The Mt. Royal Station clock tower, after more than a century, has a new look. This past summer, MICA implemented the Safe Haven Clock Tower project as part of its Beacons of Light initiative.
The Mt. Royal train station was built by the B&O Railroad primarily to serve Royal Blue Line passenger trains connecting Washington, D.C. with New York City, using the then-newly built Howard Street Tunnel. When opened on Sept. 1, 1896, it was the first railroad station in the world to serve electrified passenger trains, and according to historian Lucius Beebe, it was “…one of the celebrated railway stations of the world…”
The B&O Railroad ended passenger service at the station in June of 1961, and MICA acquired the property in 1964. MICA converted the station into studios for use by art students by 1967. ( As for the railroad, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was acquired by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad in the 1960s, and the C&O became part of the larger CSX transportation network in 1980.)
The station’s landmark clock tower extends 150 feet above the ground. The clock dial itself is 9 feet in diameter, and the clock once served as the master clock for all clocks in the station. According to Mark Mitchell, a clock restoration expert, the clock was made by the Howard Watch and Clock Company in Boston and still operates mechanically but is wound electrically.
The new-look clock tower, according to Sara Warren from MICA’s Office of Advancement, connects art and design to community well-being. The clock tower project reimagines the historic clock at Mt Royal Station as similar to a coastal lighthouse, a beacon of safety and inclusiveness, projecting a sense of community for all who observe it.
The artistic lighting suggests a lighthouse effect without interfering with the clock mechanisms or architectural elements. The faces of the clock glow in MICA’s colors of magenta/pink with a white slash. The clock faces are then illuminated sequentially to achieve the lighthouse effect. According to Warren, funding for the Safe Haven Clock Tower project came from the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation in New York.
MICA’s Beacons of Light initiative dovetails with the Inviting Light project in Station North that has been implemented over the past year. “Soft Gym,” located at 101 W. North Ave., is the fourth of five large-scale art installations to open in Station North. All of the installations are expected to be on display for at least a year. Bloomberg Philanthropies is the primary sponsor of the Inviting Light initiative, and the Central Baltimore Partnership has taken the lead in its facilitation. Information about that program can be found at invitinglight.org .
–Sallye Perrin
Download PDF