Bowie’s railroad museum occupies the station complex around which a Maryland town took shape. The Baltimore and Potomac Railroad opened a station here in 1872 as its network developed after the Civil War. Developer Ben M. Plumb saw an opportunity to build a town around the stop, initially called Huntington City. Stores, hotels and houses grew around the station. In 1880 the town took the name Bowie in honor of Governor Oden Bowie, who helped bring the railroad here.
The line later became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system. That corporate history helps explain why several names may appear in accounts of the same station. The town’s name also outlasted its original passenger stop. Trains continued serving the old station until 1989, when service moved to a station at Bowie State University. The city restored the buildings in the early 1990s, giving the former stop a public role connected with the history of Old Town Bowie.
Look for the tower as well as the station buildings. A passenger depot was organized around public transactions and departures, while a railroad tower belonged to the work of overseeing movements on the tracks. The city identifies the tower as the home of the National Railway Historical Society’s Martin O’Rourke Railroad Research Library. This later use gives another purpose to a structure that once helped the railway operate, and access to research material should be confirmed separately.
Stand where you can see the relationship between the station and the nearby streets. Plumb’s development depended on passengers stepping out of a railway system and into a place with lodging, shops and homes. The surviving complex anchors that history even though current passenger service uses another location. The city operates the museum as part of a broader group of local historic sites.
Visitor information
Researched November 2026.
Sources
More railroad museums in Maryland
- National Museum of Railroad History & Innovation (formerly B&O Railroad Museum) — Baltimore: Major railroad museum
- B&O Ellicott City Station Museum — Ellicott City: Historic station and railroad museum
- Irish Railroad Workers Museum — Baltimore: Railroad workers’ homes and social-history museum
- La Plata Train Station Museum — La Plata: Depot and local railroad museum
- Oakland B&O Railroad Museum — Oakland: Depot and railroad history museum
- Queponco Railway Station Museum — Newark: Historic depot and railroad collection
- Walkersville Southern Railroad Museum — Walkersville: Railroad museum and operating collection
- Western Maryland Railway Historical Society Museum — Union Bridge: Railroad museum and archival collection
- All 9 railroad museums and sites in Maryland
Keep exploring
- All heritage sites — museums, stations and landmarks
- Northeast — the trains you can ride in the region