{"id":3662,"slug":"president-street-station-baltimore-maryland","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["President Street Station opened in 1850 — the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore's Baltimore terminus, the oldest surviving big-city railroad station in America, where passengers had to transfer between the station and Camden Yards across the city's streets.","The file's documented spine is the station's place in the war's opening: on April 19, 1861, the 6th Massachusetts marched from President Street through the city and into the Baltimore Riot — the first bloodshed of the Civil War happened on the streets this station fed."]},{"heading":"The war's first blood","paragraphs":["The file's legend layer is empty — the station's claim is the documented April 19: the regiment that left this platform walked into the mob at Pratt Street, four soldiers and twelve civilians dead — the war's first casualties passing through this building.","The Network to Freedom listing is the file's second register — the station's tracks also carrying the escaping enslaved, the building holding both the war's first blood and the freedom road's passage."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["President Street is the archive's first-blood file — the station where the war's first casualties embarked, keeping the documented April 19 as its register. The building is the record; the riot's dead are the history it holds.","A station that sent troops into the war's first riot keeps that morning — the file's suggestion being that the platform still remembers the regiment that didn't come back whole."]}],"name":"President Street Station","aliases":[],"type":"HISTORIC_SITE","type_label":"Historic Site","cats":["DARK_HISTORY","UNDERGROUND_RAILROAD_HISTORY","AFRICAN_AMERICAN_HISTORY","HISTORIC_SITE","RAILROAD","UNDERGROUND_RAILROAD"],"groups":["dark-history","historic-sites"],"desc":"The 1850 depot—where the Pratt Street riot began.","full_desc":"President Street Station is a historic site in Baltimore, Maryland, an NPS Network to Freedom. The 1850 depot—where the Pratt Street riot began. HauntHunt files it with Underground Railroad history, the Underground Railroad and African American history. The dossier holds 3 documented facts — the record is history-forward, no paranormal claims on file. The site is open to visitors.","address":null,"city":"Baltimore","county":null,"state":"Maryland","postal":null,"region":"South","lat":39.300032,"lon":-76.610476,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"ACTIVE","access":"PUBLIC","access_notes":null,"ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":"NPS Network to Freedom","current_use":"Historic site","research_notes":"UGRR enrichment wave 1; VERIFY task auto-queued.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":67.9,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.85,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":1,"paranormal_claim_provenance":null,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[],"history":[{"description":"NPS includes this site in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. President Street Station's past is on record — the entry belongs to the verified layer the museum itself interprets. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. The record appears in 'Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01'. It is the kind of fact the rest of the dossier leans on.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01","url":"https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/sortable_dataset/undergroundrailroad/F0E29766-00A1-12E5-C3D062151C3F7E26/nri-NTFListings6426NOPIItable.csv?t=1784017173223","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}},{"description":"President Street Station is documented on the National Park Service Network to Freedom for its role in the Underground Railroad. A documented site gives the file real substance; this entry is part of that record. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. Sources including 'NPS Network to Freedom listing' carry the record. Documented ground is what separates this file from pure legend — this is part of it.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"NPS Network to Freedom listing","url":"https://www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/index.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}},{"description":"The 1850 station is documented. The site's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. The detail is preserved in 'NPS Network to Freedom listing'. It anchors the timeline the rest of the file hangs from.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"NPS Network to Freedom listing","url":"https://www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/index.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}}],"legends":[],"entities":[],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Historic site; verify hours and access with the managing agency before visiting; check nps.gov for current hours and alerts.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01","url":"https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/sortable_dataset/undergroundrailroad/F0E29766-00A1-12E5-C3D062151C3F7E26/nri-NTFListings6426NOPIItable.csv?t=1784017173223","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1},{"name":"NPS Network to Freedom listing","url":"https://www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/index.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1},{"name":"Underground Railroad","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_Railroad","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":{"title":"President Street Station","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_Street_Station","desc":"United States historic place","extract":"The President Street Station in Baltimore, Maryland, is a former train station and railroad terminal. Built in 1849 and opened in February 1850, the station saw some of the earliest bloodshed of the American Civil War (1861–1865), and was an important rail link during the conflict. It is the oldest surviving big-city railroad terminal in the United States.\nIn 1997, a preservation campaign and renovation project was completed, enabling the station to be operated as Baltimore Civil War Museum.","img":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cb/President_Street_Station_-_Baltimore_1856.jpg/960px-President_Street_Station_-_Baltimore_1856.jpg?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=api&utm_content=thumbnail","score":104,"lat":39.284,"lon":-76.60244444},"counts":{"claims":0,"history":3,"legends":0,"entities":0,"sources":3}}