250px, Deer Park Hotel - Main House - 1892 The Deer Park Hotel was a vacation resort in the

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...

Western Maryland upright=1.2, An enlargeable map of Maryland's 23 counties and one independent city Western Maryland, also known as the Maryland Panhandle, is the portion of the U.S. state of Maryland that typically consists of Washington, Allegany, and Garret ...

, in the small town of

Deer Park, Maryland Deer Park is a town in Garrett County, Maryland, United States. The population was 399 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Pittsburgh Media Market. Geography Deer Park is located at (39.423438, -79.325597). According to the United States Cens ...

. Constructed in 1873 on land owned by a former

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

(B&O) employee and West Virginia Senator

Henry Gassaway Davis Henry Gassaway Davis (November 16, 1823 – March 11, 1916) was a millionaire and Senator from West Virginia. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for Vice President of the United States in 1904. Born on a farm in Howard County, Maryland, he bec ...

, the hotel was heavily promoted by the B&O railroad as cool and breeze-filled during otherwise hot city summers and 8 hours by express train from Baltimore and 11 hours by express train from

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

. It became a favorite resort for wealthy and prominent citizens of the Baltimore/Washington area. Presidents

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...

Benjamin Harrison Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833March 13, 1901) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 23rd president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He was a member of the Harrison family of Virginia–a grandson of the ninth pr ...

, and

Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...

were among its guests;

William McKinley William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. As a politician he led a realignment that made his Republican Party largely dominant in ...

visited the establishment before he became president. Even President Grover Cleveland spent his five-day honeymoon with his new wife,

Frances Folsom Cleveland Frances Clara Cleveland Preston ( née Folsom born as Frank Clara; July 21, 1864 – October 29, 1947) was an American socialite, education activist, and the first lady of the United States from 1886 to 1889, and again from 1893 to 1897 as ...

. The Deer Park Spring, which had produced pure mountain water that was sold commercially, supplied the hotel, its swimming pool, and Turkish baths. Deer Park's popularity declined after 1900 and the resort finally closed after the Depression began in 1929. The grand hotel itself was razed in 1944 due to a fire, although a few of the opulent cottages remain. During the boom years, East Coast railroads were finding that a lucrative passenger business could be built up by transporting people from a city to railroad-owned hotels in the mountains, including nearby in

Oakland, Maryland Oakland is a town in the west-central part of Garrett County, Maryland, United States. The town has a population of 1,925 according to the 2010 United States Census. The town is also the county seat of Garrett County and is located within the Pitt ...

. Thus, B&O Railroad ventured into the “resort hotel” business in 1869, when they purchased several of the Perry family's “Anchorage Farm.” In 1872, the railroad built the center section of the Deer Park Hotel; and it opened for the first time on July 4, 1873. The east and west wings of the hotel were added in 1881-82 bringing the total number of rooms to 300. (According to tradition, “The Anchorage” house stood beside the present Pysell Crosscut Road; the location is marked by two sailing ship anchors on the lawn of a house that is there now.) During the early 1870s, H. G. Davis contracted to build a series of cottages on the hotel property, with the first one becoming

John W. Garrett John Work Garrett (July 31, 1820 – September 26, 1884), was an American merchant turned banker who became president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) in 1858 and led the railroad for nearly three decades. The B&O became one of the most ...

’s cottage. Later, this became the caretaker's cottage, and Garrett had a more sumptuous summer home built to the west side of the hotel; he died there in the summer of 1884. The Deer Park Hotel was one of Five Combination Station-Hotels built by the B&O during the 1870s, including the

Queen City Hotel The Queen City Hotel was constructed in 1871 by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) in Cumberland, Maryland to serve both as a train station and as a destination. Hosting 174 rooms, it also had such features as formal gardens with a fountain, a ...

Cumberland, Maryland Cumberland is a U.S. city in and the county seat of Allegany County, Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its s ...

References

* Albert L. Feldstein, ''Garrett County'',

Arcadia Publishing Arcadia Publishing is an American publisher of neighborhood, local, and regional history of the United States in pictorial form.(analysis of the successful ''Images of America'' series). Arcadia Publishing also runs the History Press, which publi ...

, , 2006

External links

Deer Park Hotel Marker
{{coord, 39, 25, 5.82, N, 79, 19, 48.96, W, display=title Hotel buildings completed in 1873 Hotels in Maryland Buildings and structures in Garrett County, Maryland Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Demolished hotels in the United States Railway hotels in the United States Demolished buildings and structures in Maryland Buildings and structures demolished in 1944