About
Deer Park Hotel is a state historical marker on Hotel Drive, just south of Hotel Road in Deer Park, east of Oakland. It marks the site of the B&O Railroad's mountain resort, which for more than half a century brought presidents and city society to the Garrett County highlands.
The B&O's Mountain Resort
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bought land from part of the Perry family's Anchorage Farm in 1869 and opened the Deer Park Hotel on July 4, 1873. East and west wings added in 1881 and 1882 brought it to about 300 rooms, and large summer cottages grew up around it; B&O president John W. Garrett had one of them and died there in 1884. The marker sums the place up as among "the most exclusive mountain resorts in the east," and it notes four U.S. presidents among the guests. Ulysses S. Grant, Benjamin Harrison and Grover Cleveland stayed here, and Cleveland honeymooned in one of the cottages in 1886.
Decline and What Remains
Business fell off after 1900, and the hotel closed in 1929. It was torn down in the early 1940s. The land has since been subdivided, and modest homes now stand on many lots, but a few of the big Victorian-era cottages survive around the edges of the old grounds. These are private homes, so enjoy them from the road.
The nearby spring that supplied the hotel's water gave its name to Deer Park bottled spring water, which the railroad sold during the resort's heyday. In Oakland, the Garrett County Historical Society building at Dailey's Park wears a façade modeled on the old hotel.
About the Marker
The marker was erected in 1968 by the Maryland Historical Society. The Cleveland Cottage marker stands about 800 feet away, and the James Cardinal Gibbons marker is about 0.2 miles off.
Combine it with the Cleveland Cottage sign and a stop at Dailey's Park for a picture of Deer Park's resort era.
Address
211 Hotel Rd, Oakland, MD 21550