Exchange Place – A&E Alignment Shop
The area along the B&O Railroad tracks in Martinsburg is designated as The Baltimore and Ohio and Related Industries Historic District. The showpieces of the district are, of course, the B&O Roundhouse and the train station. But the significance of the railroad in this area is shown by the large number of business and industrial structures that were in one way or another dependent on and supported by the railroad.
Exchange Place is more of a driveway than a street at this point, as it branches off the access road from North Queen Street by the Matthews Foundry. The A&E Alignment Shop building is on one side of the intersection.
I haven’t been able to find any information about the history of this particular building. Curiously enough, when I search I get a range of “business directories” that list the company as if it is still a going concern. It’s clearly not, at least not in this location, because the north wall (to the right in this photograph) has partially fallen in and the shell of the building is open to the elements. It suggests, however, that the company was active some time in the recent past – at least since the invention of the Internet.
Light, Shadow, Form, and Texture 