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Location / Name:
Lake Roland - Hollins, Baltimore County
What's Here:
Nothing now
Junction / Division point on the Northern Central for the Greenspring Branch
Former Hollins Relay House Hotel
Data:
GPS Coordinates: 39.38102, -76.64409
Phone A/C: 410
ZIP: 21210
On the Lake Roland Red Trail
Access by train/transit:
None
Geography:
Hilly
The Scoop:
Hollins today is non-existent if you go looking for it on any current map. If you went looking for it on a mid 1800's map, you wouldn't find it there either, until the B&S put a station there.
The station was not only used by local trains, but also the thru trains going up to Harrisburg, as can be seen on the timetable.
As you can see from the one map below, at one time on the Green Spring Branch side of the station, there were two sidings, and in one of the "newer" photographs I came across, a semaphore signal about in the middle of the longer siding of the two (can be seen in the picture of the WB Western Maryland train).
If you visit here today, and look around, you have to wonder how they fit everything into that small "spot"!
Two tracks on the mainline, two tracks on the Greenspring Branch, a hotel, and a siding.....
Depending on how you phrase your search criteria, and which servers in the Google Universe answer your query, you get slightly different answers:
Acknowledgements:
Google Maps
Ebay
Lake Roland dot Org
University of Baltimore archives
Websites and other additional information sources of interest for the area:
https://railfanguides.us/md/parkton/index.htm Complete run-down of the NC line from Parkton into Baltimore
https://www.railfanguides.us/baltimore/greenspring/index.htm History of the Greenspring Branch
https://www.lakeroland.org/early-history-of-the-park/ More info about the immediate area
https://ubarchives.omeka.net/exhibits/show/roland-park-then-and-now/chapter-8--north VERY well done coverage of Hollins and Roland Park
Way 1, via the Lake Roland Park: Find your way to Falls Road, at the County/City line, which is where Falls Road goes over the light rail near Lake Ave. On the south side of the overpass, you will see the entrance to the park. Almost as soon as you turn onto this "street", take a right into the park, and follow till you can park. Look for signs to the Red Trail.
Way 2, via trail parking on Falls Rd: Find you way to the "northern" part of Falls Rd in Brooklandville, cross road Ruxton Rd. Park along Falls Road, near where I-83 goes over Falls Rd. You will see the entrance for the trail that takes you to where Hollins is, it's about a 1.9mi (3.0km) walk. This is the northern end of the RED TRAIL.
Way 3, via parking by the L'Hirondelle Club in Ruxton: Parking is available near the trail head, which is off of Ruxton Rd, near Bellona Ave. Park along "Club Rd" (as the locals call it) where the yellow stripe is in the picture below, and then walk down the road until you cross the stream (which feeds Lake Roland, and runs behind my house about a mile further north), and you will see a break in the guard rail where the trail around the lake starts. This is about a 2mi (3.2km) walk, cause you have to follow the creek, and once you climb an embankment to get up on the trail, you basically double back. The stream that the old railroad bridge goes over is yet another one (of two major streams) that feeds the lake. This is the BLUE TRAIL. They must have done a lot of work for this trail, because back in the late 60's, you were lucky to be able to even see a path through all the vegetation!
Part of a larger map, shown below, from an EBay listing.
From the University of Baltimore page.
Shows the sidings on the Green Spring Branch side of the station, but not
the double track coming off the main, or the small siding behind the station
lakeside.
The first two pictures were found on the University of Baltimore webpage that covers Roland Park, but for some reason, they go off on a tangent about the Northern Central, covering Hollins, Lake, and Brightside. Bonus.
In the first picture, we can see an inbound (to the Hollins station) semaphore. In the second photo, it pictures a Pennsy PL signal, which dates the photo to (at least) after the 1915-1917 period when that type of signal was developed by the Pennsylvania RR. Want to know more about PL signals? Click here.
The following three shots of Hollins are shown in chronological order from single track with the first version of the hotel, to double track and the second hotel, to no hotel.
After an exhaustive search, these are the only three that keep coming up, until I came across the UofB webpage.
I'm kind of surprised that given it's location on a lake making pictures more photogenic, that more pictures weren't taken here!
The last photo is one I just accidentally came across on EBay while looking for anything related to Hollins MD, so I bought it.
A SB PRR passenger train, probably just after it crossed the bridge over Lake Roland - Most likely a thru train and not the Parkton Local.
On the back of this photo is: The General, Hollins MD, photo by M.K. VanHorn, collection of Frank Wrabel. Now in my collection! :-)
I'm quite sure the FA's were never named "the General", but I could be wrong.....
Lake Roland BridgeGPS Coordinates: 39.38240, -76.64334
Here is a picture I took back in 1968 with one of those Kodak Instamatic cameras that made square pictures :-( Bout 22 years before light rail.
There are no light rail signals in the area, the closest ones are up in Ruxton, and south of here near Mt Washington.
Pennsy signals from the past will be shown in the photos of the Relay House Hotel.
Adapted from my Greenspring Branch page.
2/13/1829 - The Baltimore & Susquehanna RR is chartered in MD.
8/8/1829 - The first stone is laid in Baltimore City.
2/7/1830 - Charter granted for the B&S to go to Westminster.
7/4/1831 - The first 7 miles of track opened from the Belvedere Depot in downtown to Relay House (Hollins).
5/26/1832 - The 8 miles from Relay House to Turnpike completed.
6/14/1932 - Regular horsecar passenger service begins.
8/7/1832 - First run of the B&S steam engine the "Herald", bought from the U.K.
8/20/1832 - Track extended another 2 miles to Owings Mills.
12/31/1854 - The B&S formally merges with its "paper" subsidiaries to form the Northern Central RR.
3/37/1851 - Contracts by the WM go out for construction from Relay House to Union Bridge.
1/1858 - NC ends horsecar service so reconstruction by the WM can begin.
5/23/1859 - First track laid by the WM on the Green Spring Branch.
8/11/1859 - WM formally opens for business between Relay House and Owings Mills, to Reisterstown 12/14.
1860 - The Pennsylvania RR purchases controlling interest in the Northern Central.
7/15/1874 - Control of the Green Spring Branch returned to the Northern Central.
-- The western junction between the branch and the WM named "Turnpike".
-- The eastern junction between the branch and the NC mainline at Relay House is renamed to "Hollins".
12/8/1874 - The PRR takes control and active management of the Northern Central.
12/1876 - New station built at Hollins.
1906 - New station built at Brooklandville.
7/29/1914 - The Northern Central is leased to the PRR for 999 years retroactive to 1/11/11.
1916 - Dedicated local service on the Green Spring Branch ends, service now provided by the Parkton Local.
5/28/1916 - The Western Maryland and PRR start using the Green Spring Branch as a detour while B&P Tunnel gets rebuilt.
11/25/1917 - Detour over the Green Spring Branch ends.
Early 1920's - Gas-Electric cars replace steam powered passenger service.
5/20/1925 - Block Stations abolished.
1926 - Hollins Station closed.
8/17/1933 - Passenger service discontinued.
1933 - Hollins Station destroyed by fire.
by 10/1933 - Standard grade crossing crossbucks and flashing lights replaced Banjo signals.
12/20/1933 - PRR General Order #1807 abolishes HK Interlocking and Block Station at Hollins.
Late 1930's- Traffic interchange with the Western Maryland comes to an end.
Late 1930's/early 1940's - The Green Spring Branch downgraded to the Green Spring Secondary Track.
1951 - Traffic volume on the line was 24 cars.
Mid 1950's - The Green Spring Branch further downgraded to the Green Spring Track, as in tracks other than main, secondary, or siding.
1957 - One section of track removed 1000 feet west of Rockland.
1959 - The PRR applies for abandonment west of Rockland.
10/21/1959 - ICC gives approval to abandon track west of Rockland on 12/18/1959.
By 6/1960 - Track through the valley to Rockland was removed.
Spring 1962 - Service on the branch just faded away, no formal abandonment procedure was carried out.
1962 - Track from Rockland to edge of Robert E. Lee park taken up, remainder of track sold to National Capital Historical Museum of Trans.
1971? - Most of the track within the park limits removed, a short stretch near the main line/light rail was never taken up.
-- Note: I moved into Ruxton in 1967, and don't remember if the track over the girder bridge at 1.19 was there or not --
I don't believe in re-doing what's already been done, so this comes from: https://www.lakeroland.org/early-history-of-the-park/
By the 1830’s and 40’s Baltimore’s industrial and population growth was accelerating and established sources for supplying water had become inadequate to meet its needs. In 1853 the State Legislature authorized the Mayor and City Council to purchase all necessary land and water-rights to introduce a long-term permanent supply into the city. After the consideration of many surveys, plans, projections and estimates, the choice of six sites rested on the Jones Falls Valley or the longer distanced Gunpowder River.
T.E. Sickels, a highly respected civil engineer, was contracted to survey both options and make a formal recommendation to the Mayor and City Council. A year of intense study and field work followed during which a complicated mathematical formula was used to measure the water flow of both Jones Falls and the Gunpowder.
The Jones Falls was measured where the light-rail now crosses the lake using a flume 45 feet in length and 25 feet in width through which all the water passed and was measured twice a day during the summer. The results showed an average flow of 8,297,238 gallons during a 24-hour period against a projected need of 13,000,000 gallons that the city would require by 1880. Thus, in his 1854 report, Mr. Sickels stated: No practical method of securing this amount of storage could be seen having reference to security and reasonable cost and..... Regarding this stream as therefore wholly inadequate to furnish an abundant supply of water to the City of Baltimore, it was deemed unnecessary to present estimates of the cost of introduction.
Mr. Sickels went on to recommend that the cost of procuring seventy million gallons of water from the Great Falls of the Gunpowder as the best plan and would satisfy the city’s needs for the indefinite future. Unfortunately, in the case of the City or fortunately in the case of current residents of the area, Mr. Sickels’ recommendation was dismissed as too visionary and expensive for the City to embrace at one time as the cost was considerably more than the Jones Falls option which was then promptly undertaken. The surrounding community has benefited greatly over the years as a result of this naturalist oasis even if it has fallen into neglect. In 1874 only a decade after Lake Roland was completed, the Gunpowder River supply was authorized. In the meantime, a 36-inch pipe was laid out for 3½ miles between Merediths’s Ford on the Gunpowder and the Roland Run stream at Lutherville to augment Lake Roland’s supply. The feature is shown on the 1876 Hopkins’s map of Baltimore County so the Lake Roland supply would be adequate until the new source was available.
The Lake Roland project was a short-lived solution, with strong political overtones, to a long-range challenge the City and indeed all expanding metropolitan areas had to face as farm population migrated to the cities seeking employment in the emerging industrial age. But the foresight of Baltimore’s progressive leadership that followed the Civil War prevailed and the Gunpowder system put in place just a few years later has served us well for over a century. Wisdom delayed is wisdom nonetheless.
There were many other challenges faced in planning a thriving city’s future for generations to come in health, safety, architecture, construction, traffic, recreation, utilities, infrastructure, etc. In the later part of the 19th and early 20th century Baltimore was at the forefront of modern urban development.
In the 1940’s the land surrounding the lake was consolidated by Baltimore City to form Robert E. Lee Memorial Park, with its 450 acres of woodland, wetlands, serpentine barrens, rare plants and rocky plateaus. In 1992, most of the park was declared a National Historic District — the Lake Roland Historic District — in recognition of its many historic elements, including the Greek Revival pump house, the dam and structures from the Susquehanna & Baltimore Railroad (later, the Northern Central Railroad).
The former Northern Central Railway (NCR) line in the foreground is now used by the Baltimore area Light Rail system (having been relaid). The line to the left is the Greenspring branch of the NCR, which was also used by the Western Maryland Rail Road (WMRR) to connect trains to its station at Owings Mills. This branch trackage, despite falling into disuse decades ago, is still extant, if overgrown, running from near this vantage point about a mile around the western shore of the lake before petering out. Of the station building shown here, there is now barely a trace. The Relay House, or Hollins Station, at Lake Roland is pictured in a Sun rotogravure section reprinted in the 1950s. Lake Roland is at back with bridge at right. The station, which served the Greenspring branch of the Northern Central Railway, was closed in 1926 and destroyed by fire in 1933.
In 1983, to further protect and improve the park, the Robert E. Lee Park Conservancy was founded by Louise Hildreth and Jane Lawrence, both committed park patrons. They worked tirelessly advocating for Robert E. Lee Park, now named Lake Roland, and completed numerous projects and improvements in the park. Several years into that organization’s existence, Robert Macht joined their efforts. The Conservancy held numerous meetings with Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks officials in an effort to improve upon the ever-declining conditions in the park and address the complete lack of governance or supervision of activities occurring in the park. The Conservancy requested that a myriad of nuisance and public safety issues that were occurring in the park be addressed. The members of the Conservancy referred to the governance of the park by the Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks at the time as “Benign Neglect.” When numerous issues went unaddressed for years, the Conservancy reduced the reference to just “Neglect.” One of the crowning achievements of the Conservancy was the establishment of the Lake Roland Historic District to further protect the historic nature of the park.
Courtesy USGS, click here for their index page.
Found on EBay. This map is interesting because EVEN way back in the mid 1800's, they sub-divided the property along the railroad tracks, I guess for future home development, and it never happened.
Misc items found on EBay. :-) :-)
This was advertised/labeled as a Northern Central locomotive, need to find my Gunnarsson book to see if it is pictured in there.
Front of check #149
Backside of check #149Disclaimers:
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