My spouse and I visited Baltimore’s Civil War Museum on a
Saturday morning in early June 2018. The museum is open on Fridays, Saturdays,
and Sundays from 10:00 am until 4:00 pm; depending on when you visit, if
staffing permits, tours are available. The cost of entry is $3 per adult.
The Civil War Museum is located in the Harbor East area of
Baltimore, between Fell’s Point and Inner Harbor. (We stayed directly across
the street at the Homewood Suites.) The museum occupies the remaining part of
the 1849 President Street Station, the oldest surviving railway station located
in an urban setting. The Italianate brick building is crowned by a Roman
curved-arch roof and functioned as the “head house”, which housed the ticket
booths, telegraph office, and waiting areas for the station. The museum
building was once part of a three-block railroad yard complex, which originally
included a passenger station, freight station, and carpenter and car shops.
The museum describes the railways of that time period
(including the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad [PW and B], and Underground
Railroad), as well as the role that Baltimore played in the Civil War. Other
Baltimore memorabilia (artifacts about Babe Ruth, for example) is also on
display. A nice gift shop (with books, souvenirs, and more unique items like
Civil War re-enactment costumes) is onsite.
We enjoyed our brief trip to Baltimore’s compact (but packed
with displays) Civil War Museum.
