Baltimore breaks ground on new home for mounted po

Daily Record Staff//October 3, 2018//

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Officers with the Baltimore Police Mounted Unit were involved in the festivities during a ground-breaking ceremony for the new First Mile Stable. (Photo courtesy of B&O Railroad Museum)

From left, Courtney Wilson, president of the First Mile Stable Charitable Foundation; Sgt. Russell Robar, commander of the Baltimore Police Mounted Unit; Dr. John Bullock, Baltimore City Councilman from the 9th District; Gary Tuggle interim Baltimore Police Commissioner; Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh; Francis Smyth, chair of the board of the B&O Railroad Museum; and Kris Hoellen, executive director of the B&O Railroad Museum, kick off the $2.5 million First Mile Stable project. (Photo courtesy of B&O Railroad Museum)

From left, Kris Hoellen, executive director of the B&O Railroad Museum; Francis Smyth, chair of the board of the B&O Railroad Museum, and his wife, Autee Smyth, join Stacey, Zach and Richard Hoffman, trustees of the Drs. Rouban and Violet Jiji Foundation, for the ceremony. (Photo courtesy of B&O Railroad Museum)

From left, Dr. Nancy Grasmick, left, co-director of the Kennedy Krieger Institute and Sharon Akers, president of the Edward St. John Foundation, chat with interim Baltimore Police Commissioner Tuggle during the ceremonial ground-breaking of the $2.5 million First Mile Stable project. (Photo courtesy of B&O Railroad Museum)

Guests were able to get a good view of some of the Baltimore Police Mounted Unit horses who will be housed at the new $2.5 million First Mile Stable. The unit currently has six horses and is working on expanding it to 10 horses. (Photo courtesy of B&O Railroad Museum)

Interim Baltimore Police Commissioner Gary Tuggle speaks to the audience during the ceremonial ground-breaking festivities at the B&O Railroad Museum for the new $2.5 million First Mile Stable, the new home for the Baltimore Police Mounted Unit. (Photo courtesy of B&O Railroad Museum)

Sgt. Russell Robar, left, commander of the Baltimore Police Mounted Unit, chats with Emma Suarez-Murias, a marketing associate with Pinkard Properties. (Photo courtesy of B&O Railroad Museum)

Kris Hollen, left, executive director of the B&O Railroad Museum, has a conversation with Randolph Reynolds, operations officer asset management section of the Baltimore Police Department; and BPD Maj. Milton Corbett. (Photo courtesy of B&O Railroad Museum)

Courtenay Jenkins, left, a senior director with Cushman & Wakefield and a First Mile Stable donor, and Autee Smyth, the wife of B&O Railroad Museum board chair Francis Smyth, talk with Joe Davies during the stables’ groundbreaking celebration. (Photo courtesy of B&O Railroad Museum)

B&O Railroad Museum Executive Director Kris Hoellen, right, and museum board chair Francis Smyth have a laugh with Marguerite “Macky” Ayers of Mount Clare Museum House in Carroll Park. (Photo courtesy of B&O Railroad Museum)

From left, B&O Railroad Museum chair Francis Smyth, interim Baltimore Police Chief Gary Tuggle and Courtney Wilson, the recently retired executive director of the B&O Railroad Museum, have a conversation at the First Mile Stables groundbreaking. (Photo courtesy of B&O Railroad Museum)

From left, Det. Jeremy Silbert, a spokesman for the Baltimore Police Department; Craig Roswell, the managing partner with Niles Barton & Wilmer; Ashley Valis, executive director of strategic initiatives and community engagement for the University of Maryland Community Engagement Center, and her husband, Jim Gillis, engage in conversation at the First Mile Stables groundbreaking. (Photo courtesy of B&O Railroad Museum)

From left, Carol Gould, Danielle Evansen and Marguerite “Macky” Ayers enjoy a train ride out to the construction site during the groundbreaking event of the First Mile Stable, the new $2.5 million, state-of-the-art home for the Baltimore Police Mounted Unit. (Photo courtesy of B&O Railroad Museum)

Baltimore Mayor Catherine E. Pugh, interim Police Commissioner Gary Tuggle and business and community leaders joined officials from the First Mile Stable Charitable Foundation and B&O Railroad Museum Sept. 17 for a ceremonial ground-breaking event for the First Mile Stable, a $2.5 million, state-of-the-art home for the Baltimore Police Mounted Unit, the oldest continuously operated mounted unit in the United States.

Once complete, the 13,000-square foot equestrian facility, which sits on a 2.4-acre plot of museum property, will include 12 stalls and associated support rooms, an exercise area, a classroom/museum/community center and an outdoor paddock. Construction is expected to take approximately nine months.

The stable is part of the B&O Railroad Museum’s master plan that will re-imagine and guide the future development of the museum over the next decade.

The Baltimore Police Mounted Unit, founded in 1888, consists of six horses. Donations from the First Mile Stable Charitable Foundation to acquire two more horses will help the unit as it works to expand the unit to 10 horses.

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