The Department of General Services (DGS) was honored to receive the 2016 Historic Preservation Award for Restoration from the Board of Directors of Baltimore Heritage, Inc. for the restoration of the Roland Avenue Trolley House.

The Roland Avenue trolley line opened on April 23, 1893, but in 2012 a car drove into the Trolley House in the median of Roland Avenue. According to Jackson Gilman-Forlini, the department's Historic Property Program Manager, "the Roland Ave Trolley Stop is a quaint vestige of Baltimore’s transportation history and a rare survivor of street car architecture”. 

DGS’s Major Projects division took on the task of restoring the building. We hired WBCM Architecture firm, Steve Burdett (design), and contracted Trionfo Builders, Inc. The project successfully restored the building to its former glory. For that reason the Baltimore City Commission for Historical & Architectural Preservation (CHAP) nominated the Department for an Annual Baltimore Heritage Award.

The Restoration & Rehabilitation Award recognizes excellence in the restoration or rehabilitation of historic commercial, institutional or residential buildings while maintaining the basic historic function of the building. This award includes both exterior and interior projects.

According to their website “Baltimore Heritage launched our preservation awards program in 1961 and, over the past fifty years, we have recognized over 300 projects—everything from DIY rehabs of Seton Hill rowhouses to the amazing effort to save the American Brewery.”