Charles Center

"The Charles Center" is a large-scale urban redevelopment project in central Baltimore's downtown business district of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Beginning in 1954, a group called the "Committee for Downtown" promoted a master plan for arresting the commercial decline of central Baltimore. In 1955, the "Greater Baltimore Committee", headed by banker and developer James W. Rouse, joined the effort. A plan was developed by noted American urban planner and architect David A. Wallace, (1917−2004), strongly supported by Mayors Thomas L. J. D'Alesandro, Jr. (1947−1959) and Theodore R. McKeldin, (1943−1947 and 1963−1967) and many in their administrations, which formed the basis of a $25 million bond issue voted on by the citizens of Baltimore City in during the municipal elections in November 1958. The architects' view of the overall Charles Center Redevelopment Plan with the conceptions of possible buildings, lay-out and plan that was publicized to the voters that spring and summer before, only slightly resembles the actual buildings and designs that later were really constructed by the mid-1970s.

Charles Center (Baltimore Metro Subway station)

The Charles Center Metro Subway Station is one of 14 stops along the Baltimore Metro Subway line. It is the area of the city considered to be most central, and until 1995, when the extension to Johns Hopkins Hospital was opened, it was the final stop on the line. At this location, it is possible to walk to many downtown Baltimore landmarks and to transfer to many buses.

The Red Line, a proposed but not yet funded light rail line, would if built include an underground station here providing a transfer point to the currently existing Metro Subway system. However, on June 25, 2015, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan declared that he would not provide state funds for the project, thus putting the Red Line in jeopardy.

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Bus Connections