Garrett County History Museum

Garrett County History Museum is the Garrett County Historical Society's museum at 107 S 2nd St in downtown Oakland, covering more than 200 years of county history, from its founding and the land itself to daily life in earlier generations. It's mostly self-guided and family-friendly, and you can take it all in over an afternoon.

Rooms and Collections

Exhibits are arranged in themed rooms. The B&O/Garrett Room explains how John Garrett and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad shaped the county, and the Hotels Room tells the story of the Deer Park and Oakland hotels that made the area a resort destination, back when trains came through town a dozen times a day and Deep Creek Lake was still a stream. Other displays include:

• Civil War and military items, including pieces tied to the USS Garrett County
• Native American artifacts
• Women's period clothing
• Victorian, Industrial and Cabin rooms
• "Little Maryland," a working replica B&O train that Stephen Pagenhart began building at 16 and showed at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair

A Resource for Family Research

The museum was established in 1969 and moved to its Oakland home in 1997. The society's holdings here include photographs, family genealogies, birth, death and cemetery records, and early newspapers, which makes it a useful stop if you're tracing family roots. Members receive the Glades Star, the society's quarterly publication, and a searchable online archive of it was created with the Ruth Enlow Library.

Before You Go

Staff are happy to give tours on request, and school, bus and group visits can be arranged by contacting the society. The society also runs the Garrett County Transportation Museum on East Liberty Street, so it's easy to make a day of Oakland history.

Give the museum a call before you head over and they'll help you plan your visit.

Call Us!

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• (301) 334-3226
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