Cumberland, MD

A house on Washington Street

Cumberland can be seen as you shoot through on a highway that 'bypasses' the town by virtue of being raised up and routed sort of through the middle of town, Cahill Expressway style (Sydney). Very ugly. Also, very efficient at getting traffic not to stop in the town. We went to the main street precinct on Sunday, and it was very quiet, lots of shops shut, which is unusual, but hey, it was Sunday. Monday wasn't much different however. Most of the shops seem to be independently owned bric-a-brac. Presumably there is a grocery store somewhere, but not in the main street.
Cumberland used to be important because the B&O Railroad (Baltimore and Ohio Railroad) and the C&O Canal (Chesapeake and Ohio Canal) went through here. The C&O Canal goes through to Washington DC, beside the Potomac River, while the railline has been converted into an awesome bike path called the Great Allegheny Passage. The original idea of the C&O Canal was to join together the Ohio River to the Chesapeake Bay. The Canal didn't quite make it, but the Railroad did. The B&O Railroad also beat the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad in its day. You could ride all the way from Pittsburgh, PA through to Washington DC if you wanted.
The skyline in the town is punctuated by about four spires, all on a hill very close together, which on closer inspection, are churches (except one, which is a masonic temple). We went for a self guided architecture walk, which wasn't such a great idea, because the kids really struggled to stay interested, but I loved seeing all the different styles. I tried to follow the architecture walk brochure, but it was very well researched, and I honestly didn't realise there were that many different styles of architecture. (Transitional Greek Revival-Italianate Style anyone?!). We ended up splitting up, with the boys heading somewhere else more interesting with the grandparents (possibly a bike ride) and hubby and I just strolling along looking.
Hubby did happen to see a real estate listing, and he saw a whole house with yard for $29 000, which may give an idea of Cumberland's future.

Not the house for sale