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CUMBERLAND CITY HALL

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1911–1912, Holmboe and Lafferty, with Wright Butler. 76 Frederick St.
  • (Alexander Heilner)
  • (Alexander Heilner)

City Hall sits at the center of Cumberland’s downtown public building complex and replaced an earlier structure that burned in 1910. The building was designed by the prolific Clarksburg, West Virginia, firm of Holmboe and Lafferty with Butler supervising construction. Curved corners appear at the two irregular sides of the lot, and paired fluted pilasters frame the round-arched opening at the central bay of each elevation; otherwise the exteriors have plain walls with simple cornices and balustrades. Plans for a grander two-story dome were reduced due to budget concerns, but the interior is centered around a columned rotunda painted with murals by Gertrude du Brau. The murals depict scenes from the early history of Cumberland, including George Washington’s military service.

Nearby at 35 Fredrick is the classical Public Safety Building, formerly the U.S. Courthouse and Post Office (1902–1904, James Knox Taylor, Supervising Architect of the U.S. Treasury) and the Colonial Revival Bell Tower Building (24 Frederick), built c. 1884 as a police station house and jail.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Lisa Pfueller Davidson and Catherine C. Lavoie
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Data

What's Nearby

BALTIMORE STREET COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS AND PEDESTRIAN MALL
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal
EMMANUEL EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND PARISH HALL
ALLEGANY COUNTY COURTHOUSE
METROPOLITAN AME CHURCH

Citation

Lisa Pfueller Davidson and Catherine C. Lavoie, "CUMBERLAND CITY HALL", [Cumberland, Maryland], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MD-01-WM42.

Print Source

Buildings of Maryland, Lisa Pfueller Davidson and Catherine C. Lavoie. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2022, 364-364.

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