will take you to the Wilmington News Journal, which included a few staff photographs with the piece.
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Riding Rails May Remind Obama of Task He Faces
Associated Press, Dec. 22, 2oo8
ABOARD AMTRAK 181 NORTHEAST REGIONAL — The centuries-old right of way between Philadelphia and Washington is marked by shimmering waterways and industrial sprawl, well-kept suburbs and urban blight. Pesident-elect Barack Obama won’t be sharing a ride with thousands of long-distance commuters when he travels on a private charter train from Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station to Washington’s Union Station on Jan. 17, three days before he takes the oath of office. But his route will be exactly the same. I fact, it hasn’t changed much since Abraham Lincoln rode the rails before his inauguration.
Evidently, Obama has thought deeply about the symbolism of the 135-mile journey, something that regular riders typically aren’t inclined to do. Nonetheless, they develop a feel for the changing landscape. You see those deserted houses, and you know you’re in Baltimore,” said Gifty Kwakye, 27, a student at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who commutes daily from Philadelphia. The theme for Obama’s inaugural is “Renewing America’s Promise,” and as Kwakye noted, the need for such renewal will be clear in the five minutes before Obama’s train pulls into Baltimore’s Penn Station.
The tracks pass through some of east Baltimore’s most impoverished neighborhoods, where abandoned and burned-out row homes seem to outnumber inhabited ones. The city has nearly 30,000 abandoned properties.
Closed Chrysler plant in view
A gaze out the window could also remind Obama of the troubles of the auto industry, the decline of American manufacturing and the strain on the military. Johnnie Walker, a 60-year-old Amtrak operations supervisor from Middletown, who has been with the railroad for 29 years, finds profound scenes throughout the journey. At the just-closed Chrysler plant in Newark, “you wonder what’s going to happen to all the employees there,” Walker said. At Maryland’s Aberdeen Proving Ground, “you start thinking about the military personnel in Iraq or Afghanistan, wondering where they’re being deployed to. “There’s a lot of emotion when you travel on these trains,” Walker said . . .
There are a number of old schools from the segregation era in Cecil still standing around the county and their history is interesting. I just noticed that The Long Road to Compromise, a blog about school integratrion on the upper Eastern Shore has a new piece about the African-American school in Cedar Hill, a small community in the northeatern corner of the county. It’s not too far from Pleasant Hill. You may want to glance at that posting.
Barack Obama and Joseph Biden will travel to the inauguration by train on Saturday, January 17, the Baltimore Sun and News Journal reported this afternoon. After stopping for a celebration in Wilmington, the president and vice-president will step aboard the inaugural train for the trip to Washington. This is particularly exciting news for this memorable run will bring them through Cecil County. Naturally, this isn’t the first time a president passed through here on the railroad. There were many, including presidents Lincoln, Grant, Taft, Wilson, Hoover, Roosevelt and others. A Window on Cecil County’s Pastwill post a piece about presidents riding the rails in Cecil over the next few days and we’ll plan to do a slide show on Saturday, Jan 17 as Cecil County turns out to wish the new team well.
