Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Roundhouse

Martinsburg Roundhouse Center located in Martinsburg, includes 13 acres with three B&O Railroad shop buildings.

The main attraction is the completely enclosed 1866 cast iron frame roundhouse. It is situated along 1,000 feet of the Tuscarora Creek. The B&O Railroad shops operated until 1988. This site was active early in the Civil War and was the site of the first National Labor Strike of 1877.

The presence of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company in Martinsburg, West Virginia dates back to the 1840's when the first engine and machine shops were erected for the expanding company. When West Virginia seceded from the Virginia in 1861, the regions social and government institutions were thrown in turmoil. The Civil War decimated both the region and Martinsburg, specifically, because of the railroad yards.

On May 22, 1861, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson's troops stopped all trains going East at Martinsburg and Point of Rocks. Once he determined that all of the trains that could be caught had been caught, he blew up the bridges to the West and blew down the rocks on the tracks to the East, and the pirating of the B&O railroad was on. In total, 42 locomotives and 386 cars were stolen and destroyed, 36 and ½ miles of track, 17 bridges, 102 miles of telegraph wire, the "Colonade" Bridge and the B&O roundhouse and machine shops were destroyed.