Jerome is an uninhabited community along the old

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

main line Mainline, ''Main line'', or ''Main Line'' may refer to: Transportation Railway * Main line (railway), the principal artery of a railway system * Main line railway preservation, the practice of operating preserved trains on an operational railw ...

in Morgan County in the U.S. state of

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

. It is located entirely within the

Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park is located in the District of Columbia and the state of Maryland. The park was established in 1961 as a National Monument by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to preserve the neglected remains of ...

on the

Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augus ...

. Jerome is also the site of a stretch of the Western Maryland Railway

right-of-way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...

from milepost 126 to milepost 160 listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. Located in the "Paw Paw Bends", Jerome was considered to be one of the most inaccessible places reached by the Western Maryland Rwy. At Jerome, the

train order office A train order is "an order issued by or through a proper railway official to govern the movement of trains". Train order operation is the system by which trains are safely moved by train orders. It is distinguished from other forms of train opera ...

was in use until it was closed on September 1, 1959. When it was abandoned by the

Chessie System Chessie System, Inc. was a holding company that owned the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O), the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O), the Western Maryland Railway (WM), and Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad (B&OCT). Trains operated und ...

in May 1975, the office was not torn down and is one of the few buildings that remain today in Jerome. There was also an operating connection with the B&O "low line" (''see

Magnolia, West Virginia Magnolia is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated community northeast of Paw Paw, West Virginia, Paw Paw in Morgan County, West Virginia, Morgan County in the U.S. state of West Virginia on the Potomac River. Magnolia is located along the Baltimo ...

'') at milepost 137 but it was later removed when the B&O abandoned the low line in 1961. The community and its station on the railroad are rumored to have been named for

Jérôme Bonaparte Jérôme-Napoléon Bonaparte (born Girolamo Buonaparte; 15 November 1784 – 24 June 1860) was the youngest brother of Napoleon I and reigned as Jerome Napoleon I (formally Hieronymus Napoleon in German), King of Westphalia, between 1807 and 1 ...

References

Unincorporated communities in Morgan County, West Virginia Unincorporated communities in West Virginia Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Western Maryland Railway West Virginia populated places on the Potomac River {{MorganCountyWV-geo-stub