Since its designation as the county seat in 1776, Hagerstown’s position along major roads and the Baltimore and Ohio, Western Maryland, Norfolk and Western, and Cumberland Valley railroads have made it a regional economic center for both western Maryland and nearby parts of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Although it grew steadily through the nineteenth century, it was manufacturing that launched Hagerstown ahead of Cumberland and Frederick to be the largest city in western Maryland during the early twentieth century. The city’s diverse economy included thriving machine shops, steam railroad repair, furniture and organ building, flour mills, and the production of knit goods. Residential development, both upscale and modest, flourished in a growing ring of neighborhoods spreading out from downtown, such as S. Prospect Street, Potomac-Broadway, City Park, Oak Hill, and Jonathan Street (after c. 1900 the Black neighborhood). Like other industrial cities, the economic downturn of the Great Depression and twentieth-century deindustrialization created economic challenges for Hagerstown.
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