The complex includes a single-story freight depot, a two-story interlocking tower, and an open passenger shed.

The buildings were restored in 1992 as the Bowie Railroad Museum and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.

Even before its opening, the construction of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad (B&P) prompted land speculation including the 1870 founding of Huntington City (renamed Bowie in 1880[5]).

In August 1870, Benjamin Plumb, who laid out the town, sold two lots to the railroad under the condition they be used as a station and an engine house by 1875.

[11] In 1978, Amtrak began operating the commuter-oriented Chesapeake between Washington and Philadelphia, making local stops including at Bowie.

A 2009 Maryland Transit Administration analyzed the possibility of restoring passenger rail service to La Plata and Lexington Park via the Pope's Creek Branch.

Under that proposal, a Bowie Center station would have been built to the south near Route 50 to serve the new MARC branch.

The railroad depot structures in Old Bowie are rare survivors of the numerous early 20th century railway stations in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.