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The second floor of Camden Station shows the years of neglect. A $14 million project would revive the Baltimore landmark. (Sun photo by Jed Kirschbaum / September 15, 2003) |
Behind Camden Station's polished bricks and beneath its soaring cupolas, the paint has peeled and beams have turned rotten. The only obvious inhabitants are the moths flitting about the musty basement.
For more than a decade, the 19th-century train depot has sat largely vacant, like a Hollywood set prettied up for the fans streaming into Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
Now, after several false starts, momentum is growing for a $14 million plan to revive the city landmark that Abraham Lincoln passed through, alive and dead, and that long served as a jewel of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
The Maryland Stadium Authority's board of directors endorsed the idea yesterday of selling $8.7 million in authority bonds to restore the station's interior. The renovations would clear the way for a $5 million to $6 million regional sports museum on the first floor and in the basement, with the upper two floors leased to commercial tenants.
"I can't imagine a better project" for the site, said Carl A.J. Wright, chairman of the board.
If the state Board of Public Works gives its blessing, work could begin around the first of the year. The goal is to open the as-yet unnamed museum by baseball's Opening Day 2005.
Sports attractions
The museum would be created by the group that runs the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum a few blocks west in Ridgely's Delight. Exhibits on the Baltimore Orioles and Colts would be moved to the 23,800- square-foot museum space at Camden Station, and Maryland Terrapins items would be among the additions, said Michael Gibbons, executive director of the Ruth museum.
Visitors to Camden Station could design a stadium with the aid of a computer. Children could ride a mechanical horse and spear rings with a lance, as in the official state sport of jousting. Among the memorabilia would be the football that legendary quarterback John Unitas threw for his last Colts touchdown.
"Certainly, location is very important, and we feel we have the best location for a sports museum in the United States," Gibbons told stadium authority board members and executives. About $3 million has been raised for the museum, he said, and a new fund-raising campaign is to begin soon.
Eventually, rent paid by the museum and commercial tenants - none has been lined up for the 16,000 square feet - should cover bond payments, the stadium authority says. Alison L. Asti, the general counsel, says the project is expected to have "positive cash flow" within six years. Until then, the state would help with the $1.1 million yearly tab.
For at least eight years there has been talk of going beyond the cosmetic changes made to the station to coincide with the opening of Oriole Park in 1992. One early idea was to put a museum on the upper floors and a crab house at ground level. But Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos did not want a seafood restaurant, and the idea was dropped.
A big hurdle to improvement plans has been Camden Station's increasingly decrepit condition and the high cost of repairs.
"It comes down to one word: financing," said Richard Slosson, the stadium authority's executive director.
This year, the influential Legislative Policy Committee of the General Assembly endorsed the current concept, minus a request to use $3 million in state lottery revenue. Part of the appeal of the latest approach is that it requires no up-front state money at a time when Maryland has little to spare.
The stadium authority board also approved a $50,000 deal yesterday with contractor J. Vinton Schafer & Sons Inc. of White Marsh to refine construction cost estimates. If the authority likes the work, Slosson said, the company would likely carry out the renovations.
Steeped in history
Camden Station opened in 1856 but was not completed until a decade later. It was the main terminal of the country's first commercial railroad, the B&O, and long the city's busiest station. Early on, the station had a 185-foot clock tower that made it Baltimore's tallest building.
One of the most prominent early passengers was Lincoln. He arrived, secretly, en route to his inauguration in 1861, cloaked by security agents who feared that secessionist sympathizers might try to kill him. On April 19, 1861, the first blood of the Civil war was shed along Pratt Street when a mob attacked Union soldiers heading from the President Street depot to Camden Station, an incident that became known as the Baltimore Massacre.
For more than a decade, the 19th-century train depot has sat largely vacant, like a Hollywood set prettied up for the fans streaming into Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
Now, after several false starts, momentum is growing for a $14 million plan to revive the city landmark that Abraham Lincoln passed through, alive and dead, and that long served as a jewel of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
The Maryland Stadium Authority's board of directors endorsed the idea yesterday of selling $8.7 million in authority bonds to restore the station's interior. The renovations would clear the way for a $5 million to $6 million regional sports museum on the first floor and in the basement, with the upper two floors leased to commercial tenants.
"I can't imagine a better project" for the site, said Carl A.J. Wright, chairman of the board.
If the state Board of Public Works gives its blessing, work could begin around the first of the year. The goal is to open the as-yet unnamed museum by baseball's Opening Day 2005.
Visitors to Camden Station could design a stadium with the aid of a computer. Children could ride a mechanical horse and spear rings with a lance, as in the official state sport of jousting. Among the memorabilia would be the football that legendary quarterback John Unitas threw for his last Colts touchdown.
"Certainly, location is very important, and we feel we have the best location for a sports museum in the United States," Gibbons told stadium authority board members and executives. About $3 million has been raised for the museum, he said, and a new fund-raising campaign is to begin soon.
Eventually, rent paid by the museum and commercial tenants - none has been lined up for the 16,000 square feet - should cover bond payments, the stadium authority says. Alison L. Asti, the general counsel, says the project is expected to have "positive cash flow" within six years. Until then, the state would help with the $1.1 million yearly tab.
For at least eight years there has been talk of going beyond the cosmetic changes made to the station to coincide with the opening of Oriole Park in 1992. One early idea was to put a museum on the upper floors and a crab house at ground level. But Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos did not want a seafood restaurant, and the idea was dropped.
A big hurdle to improvement plans has been Camden Station's increasingly decrepit condition and the high cost of repairs.
"It comes down to one word: financing," said Richard Slosson, the stadium authority's executive director.
This year, the influential Legislative Policy Committee of the General Assembly endorsed the current concept, minus a request to use $3 million in state lottery revenue. Part of the appeal of the latest approach is that it requires no up-front state money at a time when Maryland has little to spare.
The stadium authority board also approved a $50,000 deal yesterday with contractor J. Vinton Schafer & Sons Inc. of White Marsh to refine construction cost estimates. If the authority likes the work, Slosson said, the company would likely carry out the renovations.
One of the most prominent early passengers was Lincoln. He arrived, secretly, en route to his inauguration in 1861, cloaked by security agents who feared that secessionist sympathizers might try to kill him. On April 19, 1861, the first blood of the Civil war was shed along Pratt Street when a mob attacked Union soldiers heading from the President Street depot to Camden Station, an incident that became known as the Baltimore Massacre.
