Mount Savage Museum

Description: The Mount Savage Historic District comprises 189 buildings, structures, and sites within a 19th and 20th century industrial community northwest of Cumberland. The resources within the district reflect the community's development as a center of the iron, coal, brick, and railroad industries from the 1830s to the early 20th century. A broad variety of domestic, commercial, religious, and industrial buildings and structures represent all phases of the town's development during this period. The town's commercial center is located on Main Street, and consists primarily of two and three-story commercial buildings dating from the turn of the 20th century. Most are of frame construction, but some are built with glazed brick, an architectural novelty produced in local brick works. A rich collection of domestic architecture is concentrated to the north, east, and southwest of the commercial area. Most of the houses are 1 1/2 or 2-story frame buildings, simplified interpretations of popular turn-of-the-20th-century styles, such as the Bungaloid-influenced houses which line New Row and Foundry Row. Late-19th century fashions are represented by notable frame Gothic houses, an Eastlake-influenced brick example, and a group of large frame Queen Anne houses. Several vertical-board duplexes overlook the former site of the Maryland and New York Iron and Coal Company operations, established in 1839. This site is currently occupied by the Mount Savage Refractories brick works, the present descendant of the fire-brick industry which has operated continuously in town since the mid 19th century. Significance: The Mount Savage Historic District is significant for its association with the industrial development of the Western Maryland region, and for its rich architectural resources representing a wide variety of types and styles of domestic, commercial, religious, and industrial buildings and structures reflecting all phases of the community's development from the mid 19th to the early 20th centuries. The vertical-board duplexes on Old Row are especially noteworthy as possibly the earliest examples of workers' housing remaining in the region.