State Center / Cultural Center station is an underground Metro SubwayLink station in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...

. It is a transit hub offering connections to Light RailLink, the tenth most northern and western station on the line, the first one in the area viewed by many as "

downtown Baltimore Downtown Baltimore is the central business district of the city of Baltimore traditionally bounded by Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard to the west, Franklin Street to the north, President Street to the east and the Inner Harbor area to the s ...

," and is within a 2 block walk of the Cultural Center / State Center station on the Baltimore Light Rail via Preston Street, and many area landmarks. The stations elevator and escalator entrance is located on the corner of West Preston Street and North Eutaw Street which is directly adjacent to the Maryland States Office Complex, hence the name "State Center." It is within the boundaries of the Madison Park neighborhood and is also very close to the adjacent neighborhoods of

Bolton Hill Bolton Hill is a neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland, with 20 blocks of mostly preserved buildings from the late 19th century. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, preserved as a Baltimore City Historic District, and included ...

, Mid-Town Belvedere, Mount Vernon, and Seton Hill.

Station layout

Artwork

State Center station features a mobile sculpture entitled "Venter," which is suspended in a large opening between its upper and lower level. The sculpture was created by Baltimore artist Paul Daniel at a $39,000 commission in 1983.

History

State Center station was initially referred to as the Bolton Hill station during its planning and construction, in reference to the adjacent neighborhood to the site's north.

Excavation and construction

The Bolton Hill tunnels constructed around State Center station were driven with a shield through Cretaceous alluvium and through

mica Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into extremely thin elastic plates. This characteristic is described as perfect basal cleavage. Mica is ...

schist-derived residual materials. Hand mining was required to advance the face of the tunnel in some areas where the alignment passed through more resistant, hard residual materials.

References

External links

Preston Street entrance from Google Maps Street View
Transit-oriented developments in the United States Metro SubwayLink stations located underground Railway stations in the United States opened in 1983 1983 establishments in Maryland Railway stations in Baltimore Madison Park, Baltimore Bolton Hill, Baltimore {{Maryland-railstation-stub