About
The Oakland Hotel marker stands along the Town Trail in downtown Oakland, just south of 20 East Oak Street, near the site of a grand B&O Railroad resort hotel. It is worth a stop for railroad buffs and anyone curious about Oakland's summer-resort past.
A Railroad Resort
The marker explains that in the early 1870s the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad saw resort hotels as a way to fill its passenger trains. After opening the Deer Park Hotel in 1873, the B&O began the 300-room Oakland Hotel in 1875 across the Little Youghiogheny River from the Oakland station. The hotel had support buildings such as a laundry, plus two large water tanks on the hill behind it, and many guests returned summer after summer.
Garrett County's First Telephone Line
A telegraph office in the hotel lobby linked it to the Deer Park Hotel. In the early 1890s those hotel-to-hotel wires were connected to telephones, creating what the marker calls Garrett County's first telephone line.
What Remains Today
In 1900 the railroad sold the hotel to a medical group planning a sanatorium; that venture failed, and the building was torn down in 1909 for its lumber. The stone gas house in front of the marker, which once made gas for lighting and cooking, survives. A separate Site of Oakland Hotel marker is close by, and the B&O's 1920 Baldwin steam locomotive and 1955 caboose displays are about 600 feet away.
Pair this marker with a walk past the old gas house and the railroad displays for a fuller picture of Oakland's B&O years.
Address
20 E Oak St, Oakland, MD 21550