Maryland Daily PhotoEvery Week Day a New Picture from MD

Cumberland’s City Hall came into being out of the same necessity as so many other municipal buildings in the state: it’s previous incarnation burned to the ground 100 years ago.  In this case, being 2011 it was exactly 100 years ago that the city built this one.

I did some research on this neo-classical  building, and it all leads back to one entry in the historic register, which is so full of architectural details that I cannot hope to summarize their significance in just a few sentences.  So I will provide this link.

I will note that the mural on the inside of the building sounds pretty interesting and, next time I’m there during business hours (which might be tough) I’ll be sure to bring back a picture.

Welcome new contributing photographer, Matt.  As a native of the town, he gives us this photo of a reflective Cumberland storefront taken at a recent reunion.

Here’s a throwback to the past that I found on a Bank in Cumberland.  There’s something about this alarm that makes it seem like it was colorized and stripped from the set of an early gangster movie.  Of course, those gangsters were never smart enough to realize that the best step to take first might have been to disable the alarm.  The bank certainly isn’t hiding its location.     

You may remember that last year after Memorial day MDP visited Dan’s rock, from which today’s picture was also taken.  

  This year MDP took a Memorial day trip to the Southern Eastern Shore, taking plenty of pictures of towns and a festival along the way.  So stay tuned this week for some exciting new territory. 

Becasue I know you wanted more of the first EVER courthouse and post office on the register.

Why not welcome the new postage rate with a picture of a post office.  This one has something unique to offer.  It’s not an upsidedown airplain, but if you click here: you can read about it.

Thanks to everyone who commented yesterday for MDP’s first year celebration.    I really enjoyed reading all of those comments.   It’s funny becasue I was really stressed out about what to post yesterday.  After putting three or four new photos up and then taking them down, I finally decided on another take of the original MDP.   It seems silly now, but at the time it really bothered me.  

However, it made me think of all the other times I’ve chosen one photo over another.  

On the rarest of rare occasions, there are actually two good shots of the same thing.  With that thought in mind, today’s photo is from the opposite side of another recent post.   This one was taken in B&W film on the opposite side of the county courthouse in Cumberland. It was a tough call to choose which one to originally use. 

Maybe I’ll devote the rest of this week to the forgotten bretheren of posted pictures.  Like a directors cut of sorts…but not really at all like that. 

Yesterday’s markers located just down a hill from this building.  I’ll explain why in a minute.

This building is the continuation of our tour of county courthouses.  Today we have the Allegany County courthouse, built after … that’s right…. a fire destroyed the original courthouse, in the late 1800′s.   This courthouse also sits above the location of Fort Cumberland.  Though the fort no longer exists, those markers from yesterday denote the fort’s boundaries.  The church adjacent to this site, which is visible here, is directly over the location of the barracks of the fort.  In fact, in this area, tunnels still exist which were used to move between buildings in the fort.

The fort is significant in that it is a British fort in Maryland, unlike some of the other’s we’ve visited, it was never used by the American government.   It’s also famous as a stopping point in the British attack and retreat from the french as well as for a certain general with wooden teeth and a distaste for cherry trees who was the leader of a regiment there.

Any guess what these are or where they are?   What they may mark? 

Here’s a picture of a lamp post and the top of the Hotel Gunter in downtown Frostburg.   The hotel has a rich history, much of whcih centers on its basement which has been used for game cock fighting, a prison, and a speakeasy.