Founded as Fort Cumberland in 1754 and at the time the westernmost outpost of the British colonies, Cumberland became the county seat of newly created Allegany County in 1789. Its topography and location at the confluence of the Potomac River and Wills Creek made it a major transportation hub. Proximity to the Georges Creek coal mines encouraged industrial growth and residential development for the city, which was incorporated in 1834 and became Maryland’s second-largest city by the mid-nineteenth century. Although surpassed by Hagerstown as a regional manufacturing center in the early twentieth century, Cumberland continued to be an important locale for steel, iron, glass, brick, and other manufacturing. The Great Depression and then deindustrialization drastically altered Cumberland’s fortunes, as did the loss of historic buildings through urban renewal efforts and the construction of I-68 through the city. The fine quality of surviving historic neighborhoods and buildings are a testament to Cumberland’s prosperity in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
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