By the mid-nineteenth century, Mount Savage was the center of a railroad operation run by the Cumberland and Pennsylvania that included transport of both industrial goods and passengers, with trains arriving and departing eight times a day for Cumberland and Piedmont. This building was erected as their Mount Savage headquarters. It displays a level of ornamentation not often seen in industrial buildings of this region, featuring Renaissance-inspired motifs and multishaded, locally produced brick, with contrasting brick jack-arch lintels and faux frieze-band windows under a modillioned cornice. Train service was discontinued in the 1940s, and the building was acquired by the Mount Savage Refractories Company. Just beyond it are two one-story stone structures built as the railroad’s machine and carpenter shops, and the glazed-brick powerhouse, oil house, and blacksmith shop. The office building is now being used as a storage facility.