The mural at Catonsville Junction features Ed Griffin, a generous donor and owner of Catonsville Automotive, as the streetcar driver, and includes a 7-Eleven logo added by CRTT to honor the property owner. It also portrays Dr. Bob Irwin and his wife Marjean, a muralist, in a window, and Maureen Sweeney Smith, co-founder of Catonsville Rails To Trails, with her dog Skeeter on a porch facing the trail.

This unique structure, built in 1939 by the Baltimore Transit Company to serve waiting passengers at the terminus of the #8 Towson-Catonsville streetcar line, was constructed using Belgian paving blocks reclaimed from the streets of nearby Baltimore, Maryland. In addition to waiting space, it also incorporated a streetcar operator’s restroom and a sand storage bin. After streetcar service ended in 1963, BTC was served by Maryland Mass Transportation Administration buses until 1997, when the shelter was restored to its original appearance by   local historian, Dave Ditman, through the efforts of the Old Catonsville Neighborhood Association.  This Baltimore County Landmarked Structure is maintained by Catonsville Rails to Trails volunteers and the MTA.

The Berley Roberts, Sr. Streetcar Mural, located on the #8 Streetcar Path in Catonsville, was originally created in 1997 by 14-year-old Eagle Scout Clark LeCompte as a tribute to the historic Catonsville Junction. The 1,440 sq. ft. mural features a full-sized streetcar and depicts scenes from the mid-20th century, including local landmarks and community life. In 2021, Catonsville Rails to Trails refurbished the mural and added Berley Roberts, Sr.—the first Black streetcar operator on the #8 route—as the driver, honoring his pioneering role in Baltimore’s transit history. The mural also includes whimsical and historical details like the Pig Path, the Caton Tavern, and childhood memories from local residents. Roberts’ family visited the mural in 2023, deepening its legacy as a celebration of resilience, inclusion, and community storytelling.

The Catonsville Historical Society (CHS) agreed to preserve a cast iron railroad crossbuck sign in 1980 and it was moved from the Short Line Railroad to their property at 1824 Frederick Road. When the CHS sold the Townsend House and museum in 2021, they donated the sign to CRTT and paid to have it moved to Railroad Park located at 745 Frederick Road.

The buildings at The Shops on Mellor were originally the warehouses for the freight that was delivered by the Catonsville Short Line train.  That is why these buildings have an elevated walkway porch along the front of the building.  The train had a spur that headed to Wilson Lumberyard to deliver building supplies and coal.  Freezers were installed in these warehouses in the 50s-60s and for the first time providing Catonsville supermarkets with TV dinners, frozen vegetables and ice cream.

In 1925, Baltimore County purchased the land and demolished the Catonsville Country Club building for a new high school which opened in the fall of 1926.  In 1954, a new high school was built at the corner of Bloomsbury and  Rolling Road and the school became the Catonsville Junior High (grades 7,8,9) and later the Catonsville Middle School (grades 6,7,8).

The school board wanted to demolish the building in 1995, but protests from residents resulted in the building becoming a community center.  In 2016, the school became the new elementary school after a $28 million renovation project that included a $36,000-square foot addition and air conditioning.

Founded in 1797, Spring Grove State Hospital, now known as Spring Grove Hospital Center, is the second oldest continuously operating state psychiatric hospital in the country.  In late 1852, this 136-acre parcel was selected as the site for the new hospital and was known as Spring Grove because it contained a number of spring-fed ponds and streams.  The new hospital served 325 patients and opened on October 7, 1872.

The Catonsville Short Line Railroad hauled large quantities of coal that was delivered to St. Charles College (now Charlestown) and Spring Grove State Hospital.  The Spring Grove Power Plant provided steam heating though out Spring Grove’s facility until 1972.

When the State Highway Administration widened the Beltway in 1982, they removed the Catonsville Short Line (CSL) Railroad Bridge, a connector between the east and west sides of Catonsville near Spring Grove Hospital that was built in the 1960s.  The CSL had been abandoned 10 years earlier after 88 years of service.

CRTT Board Member Sheldon Smith wanted trail users to understand and remember the Short Line route, including the bridge.  Sheldon called on local realtor Wes Peters and artist Edward Williams to fund and paint the Shady Nook trail mural.  The mural was completed in Spring, 2014.

Residents enjoy taking selfies at this mural including a reenactment of the popular 1960s cartoon Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties, a segment on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. Do-Right is always trying to catch his nemesis, Snidely Whiplash, and rescue Inspector Fenwick’s daughter, Nell Fenwick, when she is tied to the railroad tracks.

The Catonsville Short Line Railroad was dotted with seven small train stations.  This train station, at the corner of Paradise and Prospect Aveneus, was photographed by Dr. G. Howard White who lived on Prospect Ave.

The Baltimore National Cemetery was one of seven national cemeteries created between the World Wars, 1934–1939. It was the Army’s first major expansion since the Civil War, directed at serving a growing veteran population and the rapidly depleting burial space at existing national cemeteries. 

The cemetery’s site was an historic estate called Cloud Capped (or Cap), which occupied an elevated setting adjacent to Frederick Road as early as 1750. The property was part of the Baltimore Company (Iron Ore) holdings and Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was an investor. 

In 1890, when socially prominent Blanchard and Susan Randall acquired the estate as a summer home, its 90 acres extended from Frederick Rd. to Wilkens Ave.  A railroad stop near the property made it easily accessible to downtown Baltimore in the late 1800s. 

Nearby, the diminutive 5.2-acre Loudon Park National Cemetery was at or approaching capacity, and additional burial space was needed. The Randalls sold their property for $95,000 to the government, which took possession in 1936. The Cloud Capped estate was converted to a national shrine under the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a Depression-era make-work program that employed 100-150 men between 1937 and 1940.

The first interment was on December 18, 1936, although the cemetery was formally dedicated on Memorial Day, May 30, 1941. There are approximately 47,000 internments at this location.