B&O Railroad Station

B&O Railroad Station. Mountain Lake Park. , Absolutely crucial to the success of the unique town of Mountain Lake Park was without question its B&O Railroad station, the point at which hundreds of summer residents and visitors, after departing the extreme head and humidity of their farther-east home towns, would arrive by rail, probably around Memorial Day, many with their servants in tow. They would be picked up by livery service and taken to their summer "cottages," one of the town's many boarding houses, or possibly the Mountain Lake Park Hotel. Many would spend their entire summer in the Park, "in the most salubrious of climates", and partake of the many and varied cultural/educational offerings of the Chautauqua programming for which the town became famous. As the summer season waned, this site would again bustle with folks returning to their fulltime residences off the Mountaintop, probably already looking forward to coming back the following spring., The original station had a plan that was similar to that of the Oakland B&O station, a long, low building spread out alongside the tracks, primarily of one story except for the middle third, which featured two peaked gable roofs rising at right angles, with one almost twice as large as the other. On the tracks side, a tower-like spire rises from between the two gabled roofs, again similar to that of the Oakland station. Behind the tower there was a tall, tulip-shaped, brick chimney. The roof overhung from the main building, forming a shelter supported by simple wood trusses and serving as protection from weather for the arriving and departing passengers. The upper-level exterior walls were covered with fish-scale shingling, while the ground level featured horizontal clapboards. The gable ends of the smaller cross-axis roof had a "flowering tree" half-timber motif, similar to decorations on cottages at the Deer Park Hotel. The station also featured some stained-glass windows, again much like Oakland's station, and still in place today., The design is likely that of the firm of Baldwin and Pennington, which was under contract by the B&O Railroad. Probably built at about the same time as the Oakland station (1884), the Mountain Lake/Loch Lynn station is a less elaborate version, but features the same Queen Anne detailing. It is possible, however, that the station is a couple years older than Oakland's, as it is known that the first ticket agent at the station was Abram R. Sperry, who entered the service of the B&O Railroad in May 1882 as agent at Mountain Lake Park. He held the position until March 1911 before being transferred to Harpers Ferry. Sperry, who died in 1924, was also the Mountain Lake Park postmaster and resided along north N Street., Since its closure as a railroad station, the structure has been altered several times over the years and has served as a warehouse, as well as a location for several retail businesses.