On the first OHS Open House of the new year, the Odenton Heritage Society will open a display spotlighting the failed Baltimore and Drum Point Railroad. A plan to build a railroad through Anne Arundel County to southern Calvert County captivated industrialists from the 1860's to the 1920's. The railroad was never completed, but organizers repeatedly tried to finance and build a line that would funnel freight to a new port near Solomons. Enjoy photographs of a still-existing right-of-way that…

On Sunday, February 5, the Odenton Heritage Society will celebrate Black History Month with a display about Sappington School, which welcomed Black grade school pupils during segregation from the early 1920s to the late 1940s. Local support made possible Odenton’s first educational facility for African Americans. When Anne Arundel County constructed a large, replacement school for white children in 1921, Macedonia Methodist Church, an African American congregation, obtained a small, surplus building at Camp Meade and moved it to the…

In a display opening Sunday, March 5th, the Odenton Heritage Society will explore Odenton’s role in making train travel safer since the 1880s. “Railroad Accidents and Safety” examines local train wrecks and responses by railroad companies, from dual tracks to switch towers at junctions, modern train signals, and preventive track maintenance. The contributions of Odenton railroad workers, including tower operators and African American track inspectors and track maintenance workers, will be presented. The Odenton Heritage Society Museum shows how Odenton…