One Painting, Three Stories
By J.D. Willoughby
Curator, Heritage Frederick
The collections of Heritage Frederick are focused on items produced, used and owned by people from Frederick County. This watercolor painting reveals three great local stories in just one object.
The painting depicts the historic train station at Point of Rocks, featured in the June 2023 edition of Frederick Magazine. E. Francis Baldwin designed the Gothic Revival building for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at the junction of its old Main Line running to Baltimore and the 1873 Metropolitan Branch running to Washington, D.C. The placement of this beautiful building, snuggled into the wye of the junction, has captivated locals as well as rail fans worldwide for almost 150 years.
The artist who painted the scene was Dorothy Eberstadt, who arrived in Frederick with her mother and sisters in the 1940s. The daughter of Frederick Eberstadt and Helen Leilich, Eberstadt was born in San Francisco, where her father worked as a railroad steward. Eberstadt painted numerous local scenes in Frederick, and her works were exhibited in the halls of Frederick Memorial Hospital and the C. Burr Artz Public Library.
Robert G. Tuck owned the painting, which came to Heritage Frederick as a bequest from his estate. Tuck was born in Point of Rocks, the son of Robert Tuck Sr., a train dispatcher, and Peggy Grove. Tuck showed an early aptitude for the sciences, including winning the top science fair prize at Frederick High School three years in a row. He graduated from Michigan State University in 1963 and began his career as a field zoologist for the Smithsonian Institute. Tuck’s career included conducting research all over the globe. He was an expert on reptiles of the West Indies and the animals of the Middle East. He served as a curator and advisor for a natural history museum in Iran and headed small regional museums and hands-on science centers in California’s Mojave Desert, El Paso, Texas, and the Florida Space Coast. He maintained a strong connection to his Frederick family and local history, despite his far-flung adventures.