The Baltimore Streetcar Museum wants to get its vintage fleet out of harm's way, unveiling plans to relocate from its flood-prone home on Falls Road to a century-old railroad roundhouse just a half-mile away. The project, still in its early planning stages, would turn the long-dormant 1910 structure into a new campus built to keep the museum's antique cars above the waterline for good.
A Floodway Problem Decades in the Making
The museum's current site, at 1901 Falls Road near Station North, sits in a floodplain and floodway in the Jones Falls valley, according to facts reported by WBAL-TV. The vulnerability isn't theoretical. As The Baltimore Sun reported, the Jones Falls flooded the carhouse with three or four feet of water back in 1979 after Hurricane David, a memory that still shapes the museum's planning decades later. The Sun also notes the current facility sits within the Jones Falls floodway itself, not just its broader floodplain.
That history is driving the push toward 2601 Falls Road, a former Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad roundhouse owned by the City of Baltimore. The museum plans to raise the level of the new roundhouse floor specifically to protect its 19 antique cars from future flooding, per the same Sun report. The relocation project is also expected to mitigate broader environmental concerns tied to the current grounds.
What the New Campus Would Look Like
Executive Director Matthew Nawn and other museum members envision a new campus that prominently showcases streetcars and vehicles inside a historic, open roundhouse building. The rehabilitated structure is planned to house the museum's exhibits and offer display space for up to 10 vehicles, according to reporting from the Banner. Plans also call for a new carhouse along with the electrical and track infrastructure needed to run streetcars again, plus new tracks and rail-turning loops described by the Sun.
Beyond vehicle storage, the new facility would house the museum's archives and exhibits while offering easier access for visiting buses. Environmental mitigation at the new site is expected to include retention ponds out front, part of a broader effort the Banner describes as placing the campus at a safe elevation above predictable flood danger. The museum's existing exhibit space, meanwhile, would be repurposed into what the Banner calls a swing space for events like weddings.
Funding and the First Phase of Work
The museum has already received $165,000 in city funding for the project, drawn from Baltimore's Cultural Spaces Capital Support Fund for fiscal years 2026 and 2027, according to Trains.com. That initial money is meant to support early work securing the roundhouse structure ahead of what the museum calls a phased transformation. The first phase itself will focus on removing collapsed sections of the roundhouse roof while preserving portions of its walls and foundation, the Banner reports.
The relocation and expansion is described as a six-phase project with an estimated price tag of $28 million, according to the Banner, while the Sun has separately reported the overhaul could cost $25 million to $30 million, or in another account specifically $25 million for the expansion at the roundhouse site. Those figures have not been reconciled, and the museum is still working to secure the full funding needed. Nawn told the Heritage Rail Alliance the effort represents the museum moving into a new future where it can grow the cultural benefits it provides.
The overall campus development is expected to unfold over the next 10 years, per Heritage Rail Alliance's account of Nawn's work. Baltimore's transportation department is separately in discussions with the museum about either transferring ownership of the roundhouse space or leasing it, the Banner reports, while the Sun notes the museum has said it would like to lease the property for at least 50 years. A Baltimore City hearing agenda also listed a Certified Local Government review of a National Register nomination covering 2201 and 2601 Falls Road, identified as the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad Falls Road Roundhouse.
