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In 1831 Sykesville became a key location along the B&O Railroad main line as it moved west out of Howard County from Ellicott’s Mills to Point of Rocks. A substantial hotel built by town namesake James Sykes in 1836 on the Howard County side of the Patapsco River made Sykesville an important destination for the railroad tourist trade from Baltimore. The first station built by the B&O served for several decades until a devastating flood in 1868 destroyed it and most of the buildings on both sides of the river. In 1883 Sykesville received a fashionable new red brick Queen Anne train station designed by the B&O’s chief architect, Baldwin. The station remained in service until the 1950s and since the 1990s has been adaptively used as a restaurant.