The roundhouse was completed in 1849. During the Civil War. Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was given strict orders to stop all train activity at the Martinsburg Roundhouse as a part of a campaign against the Baltimore and Ohio railroad company and the Union army. In 1862 Jackson burned down the roundhouses. Following the end of the Civil War, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company rebuilt a roundhouse in Martinsburg. The current roundhouse was constructed in 1866.
