Clipper Mill tapped the power of the Jones Falls here starting in 1854. Without the VW bus and TV Hill antenna, it would be difficult to date this photo to more than a century later.

The building was recently restored, repurposed, and rechristened Whitehall Mill, its original name. Real estate interests have moved the "Clipper Mill" name north to elsewhere in Woodberry, causing untold confusion for historians.

Link: 1901

A double head of steam lugs mixed freight uphill past Clipper Mill. The grade continued uphill to a local peak at Timonium. Visually below the chimney appears to be a milepost, with a digit of 2 or 3. This location is 2 track miles from Penn Station, and 3 from Calvert Street Station.

Harwood replicated the scene many decades later. He deserves extra thanks for contributing not only photos to this tour, but also his knowledge of area history.

The first mill at this site opened during the 1700s.

Link: Clipper Mill history

Before reaching Woodberry, the NC alignment and I-83/JFX switch sides. The road will remain near and east of the railroad for the remainder of their run within Baltimore City.

During light rail's single-track era, many -- but not all -- stations were double-tracked, such as Woodberry's where MTA 5002 is about to stop. On the right is Meadow Mill which was built during 1877.

Link: 1969

Since the time of the prior photo, mill buildings have been converted into condos and hip restaurants, but the Woodberry light rail station looks much the same.

Link: condos

With freight traffic on the line dwindling, and light rail installation soon to commence, Harwood captured Conrail 8260 about to cross Union Avenue.

Link: 1985

This is a similar view from some 30 years later.

Old mill, new train.

Link: Woodberry's 1906 pandemic

Old train, new livery. It's the same Union Avenue grade crossing, but looking the opposite direction as the prior photo. And, it's the same MTA 5034 as seen in the prior photo, but here it's wearing a newer paint scheme.

The tall, brick building behind the train was part of the Poole & Hunt iron mill.

At the grade crossing, custom signage alerts pedestrians to approaching trains.

In this view from Meadow Mill, Poole & Hunt's tall brick building is at right. NC's Woodberry Station is at lower left where light rail's station now resides. The stone arch bridge at lower right remains extant; views of it like that at right are possible only during non-leaf season.

Links: Poole & Hunt history, similar, higher res photo, ~1930

The next grade crossing leads to various old mill buildings in varying stages of repurposing. The tallest stack is a relic from the Schenuit Rubber factory that departed Woodberry during the 1960s. Prior to Schenuit, it was the site of Woodberry Factory that made textiles, and before that milled flour. When the building was torn down during 2021, it exposed stone walls behind the brick.

In 1855, Park Mill's netting factory began operation in the nearest building on the right.

Link: Woodberry Factory history

A disconnected NC siding, with check rail, remains stuck in the pavement between light rail and the old factories. Much to the chagrin of William Blake, these tracks brought chariots of fire to Woodberry's dark satanic mills. Now, they lead to drop bins repurposed into automobile parking.

Links: Woodberry history, dark satanic mills

The resolution of this 1953 aerial is insufficient to see that siding, but it shows an entirely different rail siding, more a spur, to the large factory buildings on the east side of Jones Falls. Note rail cars curling adjacent on the north side of the large buildings at photo-right.

Within ten years that spur would be overshadowed by I-83/JFX. The 41st Street bridge cuts across the top half of the photo. The next tour page will resume on the north side of that bridge.

This tour page follows the former Northern Central Railway route northward from near Woodberry. The proposed narrow gauge line the map shows paralleling at right was the Baltimore & Lehigh that later merged to form the Maryland & Pennsylvania Railroad (Ma&Pa).

Baltimore City's northern boundary from 1888 to 1918 existed just north of Woodberry, as depicted on this 1894 city topographical survey map. This is roughly where present-day 43rd Street is found. Forty-three is the highest street number in the area because it was upon the 1888 city expansion that planners applied numbers to streets within the city's new northern reach.

Here at Bend Hill, NC crosses to the east bank of the Jones Falls only to return to the west bank less than a mile north. This realignment straightened the original one of the Baltimore & Susquehanna Railroad that had clung to the west bank.

Exactly where was that original B&S alignment? Note the more-widely-spaced elevation lines on the west (left) side of the river. That's where the B&S had created a flat shelf for their tracks.

Within the bottom half of the map, the thin line of water represents a millrace for one of Woodberry's mills.

The millrace seen near "2318" on the topo survey above still exists, albeit in disused form, now marked by this drop off sign. Light rail's "mile 4" sign matches the location of NC's milepost 4.

The main girders and stone supports are of NC construction, while the bright masonry exhibits light rail's refurbishment.

The year the B&S/NC realigned to this location is uncertain, but is suspected to be when the railroad was doing other work in the region. That puts it at 1838, or perhaps the 1870s.

The oldest aerial photo of the area shows shadows in Woodberry Quarry as it eats into the north face of Malden Hill (later renamed TV Hill). After World War II, a landfill would refill what the quarriers had excavated.

With the disused millrace behind the photographer, this reverse-to-tour-direction view from the area of the original B&S alignment finds a retaining wall. Its construction appears too modern to be of B&S origin, so likely was related to an access road to/from Woodberry Quarry. Even so, it retraces the curve B&S trains previously did, as does the paved path on the right which is part of Jones Falls Trail.

Off photo-right stands the candelabra broadcasting tower shared by several Baltimore television stations. To keep in shape, age-defying WJZ-TV weatherman Bob Turk climbed the roughly 1000-foot tower daily to check the rain gauges. (No, not really.) Bob retired in 2022 after almost 50 years at WJZ, a duration in television accomplished by few.

Links: TV Hill history, scale model of antenna, Bob Turk

The city-standard guardrail at right suggests the landfill's access road had been a city street at some time. The quarry was on the left. The pavement of the Jones Falls Trail is not as level as a railroad would need, but decades of quarry and landfill trucks likely pounded the old B&S alignment into a new grading after Jones Falls stormwater had eroded the route.

North of TV Hill, the B&S's original alignment can be identified by the treeless mound of land between the Melvale gas holder and NC. The JFX had not yet been built.

The Melvale gas holder, easily seen from I-83/JFX, dated to 1933. It was last of its kind in the region when demolished during 2013.

Before the 1930s, Cold Spring Lane meandered down into the valley where it met NC at grade. When the JFX arrived here about 1962, the bridge in the photo was rebuilt into wider form, then refurbished in 1991.

Links: source photo, gas tank removal

Light rail's Cold Spring Lane station squeezes into a small triangle of land between I-83 and the Jones Falls, just south of where NC's Melvale Station had been.

A roadway speed limit sign has been put to use to slow light rail trains, such as the recently-overhauled MTA 5029.

The first mill at what had been called Melville dates to 1806. Around 1870 it converted from a saw mill to a distillery. Upon Prohibition, the disillery converted from spirits to vinegar production, a capacity in which it continues to function under the name Fleischmanns. At times the smell of vingar has been so strong that passing motorists began to think the Melvale gas holder was instead a vinegar tank. The only vinegar-related tank often seen was one parked by Norfolk Southern on the siding below.

Link: distillery history

The mill's stone buildings seen here were built around 1870.

NC's two-story Melvale Station, formerly located at photo center, succumbed to fire during 1926 and was not rebuilt.

For a short period during the first decade of the 1900s, Melvale's distillery produced more whiskey than any other in Maryland. The distillery is on the east bank of the Jones Falls, which is perhaps one reason the railroad relocated its line from the west bank. The label of Melvale Pure Rye depicted both the factory and railroad.

Just beyond the bend ahead, the track bridges back to the river's west bank. During the Civil War, the Union formed Camp Small in this vicinity in order to guard this bridge as well as its sibling back near Woodberry.

Link: Melvale whiskey

Prior to the Cold Spring Lane bridge, Melvale Avenue crossed at grade on this side of the stone building. Curving over MTA 5030 is a ramp from southbound I-83 to westbound Cold Spring Lane.