Oldtown, Maryland
Encyclopedia
Oldtown is an unincorporated community in Allegany County
, Maryland
along the North Branch Potomac River founded in 18th century colonial times. The settlement was initially called "Shawanese Old Town" because it was the site of a Shawnee
Amerindian village abandoned about a decade earlier. In later years the explanatory prefix was dropped from the name and the place because known simply as "Oldtown.
Oldtown was begun (on a soon to be busy road) with the building of a trading post
along an old Native American
trail, the Nemacolin Trail, as traders, especially fur traders (and trappers) pushed over the Cumberland Narrows
Mountain pass
into the Monongahela River
valley
and found the trail could make a safe descent along a reasonable grade down to the river in the area of a river ford overlooked by the bluffs and mounds of the Redstone Old Fort
area, now Brownsville
in Fayette County
in Western Pennsylvania
.
The trading post was established in 1741 by Thomas Cresap
, who'd figured prominently in the Conejohela War, (also called Cresap's War). Shortly after the war, he moved west to the sparsely settled frontier from the more populated regions of York County, Pennsylvania and the Conejohela Flats. Cressap may have been acting, in moving to the frontier, as an agent of Lord Baltimore. The move positioned him to play a role in opening the as yet unchartered Ohio Country
. Cresap opened a road westward under the auspices of the Ohio Company
once a charter was granted for Ohio.
Cresap's son Michael Cresap
was born at Oldtown, the first white male born in Allegany County, Maryland
.
A post office
was established there on May 26, 1870. Oldtown is connected by a one-lane low water toll bridge to Green Spring
in Hampshire County
, West Virginia
.
The "Chesapeake & Ohio Canal" reached Cumberland, MD from Georgetown (Washington, DC) in 1850 by way of Oldtown at Milepost 166.5.
The "Baltimore & Ohio Railroad", located just across the Potomac from Oldtown had reached Cumberland eight years earlier.
The canal finally closed operations as a carrier in 1924 due to flood damage.
The B&O Railroad, now CSX, continues to be a major carrier; and it is used daily by Amtrak's "Capitol Limited" between Washington, DC and Chicago.
The "Western Maryland Railway" expanded west, from Big Pool, MD to Cumberland, MD as a Class-I Railroad in 1906 with the mainline being constructed through Oldtown complete with a train station located at the lower end of town. Passenger service ended on the Western Maryland Railway between Cumberland and Hagerstown, MD on May 30, 1953. Afterwards it was not uncommon for B&O Passenger trains to be rerouted over the WM through Oldtown.
The last scheduled mainline trains through Oldtown occurred on May 12, 1975 for freight, and May 21, 1975 for a Chessie System Passenger Special.
The line was officially abandoned as part of the "Chessie System" consolidation and all WM trains began running on the nearby B&O.
A Chessie System work train pulled up the rails through Oldtown in June 1976.
In 1924 a six classroom/auditorium brick school was erected along Main Street with the first class graduating from there in 1925.
In 1939 an identical new high school section was added to the south end of the present school which increased the classroom total to fourteen.
It included a new cafeteria, office and faculty room.
During the 1954-55 school year yet another high school section was added along with a new vocational agricultural shop, a furnace room and a brand new combination gym/auditorium which could seat 900 people.
During the summer of 1977 the 1925 and 1939 sections were torn down and a new present day first floor section was constructed on the east side of where the old sections stood.
Finally in 2000 the 76th and final class graduated from Oldtown High School and the school closed.
Today it is privately owned and a restaurant is now located in the former school cafeteria.
The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park
was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
in 1966. The Michael Cresap House
was listed in 1972 and the Shawnee Old Fields Village Site
in 1975.
Allegany County, Maryland
Allegany County is a county located in the northwestern part of the US state of Maryland. It is part of the Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of 2010, the population was 75,087. Its county seat is Cumberland...
, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
along the North Branch Potomac River founded in 18th century colonial times. The settlement was initially called "Shawanese Old Town" because it was the site of a Shawnee
Shawnee
The Shawnee, Shaawanwaki, Shaawanooki and Shaawanowi lenaweeki, are an Algonquian-speaking people native to North America. Historically they inhabited the areas of Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Western Maryland, Kentucky, Indiana, and Pennsylvania...
Amerindian village abandoned about a decade earlier. In later years the explanatory prefix was dropped from the name and the place because known simply as "Oldtown.
Oldtown was begun (on a soon to be busy road) with the building of a trading post
Trading post
A trading post was a place or establishment in historic Northern America where the trading of goods took place. The preferred travel route to a trading post or between trading posts, was known as a trade route....
along an old Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
trail, the Nemacolin Trail, as traders, especially fur traders (and trappers) pushed over the Cumberland Narrows
Cumberland Narrows
The Cumberland Narrows is a water gap in western Maryland in the United States, just west of Cumberland, Maryland. Wills Creek cuts through the central ridge of the Wills Mountain Anticline at a low elevation here between Wills Mountain to the north and Haystack Mountain to the south...
Mountain pass
Mountain pass
A mountain pass is a route through a mountain range or over a ridge. If following the lowest possible route, a pass is locally the highest point on that route...
into the Monongahela River
Monongahela River
The Monongahela River is a river on the Allegheny Plateau in north-central West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania in the United States...
valley
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
and found the trail could make a safe descent along a reasonable grade down to the river in the area of a river ford overlooked by the bluffs and mounds of the Redstone Old Fort
Redstone Old Fort
Redstone Old Fort or Redstone Fort or Fort Burd on The Nemacolin Trail was the name of the French and Indian War era wooden fort built in 1759 by Pennsylvania Militia Colonel James Burd to guard the ancient Indian trail's river ford on a mound overlooking the eastern shore of the Monongahela River...
area, now Brownsville
Brownsville, Pennsylvania
Brownsville is a borough in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, United States, officially founded in 1785 located 35 miles south of Pittsburgh along the Monongahela River...
in Fayette County
Fayette County, Pennsylvania
Fayette County is a county located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. As of the2010 census, the population was 136,606. The county is part of the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area....
in Western Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
.
The trading post was established in 1741 by Thomas Cresap
Thomas Cresap
Colonel Thomas Cresap was an English-born pioneer settler in the state of Maryland, and an agent of Lord Baltimore in the Maryland-Pennsylvania boundary dispute. During the dispute, Cresap became a notorious figure in the Conejohela Flats areathe Susquehanna Valley in the area south of Wright's...
, who'd figured prominently in the Conejohela War, (also called Cresap's War). Shortly after the war, he moved west to the sparsely settled frontier from the more populated regions of York County, Pennsylvania and the Conejohela Flats. Cressap may have been acting, in moving to the frontier, as an agent of Lord Baltimore. The move positioned him to play a role in opening the as yet unchartered Ohio Country
Ohio Country
The Ohio Country was the name used in the 18th century for the regions of North America west of the Appalachian Mountains and in the region of the upper Ohio River south of Lake Erie...
. Cresap opened a road westward under the auspices of the Ohio Company
Ohio Company
The Ohio Company, formally known as the Ohio Company of Virginia, was a land speculation company organized for the settlement by Virginians of the Ohio Country and to trade with the Indians there...
once a charter was granted for Ohio.
Cresap's son Michael Cresap
Michael Cresap
Michael Cresap was a frontiersman born in Maryland. He was the son of the pioneer Thomas Cresap. He spent part of his adult years in the Ohio Country as a trader and land developer. He led several raids against Indians whom he believed were hostile to white settlement. Logan of the Mingo Indians...
was born at Oldtown, the first white male born in Allegany County, Maryland
Allegany County, Maryland
Allegany County is a county located in the northwestern part of the US state of Maryland. It is part of the Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of 2010, the population was 75,087. Its county seat is Cumberland...
.
A post office
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
was established there on May 26, 1870. Oldtown is connected by a one-lane low water toll bridge to Green Spring
Green Spring, West Virginia
Green Spring is an unincorporated census-designated place and railroad town in Hampshire County, West Virginia, USA. As of the 2010 census, its population was 218. Green Spring is located north of Springfield on Green Spring Road near the confluence of the North and South Branches of the Potomac...
in Hampshire County
Hampshire County, West Virginia
Hampshire County is a county located in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of 2010, the population was 23,964. Its county seat is Romney, West Virginia's oldest town . Hampshire County was created by the Virginia General Assembly on December 13, 1753, from parts of Frederick and Augusta counties ...
, West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
.
The "Chesapeake & Ohio Canal" reached Cumberland, MD from Georgetown (Washington, DC) in 1850 by way of Oldtown at Milepost 166.5.
The "Baltimore & Ohio Railroad", located just across the Potomac from Oldtown had reached Cumberland eight years earlier.
The canal finally closed operations as a carrier in 1924 due to flood damage.
The B&O Railroad, now CSX, continues to be a major carrier; and it is used daily by Amtrak's "Capitol Limited" between Washington, DC and Chicago.
The "Western Maryland Railway" expanded west, from Big Pool, MD to Cumberland, MD as a Class-I Railroad in 1906 with the mainline being constructed through Oldtown complete with a train station located at the lower end of town. Passenger service ended on the Western Maryland Railway between Cumberland and Hagerstown, MD on May 30, 1953. Afterwards it was not uncommon for B&O Passenger trains to be rerouted over the WM through Oldtown.
The last scheduled mainline trains through Oldtown occurred on May 12, 1975 for freight, and May 21, 1975 for a Chessie System Passenger Special.
The line was officially abandoned as part of the "Chessie System" consolidation and all WM trains began running on the nearby B&O.
A Chessie System work train pulled up the rails through Oldtown in June 1976.
In 1924 a six classroom/auditorium brick school was erected along Main Street with the first class graduating from there in 1925.
In 1939 an identical new high school section was added to the south end of the present school which increased the classroom total to fourteen.
It included a new cafeteria, office and faculty room.
During the 1954-55 school year yet another high school section was added along with a new vocational agricultural shop, a furnace room and a brand new combination gym/auditorium which could seat 900 people.
During the summer of 1977 the 1925 and 1939 sections were torn down and a new present day first floor section was constructed on the east side of where the old sections stood.
Finally in 2000 the 76th and final class graduated from Oldtown High School and the school closed.
Today it is privately owned and a restaurant is now located in the former school cafeteria.
The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park
The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park located in the District of Columbia and the states of Maryland and West Virginia. The park was established as a National Monument in 1961 by President Dwight D...
was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1966. The Michael Cresap House
Michael Cresap House
Michael Cresap House is a historic home in Oldtown, Allegany County, Maryland, United States. It is a -story, two-part stone and brick house built about 1764. The house is associated with Michael Cresap , a well known Ohio frontiersman....
was listed in 1972 and the Shawnee Old Fields Village Site
Shawnee Old Fields Village Site
The Shawnee Old Fields Village Site, is an archaeological site near Oldtown in Allegany County, Maryland. The site contains Late Woodland and Contact period artifacts. An area between the site and the river’s edge may be the location of a number of short-term camps and/or dwelling units...
in 1975.