The station was designed by Baltimore architect C. M. Anderson, and sited on a filled-in basin at the terminus of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.

[3] The WM began daily through-train passenger service between Baltimore and Chicago, by way of Cumberland, on June 15, 1913.

[4]: 239–266 The WM used the upper floors of the station for its Western Division offices, and a control tower, even after the railroad's absorption into the Chessie System, until the dispatchers were reassigned in 1976.

[4]: 318 With the advent of the initiative in Cumberland to create a scenic railroad using the former WM trackage north out of the city, the station was partially restored in 1990.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 as the Western Maryland Railway Station.