Oakland's Grand Depot in the Mountains
Near Wisp, Maryland
In the small mountain town of Oakland stands a brick railroad station far grander than a town this size should have, and there is a reason for that. In eighteen eighty four the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad built this depot in the fashionable Queen Anne style, with a two story center and a round tower capped by a dome, all to advertise Oakland and Garrett County as a cool, elegant summer resort in the mountains. The design came from the noted architect E.
Francis Baldwin, of the firm Baldwin and Pennington, who created more than a hundred stations for the railroad. The whole effort was driven by John Work Garrett, the powerful president of the Baltimore and Ohio, the man for whom this entire county is named. His railroad brought wealthy travelers fleeing the summer heat of Baltimore and Washington, and it brought famous ones too.
Presidents including Ulysses Grant, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, and William McKinley visited the Oakland area in its resort heyday. The station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the early nineteen seventies. The town bought it in nineteen ninety eight and restored it, and today it houses the Oakland Baltimore and Ohio Museum.
