This four-part series delves into the history of Pine Street Station, which currently serves as home to the UMB Department of Police and Public Safety.
Note: Please see the video at the end of this article.
The Sordid History of Pine Station
“To some, it’s a castle. To some, it’s a dungeon.” University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) Police Chief Thomas Leone, MSL, smiles at his quip about Pine Station, the historic building on the northwest side of campus that houses his office.
The two-story High Victorian Gothic building boasts a red brick façade with bluestone lintels, ornate metal roof finials, a slate roof, and decorative elements. Despite the beautiful exterior, the building has a seedy history and the "presence" of past tenants.
The building at 214 N. Pine St. was built in 1877-78 by architect Frank E. Davis. It opened in 1878 as the Baltimore Police Department’s Western District Police Station House to protect the area’s growing number of banks and to police the raucous blocks of theaters and taverns around Lexington Market.
Lexington Market — one of the country’s longest-running public markets — opened nearly 100 years before Pine Station. At first, the market was comprised of wagons loaded with meat, butter, eggs, produce, and fresh catches from the Chesapeake Bay.
The area west of Lexington Market was known as the “vice and prostitution district” and was synonymous with seamy crime when Pine Station opened. At the time, 62 men worked in the station, including 48 patrolmen. Pine Station served as the station house, a court, and a jail until 1951.
New Tenants, Same Issues
The year after patrolmen moved out, Baltimore Police reopened the building as the Bureau of Aid and Prevention, which included Missing Persons, Juvenile Protective Bureau, Sanitary Squad, and Boy Scouts.
In the following decade, Pine Station offered resources and support to homeless women and orphaned children while also detaining women and children under 16 who were arrested. Runaway children “turned up at the station by the dozens,” says one Baltimore Sun article from 1959.
“Police Matrons” helped run the station. These female turnkeys were responsible for searching and supervising female and youth prisoners. A Baltimore Sun article from 1971 says between 400 to 500 prisoners were held in Pine Station each month.
The building became known in the area as “lockup.” A sergeant’s blotter from 1952 describes crime in the area: disorderly conduct, assault by striking and stabbing, arson, bigamy, burglary, bogus check passing, fortune telling, forgery, prostitution, and murder. In the ‘50s and ‘60s, female college students from Morgan State, Goucher, and Johns Hopkins were brought to Pine Station following mass arrests for civil rights activism.
A 1966 Baltimore Sun article described the “Pine Street Women’s and Children’s Detention Center” as a “slum” that is “dangerous and unsafe.” Another article called the aging building a “snake pit,” “medieval” and compared it to Bedlam, London’s infamous insane asylum.
Cells had only a wooden bench, with no mattress, pillow, or toilet facilities. The article goes on to say: “The International Association of Chiefs of Police described Pine Station as ‘the worst example of police housing in the city.’”
Baltimore Police moved out of Pine Station for good in 1971.
In the early 1980s, preservationists saved Pine Station from demolition to make way for “Harbor City Boulevard” (now Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard). However, about two-thirds of the west section of the building, which contained 10 jail cells, was demolished so the major thoroughfare could be built.
On Jan. 3, 1985, Pine Station was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
UMB Moves into Pine Street Station
The West Baltimore home of H.L. Mencken, renowned journalist and author, was given to the University System of Maryland (USM) upon his death. In 1983, the USM Board of Regents approved the exchange of the H.L. Mencken House for Pine Street Station and its adjacent property.
Pine Station was in bad shape. After sitting vacant for more than a decade, UMB made significant repairs to the building as funds became available. The University spent nearly $3.46 million (adjusted value to 2026) to complete the renovation over the next eight years.
Pine Station reopened in 1991 with much fanfare. UMB Police, which were previously spread out in multiple locations across campus, were delighted to have a central police station.
The Baltimore Sun described the renovated building as a “legendary jailhouse” that “retains much of its Jack the Ripper feel.” Pine Street came alive with state-of-the-art computers, video screens, and a sergeant’s desk in the front lobby. Two cells remained in the back where arrestees could be temporarily held before moving to central booking. The roll call room, lunch room, and locker room could be found in the basement.
In 2010, the Pine Street Annex opened next door and became the UMB Police Department’s operations building. Pine Station became the administrative hub for the department.
But Is it Haunted?
Nearly everyone who has worked inside Pine Station has experienced something strange or unexplainable. Papers flying out of your hands. A push near the stairs. Sounds when no one is there. What’s happening inside Pine Station?