For over 30 years, the Museum has preserved the history of Brunswick. Known during the Civil War as Berlin, this small town along the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal and Baltimore & Ohio Railroad was incorporated as Brunswick in 1890. That same year the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad began construction of the 5 mile rail yard that would reshape Brunswick into a company town with a population of over 5000!
The BHM can be seen as two museums in one. On the second floor, the Museum’s exhibits tell the story of a town built by the B&O railroad at the turn of the 20th century and the people who lived here. Recreations of late Victorian rooms are the centerpiece complimented by exhibits that recall the lives of the railroaders and their families in the early 1900’s. Upstairs on the third floor is our 1700 square foot HO Scale model railroad that depicts the B&O Metropolitan Subdivision beginning at the west end of Brunswick’s rail yard and running eastward through Montgomery County communities all the way to Union Station in Washington D.C. The model railroad comes alive with many new interactive elements installed during the renovation of the layout in 2007.
We are proud to house the Brunswick Visitors Center for the National Park Service’s Chesapeake & Ohio National Historic Park. The history of the C&O canal is beautifully depicted in photographs and interactive elements. This area of the museum is free to the public.