Possible B&O Museum Expansion?

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Mon Dec 13, 2010 12:42 am

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-museum-property-discussions-20101212,0,5002370.story

Quote:

The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum could be on the verge of a westward expansion, according to its executive director, who says the West Pratt Street museum is "seriously" thinking of buying the adjacent campus of Baltimore Behavioral Health Inc.

Officials from the museum and the nonprofit mental health clinic signed a letter of intent Friday, giving the museum 90 days to scrutinize the two long brick buildings that house BBH's main clinic operation, said Courtney B. Wilson, the museum's head.

Wilson said BBH has expressed interest in leasing back one of the two buildings, meaning that a sale of the 3.7-acre campus could allow the outpatient clinic to shed its mortgage debt and downsize at a time when questions have arisen about its finances.

The two buildings, at 1001 and 1101 W. Pratt, were once part of the B&O's vast Mount Clare Shops complex that sprawled across Southwest Baltimore. The landmark 1884 roundhouse — the museum's visible focal point — rises due east of BBH's campus.

Google Map view: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source= ... 9&t=h&z=17 (And by the way, believe nothing you see on that map as far as location tags--the only things I can see correctly sited is Patrick's Pub and the main B&O Museum entrance.)
The two buildings in question are along the south side of Pratt Street on either side of Arlington Avenue (the street that goes south past the west side of the Shops). They are, by now, very rudimentary office buildings with modern windows and interiors, with little to nothing (that I am aware of) historic aside from the walls.

For those with long histories, the blue-roofed building to the west of those two (with a cross shape on the roof) is the former shopping hall which, for a time in the 1980s, housed the C&O Allegheny. To the south of that is a large parking lot; on the east side of that parking lot is a building that housed a Safeway supermarket until about two years ago; around the rest of that parking lot is a mostly-dead shopping center housing, as I recall, a Subway, another takeout or two, a military recruiting center, a Wachovia bank branch, a temp agency office, and little else (the Pep Boys moved out a year or so ago). The shopping center was perceived to have failed largely because of its "invisible" location well hidden from Pratt Street; a secondary factor may have been, according to some local residents, the health clinic's tendency to attract hordes of people seeking medical help--many fairly disreputable-looking and having a tendency to loiter in the area between the two buildings in question. (Many was the time I drove south on Arlington Avenue, "tiptoeing" slowly over the ill-maintained Belgian block cobblestones just south of Pratt Street, and felt my car was going to be trampled by said pedestrians.)

These buildings, as they are currently configured, cannot hold rolling stock exhibits, but who knows what the Museum can conjure. If nothing else, it's a proactive step.

tomgears · **Posted:** Mon Dec 13, 2010 8:29 am

That's a very interesting and seemingly worthwhile move. I remember the shopping mall being build and there were high hopes that it would bring some degree of uplift to the surrounding area. There is much that can be done with the right vision and large amounts of money. I recently visited Mt. Clare and had a great time and enjoyed a nice lunch at Patrick's Pub as well. For those who have not visited recently it's worth a visit.

Richard Glueck · **Posted:** Mon Dec 13, 2010 11:32 am

Nice, positive, step for the B&O Museum. Hopefully they can find a way to put more collection under a roof.