| The Old Pine Street Station, or Western District Police Station was built between 1877 and 1878. Designed by Francis E. Davis, it is an elaborately decorated, High Victorian Gothic building. The Baltimore Police Department constructed the building to improve working conditions for patrolmen and prisoners and to respond to increasing demands from business owners in the district for modern police service. It served as Western District Police Headquarters until 1951. After years of sporadic abandonment, the University of Maryland acquired the building from the city in exchange for the H. L. Mencken House. The University plans to restore and preserve the exterior of the building and to remodel the interior for its Division of Security in keeping with the University’s current needs and the building’s historic use.The exterior features deep red, smooth-face, pressed brick, trimmed with painted, smooth-face, bluestone lintels. The basement, entrance steps, and watertable are gray granite, while the cornice, hip ridges, and roof finials are painted, pressed metal. The building consists of three sections arranged telescopically, the front being the tallest and widest section and decreasing successively in both width and height toward the rear.
Old Pine Street Station is located at 214 North Pine St. It is not open to the public. |
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