Maryland Route 25 (MD 25), locally known for nearly its entire length as Falls Road, is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. It begins north of downtown Baltimore, just north of Penn Station, and continues north through Baltimore County to Beckleysville Road near the Pennsylvania state line. The road passes through the communities of Hampden, Medfield, Cross Keys, and Mount Washington in the city, and Brooklandville and Butler in Baltimore County. The entire length of MD 25 that uses Falls Road—and its county-maintained continuation north to Alesia—is a Maryland Scenic Byway, named the Falls Road Scenic Byway.
Route description
City of Baltimore
MD 25 begins as a one-way pair, Lafayette Street westbound and Lanvale Street eastbound, at the one-way pair comprising MD 2, Calvert Street northbound and St. Paul Street southbound, in the Charles North neighborhood of Baltimore and within the North Central Historic District. Lafayette Street and Lanvale Street head west as two-lane streets and intersects another one-way pair of streets, northbound Charles Street and southbound Maryland Avenue. Within the Charles–Lafayette–Maryland–Lanvale block is a plethora of historic sites: the Hans Schuler Studio and Residence on Lafayette Street, the Charles Theatre and Baltimore City Passenger Railway Power House and Car Barn on Charles Street, and rowhouses comprising the Buildings at 1601–1830 St. Paul Street and 12–20 E. Lafayette Street.
West of Maryland Avenue, Lafayette Street and Lanvale Street merge into two-lane undivided Falls Road, which curves northwest and briefly parallels Amtrak's Northeast Corridor railroad line, which enters Penn Station serving Amtrak and MARC's Penn Line to the southeast. As the railroad tracks veer away toward Washington, MD 25 begins to parallel the east side of Jones Falls and MTA Maryland's Baltimore Light RailLink line, which is on the west side of the stream, at the southern end of the stream's deep valley. The highway passes underneath the Howard Street and US 1/US 40 Truck (North Avenue) bridges and by the Baltimore Streetcar Museum buildings and sheds. MD 25 parallels MTA Maryland's Route 25, which comprises the reconstructed streetcar tracks used for streetcar rides from the museum site north under CSX's Baltimore Terminal Subdivision railroad line and past the remains of a roundhouse to the Museum's streetcar turning loop just south of the 28th Street and 29th Street's bridges over the Jones Falls valley. MD 25 passes under Wyman Park Drive just south of the former Stieff Silver Company factory building and Mount Vernon Mill No. 1 (recently renovated for apartments and condos), down the hill from the Stone Hill Historic District.
At the southern end of the Hampden neighborhood to the east and the Woodberry community on the western hills, MD 25 ascends from the Jones Falls valley and temporarily expands to a four-lane divided street at its ramps with I-83 (Jones Falls Expressway). The partial interchange, which includes ramps from southbound MD 25 to southbound I-83 and from northbound I-83 to northbound MD 25, is next to the historic home "Evergreen on the Falls" now occupied by the Maryland association of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). The street becomes undivided and reduces to two lanes at the main street of Hampden, 36th Street or The Avenue. North of 41st Street, MD 25 passes between the neighborhoods of Medfield to the west and Hoes Heights on the east. The highway intersects Cold Spring Lane next to the joint campus of the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute (Baltimore City public high school specializing in math, science, engineering and technology) and the all-girls Western High School and passes between the Village of Cross Keys (an apartment-condo complex with a small shopping center/mall) on the west and the community of Roland Park on the hills above to the east as a four-lane undivided highway. MD 25 intersects Northern Parkway, (built over and segmented with former Belvedere Avenue) then descends again into the Jones Falls valley and passes through the center of Mount Washington. The neighborhood contains the North Baltimore Aquatic Club, where American Olympics team member Michael Phelps trained, and an intersection with Kelly Avenue and its Bridge which connects to the west with the hilly community of Mount Washington, where the highway reduces to two lanes. Here also is the former campus of old Mount Saint Agnes College for women, and its famous "Octagon House", now a corporate campus for several financial and insurance companies), MD 25 leaves the city of Baltimore at its 1919 City Limits just south of West Lake Avenue.