page_title: Maryland Route 25
section_title: State highway
hierarchical_section_title: Maryland Route 25 / History / State highway
caption_attribution_description: English: will rename and categorize soon
context_page_description: Maryland Route 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 almost to 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 locally maintained continuation north to Alesia—is a Maryland Scenic Byway, named the Falls Road Scenic Byway.
context_section_description: Falls Road was paved in macadam as a state-aid road—the road was designed by the Highway Division of the Maryland Geological Survey and paved by the county with equal financial support by the state and county—from Kelly Avenue in Mount Washington to Padonia Road by 1910. The highway was paved as a 40-foot (12 m)-wide vitrified brick state road—the road was designed by the Maryland State Roads Commission and its construction fully financed by the state—from 36th Avenue in Hampden north to the contemporary city limits at Roland Heights Avenue in Medfield in 1911. Falls Road from Roland Heights Avenue north to Kelly Avenue in Mount Washington was paved with a 40-foot (12 m)-wide vitrified brick surface in 1912.
  By 1921, Falls Road had been surfaced in macadam from Padonia Road to Ridge Road south of Shawan and then in concrete the remaining distance to Shawan. That same year, the Maryland State Roads Commission planned to reconstruct Falls Road in Baltimore from 36th Street south to North Avenue; that stretch was paved with concrete by 1923. The portion of Falls Road from Butler to Whitehouse, which was then known as Blackrock, was planned as part of an extension of Park Heights Avenue via Butler Road and other highways east of Reisterstown as early as 1910 and as late as 1921. Starting in 1924, Falls Road was paved with concrete north from Shawan. The improved road reached a spot north of Butler by 1927 and to Whitehouse in 1928. The concrete highway was extended to Gunpowder Road in 1930 and to its present terminus at Beckleysville Road by 1933.
  MD 25 was one of the original state-numbered highway designation assigned by the Maryland State Roads Commission in 1927. By 1930, the Baltimore–Shawan portion of the highway had been widened to a minimum width of 20 feet (6.1 m). Shortly after 1930, work began on a bridge over the Northern Central Railroad, whose right-of-way is now followed by the Baltimore Light RailLink, at Bare Hills; this structure was completed by 1934. MD 25's southern terminus was Charles Street by 1934 and MD 2 by 1956. The state highway's only major relocation was in 1962 and 1963 when the northern stub of the Jones Falls Expressway, now MD 25A, and the associated four-lane divided section of MD 25 in Brooklandville were constructed. With the completion of the Jones Falls Expressway, I-83 became the main highway from the north into downtown Baltimore and MD 25 was relegated to a local thoroughfare. MD 25 was closed for several months for the replacement of the highway's bridges over the Baltimore Light RailLink and Jones Falls at Bare Hills in 1991 and over I-695 near Brooklandville in 1996.
caption: MD 25 northbound past Broadway Road/Padonia Road in Baltimore County