Connecting with Our Community Through History

Connecting with Our Community Through History

One of the most rewarding parts of our work at the National Capital Trolley Museum is discovering new ways to connect our collections with the communities we serve.

A couple of weeks ago, we were contacted by Capital Market in Capitol Heights, Maryland, which was looking for photographs and documents related to the history of transit-oriented development along today’s Blue Line corridor.

We were excited to help!

Our archives contain a remarkable story of how electric and steam railways helped shape the communities east of Washington, including the Washington Railway & Electric Company streetcars to Seat Pleasant, the Chesapeake Beach Railway, and the Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis Electric Railway.

We were able to locate several terrific photographs from the John Merriken Collection in our archives. Merriken was the author of Every Hour on the Hour, the definitive history of the WB&A. The photographs provide a fascinating glimpse of the Seat Pleasant area in the early 1900s, including scenes around the District Line Station, where the three railways came together near what is today 63rd and Dix Streets, NE.

These aren't simply photographs of old trains. They tell the story of how transportation helped create communities and how the neighborhoods we know today were shaped by the railways that once served them.

We're proud to share our collections with organizations like Capital Market and to help connect today's communities with their transportation history.

Our archives help us discover the past. Our community partnerships help us connect it to the present.