Historic Preservation Commission

DATE: TO:
September 9, 2019 Historic Preservation Commission

VIA:

Howard S. Berger, Supervisor

Historic Preservation Section, Countywide Planning Division

FROM:

Thomas W. Gross, Planner Coordinator

Historic Preservation Section, Countywide Planning Division

RE:

Evaluation for Historic Site Designation: Findings, Conclusion and Recommendation

Historic Resource Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis Electric Railway Bridge
MIHP Number 71A-006
Address 8200 bl. Laurel Bowie Road, Bowie, MD 20715
Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (Parcel 14); Adrian J. Rad and Aviva S. Nebesky (Parcel 1)

Owners

Parcel 1 and that portion of Parcel 14 bounded on the east by Laurel Bowie Road and on the west by a line drawn from the southernmost point of the western portion of Parcel 1 to the

Environmental Setting

westernmost point of the eastern portion of Parcel 1
Description Map 29, Grid E3, Parcel 14 and Map 29, Grid D3, Parcel 1

Procedural Background

September 1974 July 1981
Survey and documentation of the property initially completed by Michael F. Dwyer. Resource included in the Prince George’s County Historic Sites and Districts Plan.

Survey and documentation updated by Susan G. Pearl

September 1985

January 2008 August 29, 2019
Survey and documentation updated by EHT Traceries, Inc. The property was posted “at least 14 days in advance,” according to the provisions of the Prince George’s County Historic Preservation Ordinance (Subtitle 29-118) and the Prince George’s County Zoning Ordinance (Subtitle 27-125.03). Evidence of sign posting and written notice to the property owner are attached.

August 30, 2019

The property owner, the adjacent property owners, and other interested parties were

mailed written notice of the time, date, and location of the public hearing on the application.

September 16, 2019

Date of HPC public hearing.

Evaluation for Historic Site Designation: Findings, Conclusions and Recommendation Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis Electric Railway Bridge (71A-006) September 9, 2019 Page 2

Findings

Description: The subject historic resource was constructed in 1907 to carry the Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis Electric Railway over Horsepen Branch. The single-span structure is constructed of reinforced concrete and rests on heavy concrete abutments and retaining walls that flank the waterway. The bridge is located on the WB&A bike and pedestrian trail, under a modern bridge that crosses both Horsepen Branch and Laurel Bowie Road. The railway tracks were removed in the 1930s but depressions remain where crossties had been laid across the bridge.

Setting: The Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis Electric Railway Bridge is located in the 8200 block of Laurel Bowie Road, near the southern end of Lloyd Station Road, approximately one mile southeast of the historic center of Bowie. The bridge structure is largely contained within Parcel 14, which forms part of the WB&A Trail property owned by M-NCPPC. The concrete walls that flank Horsepen Branch on the north and south sides of the bridge extend into Parcel 1. The historic resource is located just west of Laurel Bowie Road, in an area characterized by low-density residential uses, woodland, and an adjacent horse farm. A 41.7-acre property to the immediate west of the resource is the subject of a preliminary plan of subdivision application for the proposed Pecan Ridge single-family residential development. This historic resource evaluation is being conducted in the context of the Planning Department’s review of this development application.

History: The Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis Electric Railway Bridge is located on property that was part of the 369.5-acre Fair Running patent surveyed in 1813 to Joseph Peach III, comprising parts of the earlier patents Isaac’s Discovery, Farmer’s Reserve, and Peach Plains. The house built by Peach’s grandfather in 1727 was enlarged by Peach in the early nineteenth century and still stands, in greatly altered form, roughly a half-mile south of the railway bridge (Fair Running, Historic Site 71B-015). Joseph Peach sold 251 acres in 1814 to Barton Duvall, and the property and house remained in the Duvall family until 234 acres was sold to Richard G. Cross and Trueman Cross in 1850. The property was purchased “for the use of Elizabeth Page.” Page’s name appears on the 1861 Martenet map of Prince George’s County. Page’s sons mortgaged the property to Trueman Cross in 1874 and defaulted shortly after Cross died; the name of Cross’s executor, Jesse Slingluff, appears on the 1878 Hopkins atlas. The property passed through the Eberhardt, Dutton, and Weller families before being sold to Bernard F. Maenner and his wife, Elizabeth, in 1885.

In 1890 Bernard and Elizabeth Maenner sold a roughly 9-acre parcel near the north end of Fair Running to Daniel Boone Lloyd, who owned an adjacent 137 acres to the north that was part of Strife, originally granted to Hugh Riley in 1721. The purchase gave Lloyd greater access to Horsepen Branch, which might have benefited the farm that Lloyd’s father, Augustus, operated on the property. Daniel B. Lloyd worked as a stenographer for the U.S. Senate from age 17 until his death in 1943 at age 83. He and his wife, Anna Belle, spent summers at “Buena Vista Farm” in “The Forest” and stayed in Washington, D.C. while Congress was in session. Lloyd’s career longevity made him the subject of national media interest, with his obituary appearing in newspapers as far afield as Arkansas, New Mexico, and California.

The Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway Company purchased the Annapolis, Washington and Baltimore steam railroad for $385,000 around the turn of the twentieth century and soon began to acquire rights of way for its new intercity line, creating a 66-foot wide corridor extending from near the intersection of 15^thStreet NE and Benning Road in Washington, D.C. to downtown Baltimore. The portion of the right of way on which the subject historic resource is located was conveyed by Daniel and Anna Lloyd to the railway in April 1906. In August 1902, the company sold bonds to finance the construction of the railway and a new power plant in Hyattsville, expected to cost $350,000. Construction was underway later that year and by January 1903, WB&A officials expressed optimism that the line would be in service by September 1904. This proved unrealistic, and in fact the opening of the railway remained a moving target for several years.

Construction of the WB&A was still in its early stages in April 1906, when the Fidelity Construction Company of Detroit was contracted to lay the track between the city limits of Baltimore and the outskirts of

Washington, D.C. Another firm had already done a large amount of grading along the route by this time, and it was expected that the remaining grading, ballasting, and track laying would be completed within a year. Fidelity advertised for “teams with drivers” for “steady work for [the] entire season.” The project was headquartered at Odenton, near the junction of the three lines to Washington, Baltimore, and Annapolis. By December 1906 the railway company declared the construction of the line to be 60 percent complete, with operation expected to commence before July 1, 1907. At its height, the project employed up to 600 men, 150 teams and five steam shovels, one of which was positioned near Bowie.

Among the distinguishing features of the railway touted by its builders was the avoidance of grade crossings along the roughly 40-mile route; as one article put it, “the railway will either pass over or under every country road, and the highway crossings will be solid floor abutments—that is, concrete structures filled in and the tracks laid on ties with stone ballast.” This type of crossing was novel for the region, where trestle bridges had long been standard. One article put the cost of the crossings at up to $15,000 each. The company was eventually forced to build several grade crossings after Anne Arundel County commissioners refused to allow WB&A to construct bridges or tunnels at the crossings of five country roads in the county. Other advantages of the new line, according to company officials, were its powerful electrical system and the relatively straight, flat course of the track; with a maximum curvature of one degree and maximum grade of two percent along the route, trains were expected to reach speeds of up to 75 miles per hour. The Niles Car Company of Niles, Ohio was awarded the contract for the line’s rolling stock, which was to consist of 62-passenger Pullmantype cars with an olive-green color scheme, mahogany interiors and leather seats.

The completion of the railway was delayed repeatedly due to poor weather and unforeseen engineering difficulties. The original July 1907 target was pushed back to November, then to December, then to February 1908. Several specific setbacks were reported in the press, including the need to demolish and replace a concrete abutment that had shifted several feet on the marshy ground at Gwynn’s Falls near Baltimore.

A test trip on the new railway was made on February 7, 1908, transporting a group of 30 scientists, civil engineers, railroad officials and reporters from Baltimore to Annapolis and then to Washington, D.C., where a dinner was held at the Willard Hotel. An article describing the trip stated that the railway company had spent $5,000,000 to complete the line, which extended a total of 96.33 miles. Regular scheduled service on the railway began in March 1908. The first few months of operation were marred by several accidents, including a head-on collision near Annapolis in April that resulted in over 10 injuries and a larger collision in June that killed nine and injured 16. The latter accident and the investigation that followed were reported in newspapers across the country. The cause was found to be a defaced set of operating instructions that caused confusion on the part of one of the train operators involved.

Despite these early failures and the negative press that they engendered, the WB&A enjoyed a steadily increasing ridership and improving finances in its early years of business. The Baltimore Sun stated in April 1909 that the railway carried 197,472 adult passengers and 2,888 children in the first quarter of that year. The company diversified its operations in 1909 by contracting with another firm to provide interurban freight service, which would serve not only businesses in the three cities but also farmers along the route. That year the company also undertook an important cost-saving measure by replacing its entire rolling stock with a fleet of smaller cars that could run on direct current rather than alternating current, a change that was projected to trim $150,000 from the railway’s annual operating expenses.

Like many trolley lines of its era, the Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis Electric Railway was intended not only to connect its three termini but also to stimulate development along its route. Speculative real estate investment began even before the line was completed; in 1907, the Hayes-Sharp Realty Company purchased and subdivided a 350-acre tract straddling the proposed line near what is now Ardwick-Ardmore Road. The WB&A right-of-way is identified on the plat for this subdivision, Dixie Dale, as well as on other subdivision plats, including Lincoln, Glenarden, and Buena Vista, that were recorded before or shortly after the railway was completed. Once the line was open, WB&A and developers would work together to promote each other’s

products. The Baltimore Highland Realty Company in April 1909 invited prospective buyers to tour its new subdivision, with transportation offered on dedicated WB&A cars at discounted rates. The symbiosis was apparently successful, with the Washington Post reporting in December 1909 that “[WB&A’s] business is growing, because of the settlements springing up along its lines, and…in a few years [the railway] is bound to be a good investment.” Behind these outward signs of success, however, a series of corporate machinations were playing out just to keep the fledgling railway solvent. The company was unable to pay the interest on its large debt load and in 1909 was put into receivership, from which it did not emerge until April 1911. In a series of transactions, the railway’s assets were then conveyed to the newly formed Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Railway Company for the sum of $2,501,000.

Following the reorganization, the WB&A entered a period of stability and prosperity that lasted through the mid-1920s. The company posted record earnings of nearly $1,000,000 in 1916, with officials boasting that “the company today is in a stronger position financially and the physical condition better than ever before.” The financial picture was even stronger in 1918, when the railway reported gross revenues of nearly $3,000,000, a 94 percent increase over the previous year. One factor that helped boost ridership in this period was the onset of Prohibition and a January 1918 ruling by the Supreme Court for the District of Columbia that held that bringing unlabeled bottles of liquor into Washington was not a criminal offense. WB&A officials openly acknowledged the impact of the ruling and adjusted the line’s schedules to accommodate the surging popularity of the “bootleg specials.”

The WB&A made headlines during the 1910s for reasons other than its financial strength. The company fielded a highly successful baseball team that the Washington Herald in 1916 called “one of the strongest combinations in the history of the amateur game in these parts.” The team, which played its home games at Naval Academy Junction near Odenton, won the regional independent title in 1916. Employees of the railway also formed a music and drama club in 1915, although its activities received less press attention. The WB&A also attracted media coverage when it carried foreign dignitaries, such as during a visit by Prince Tsai Suun of the Chinese Navy to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis in September 1910.

The Baltimore Sun reported several incidents in the 1910s that occurred at Lloyd’s Station, just west of the subject historic resource. In August 1910, an arriving train struck an unidentified man while he sat sleeping on the station platform. A minor collision at the station in October 1917 was caused by a Washington-bound express train rear-ending a local train that had just discharged passengers at the station. A more unusual event occurred at Lloyd’s Station in February 1914, when a sudden power failure rendered a Baltimore-train immobile and forced 40 passengers to spend the night aboard the car.

The 1920s saw the WB&A come under increasing pressure from the forces that would eventually spell the railway’s demise. With the end of World War I causing a slowdown in activity at Camp Meade, the company was forced to respond to falling demand by seeking approval from the Maryland Public Service Commission for a rate increase—from $1.50 to $2.00 for a roundtrip ticket between Baltimore and Washington. A more ominous development was the growing interest, expressed by politicians and citizens alike, in building new and larger roads between the three cities served by the railway. Accommodating greater automobile travel was a national priority during this period, with federal agencies spending roughly $344 million on road construction in 1919 alone. That year construction began on the National Defense Highway between Washington and Annapolis, which promised to enable more efficient travel between the two cities than the “very roundabout and expensive” WB&A line. A coalition of towns in Prince George’s County in 1919 formed the Good Roads Association, which pushed for better roads to connect suburbs along the WB&A and Pennsylvania Railroad lines. The threat posed by road travel was clearly felt by WB&A officials by 1925, when the company asked Maryland and District of Columbia regulators for an exclusive permit to operate a bus line between Washington and Annapolis to prevent competition from other carriers.

The acquisition of the WB&A by the Consolidated Gas & Electric Company of Baltimore in May 1927 marked the beginning of the railway’s final chapter, while illustrating the declining fortunes of intercity rail

at that time. The utility had no interest in entering the railway business; indeed, it planned to sell the actual track to one of the large steam railroad companies. CG&E was interested only in the WB&A’s power infrastructure, which it could add to its portfolio of assets between Washington and Baltimore to give it greater influence over electricity generation and transmission in the region. The railway continued to operate as an independent entity, but by January 1931 strained finances had once again forced the company into receivership. A statement by Vice President and General Manager Harry T. Connolly put the situation plainly: “The road, like other interurban roads, is subject to competition of motor buses, motor trucks and private automobiles. This competition we have not been able to overcome, even by new equipment, reductions in fares and decreases in running time. Consequently, the Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis Electric Railway Co. finds itself in the same unfortunate position as some of the steam roads and an increasing number of electric urban and interurban roads.” Negotiations with the receiver resulted in a substantial pay cut for the railway’s motormen and conductors, which was expected to cut operating expenses $50,000 annually.

In early 1931, WB&A officials warned that the railway might have to shut down unless the state of Maryland passed legislation that would extend the company’s tax-exempt status. This spurred an offer to purchase the railway by Walter H. Hart, an Annapolis real estate agent who claimed his plan had the backing of investors in Philadelphia and elsewhere. The plan was never pursued, leaving the company in the hands of the receivers. Adding to its difficulties, the WB&A’s 25-year franchise to operate in Annapolis expired in July 1931 and was not renewed by the city council, which preferred to see the line’s tracks removed to accommodate greater automobile traffic.

In April 1935, after failing to receive an extension of its state tax exemption, the railway’s receiver filed an application with the Maryland Public Service Commission and the Interstate Commerce Commission to end all services on the Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis line. The move was opposed by the District of Columbia Board of Commissioners, which said it would increase the costs associated with the tuberculosis hospital the District government was building in Glenn Dale (Glenn Dale Tuberculosis Hospital Historic District, 70-050). The site had been selected on the basis of its proximity to the WB&A line, and without its service the hospital would have to receive fuel and supplies by truck. Official protests were also filed by Secretary of War George Dern and Secretary of the Navy Claude Swanson, who noted the railway was an important supply line for Fort Meade and the Naval Academy. Unpersuaded by these arguments, the Public Service Commission in May 1935 granted approval for the WB&A to discontinue service. On July 19, 1935, a Federal court in Baltimore ordered the railway to end operations on August 20. A Washington Post article noted that 450 WB&A employees would lose their jobs as a result of the closure.

Proposals to convert the WB&A line to some other use were announced even before the July 1935 court order was issued. The Evans Products Company of Detroit, Michigan entered negotiations to buy the line and operate a fleet of 100 trucks and buses that were designed for use on either road or track. The plan failed to materialize, and thereafter all proposed uses of the right of way contemplated the removal of the tracks. In late 1935, the company established to liquidate the WB&A’s assets offered to sell the roadbed for the purpose of building a new highway. This plan was supported by both the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission and the Maryland State Roads Commission as a way to relieve congestion on the WashingtonBaltimore Boulevard, the most heavily used road in the state at that time. When the state purchased the railbed for $80,000 in in late 1938, Maryland Governor Harry W. Nice said the new highway would be “the most modern example of high-speed road construction in the entire country.” The proposed road was to be a dual carriageway at least 100 feet wide, meaning additional land adjacent to the 66-foot wide railbed would have to be purchased. A December 1938 Washington Post article noted that farmers living along the defunct railway had already turned sections of the bed into roadways by pouring dirt and gravel over the crossties. The road proposal failed when it was discovered that certain sections of the railbed had not been owned in fee simple by the WB&A but instead reverted to their original owners after the WB&A ceased operating.

Some of the more colorful descriptions of the WB&A were written long after the railway shut down. Writing in 1956, Washington Post columnist Shirley Povich recalled making the trip from Washington to the horse racing track in Bowie on “the mangiest, flea-bitten old coaches of the Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway which left 15^thand H ne., whenever they were ready.” Several reminiscences of the railway that appeared in the Post in the 1970s noted the various unflattering nicknames given to the line by its riders, including “Wobble, Bounce and Agony” and “Weary, Bruised and Aching.”

Prince George’s County Executive Parris Glendenning in July 1991 announced plans to open a trail on a sixmile section of the railbed from Lanham to Anne Arundel County, and over the next several years the County negotiated with the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) and the state to purchase the railbed. Morris Warren, a Bowie businessman who founded the WB&A Recreational/Commuter Trail Association, was credited by County officials for pushing the negotiations forward. When Morris invited reporters to walk a section of the proposed trail near the location of the historic resource, there were still tracks in place. The section on which the subject historic resource is located was purchased by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission from Amtrak in January 1994.