Repurposed Appalachia Series – Cumberland National Guard Armory on South Centre Street
On South Centre Street in the heart of Cumberland, a brick fortress rises above the surrounding storefronts. Crenellated roofline, corner turrets, and a tall arched doorway mark the building that generations of local people knew simply as the armory. For much of the twentieth century this massive hall tied the mountain city to the wider world of the Maryland National Guard. It also served as a gathering place for dances, sporting events, and community meetings in a town shaped by coal, canals, railroads, and highways.
Today the structure at 210 South Centre Street stands as one of the last physical reminders of that Guard presence in downtown Cumberland. Its story reaches from World War I mobilization through the interwar building boom, the Depression and World War II, postwar modernization, and late twentieth century reuse as a transportation museum and event center. The paper trail that survives in state board minutes, fire insurance maps, postcards, and preservation reports allows us to trace how a state armory took root in the Queen City and how that fortresslike building was folded back into civic life once the Guard moved on.
Armories and the Guard in the Queen City
Cumberland’s location at the head of the Potomac, where the National Road, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad converged, made it a transportation and industrial hub long before the armory rose on South Centre Street. Planning documents for the city’s historic preservation district describe how the downtown grew as coal mining, glass works, breweries, and railroad shops expanded in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and they single out the Maryland National Guard Armory among the large institutional buildings of the 1920s that helped define the skyline and civic core.
In that setting the Guard armory was both a military facility and a symbol. General histories of the Maryland National Guard and the official online history of the force make clear that armories across the state served several overlapping purposes. They provided drill floors and storage for equipment. They offered offices and classrooms for officers and noncommissioned officers. They also gave communities a place to meet, celebrate, and raise funds. Local armories were meant to anchor units in the neighborhoods where citizen soldiers lived and worked, and to project the Guard’s presence in stone, brick, and concrete.
Cumberland had Guard units long before a monumental armory appeared in downtown. By the time the United States entered World War I, state records already referred to a Cumberland Armory. Minutes of the Board of Public Works for 14 December 1917 include a brief entry noting that a letter from Frank Kelly proposing to rent “the Cumberland Armory for Athletic Exhibitions” was read and that his proposition was declined. That small line shows that a state owned armory space in Cumberland existed by the height of the war and that officials were cautious about leasing it for private events. It gives us our earliest firm documentary reference to a building called the Cumberland Armory, even though it does not yet tie that reference to the present structure on South Centre Street.
Building the South Centre Street Armory
Two different sets of sources describe the origins of the brick fortress at 210 South Centre Street, and their dates do not perfectly agree. A modern historic walking tour produced by Allegany County tourism describes the “Cumberland Armory, 210 South Centre Street” as a brick building constructed in 1914 for the use of the Maryland National Guard. According to the brochure the Guard practiced assembly and drill there, and the building also hosted community, social, and sporting events. The same paragraph notes that the design is typical of early twentieth century armories, with a fortresslike profile, parapets, and massive arched doors.
A different picture emerges from the minutes of the state Board of Public Works in the 1920s. On 1 April 1925 the Board took up financing for “an armory in Cumberland” as part of a one quarter million dollar statewide armory bond issue. The minutes record letters from Governor Albert C. Ritchie to Adjutant General Milton A. Reckord authorizing him to act for the state Armory Commission on the Cumberland and Hagerstown armories and explain that “the Cumberland armory will be financed locally, and reimbursement made from the proceeds of the bonds to be sold in August 1926.” Local banks in Cumberland agreed to advance up to sixty thousand dollars without interest so that construction of the armory could proceed at once, with repayment to follow from the bond sale or the sale of state property at North Avenue in Baltimore.
Taken together, these sources suggest that Cumberland had a Guard presence and some form of armory space during the World War I era, yet the monumental brick structure we see today was part of a statewide interwar building program that reached its financial climax in the mid 1920s. Preservation guidelines for Cumberland’s historic districts support this view. In placing the “Maryland National Guard Armory” among the civic buildings that reshaped downtown in the 1920s, the report dates its construction to 1925 and pairs it with other large projects that were meant to announce the city’s prosperity. The Board of Public Works minutes provide the financial and administrative backbone for that program, while the walking tour preserves a local memory of an earlier date that likely reflects the broader era of Guard activity rather than the final year the building walls were raised.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps help ground that narrative on the street grid. The Library of Congress holds the full 83 sheet 1921 Sanborn set for Cumberland, republished in 1956, together with earlier series from 1887, 1892, 1897, 1904, and 1910. When researchers scan the sheets around South Centre Street they can watch the armory block change from a dense mix of small commercial and residential structures into the footprint of a large brick institutional building clearly labeled “Armory.” The maps show how the structure was oriented to face Centre Street and how its long drill hall stretched back toward the alley, tying the fortresslike façade into the fabric of a railroad and canal city.
A Castle in Brick
Architectural context also points to the armory as part of a statewide vision. The National Register nomination for the Hyattsville Armory, a stone fortress built in Prince George’s County in 1918, credits architect Robert Lawrence Harris as State Architect under Governor Ritchie and notes that he supervised the design of multiple castle like armories in towns across Maryland, including Cumberland. The Hyattsville building and its cousins in Laurel, Cambridge, Centreville, Kensington, and Silver Spring share heavy walls, corner turrets, parapets, and a medieval English flavor that was meant to convey strength, stability, and readiness.
The Cumberland armory translates that idiom into brick. Historic postcards captioned “Armory, National Guard, Cumberland, Md.” and modern photographs show a symmetrical Centre Street façade with a central entrance recessed under a tall, round edged arch flanked by narrow windows and topped by a crenellated roofline. The building presents a solid front to the street but opens into a high clear span drill hall at the rear, a pattern typical of early twentieth century armories from Baltimore to small county seats. Inside, the hall provided enough room for infantry companies to form ranks and practice maneuvers while also accommodating large gatherings for boxing matches, basketball games, dances, and civic rallies.
The walking tour account preserves the memory of that dual role. It emphasizes that the Cumberland Armory served the Guard for assembly and drill, yet also functioned as a venue for community, social, and sporting events. In a city whose identity was tied to transportation and heavy industry, the armory’s fortresslike form marked it as both barracks and town hall, a place where uniforms and civilians shared the same polished floor.
Depression Work, War Service, and Civic Identity
By the 1930s the armory had become part of the landscape of New Deal work as well as Guard training. The city’s Preservation District Design Guidelines explain that federal programs such as the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration brought local men into projects at Constitution Park, the Maryland National Guard Armory, the airport, and regional roads. In Cumberland, the armory benefited from that infusion of labor and funding, which likely helped with repairs, improvements, or landscaping during the Depression era even as Guard units used the building to prepare for possible mobilization.
Broader histories of the Maryland National Guard show how armories like Cumberland’s functioned during World War II. They served as staging points for local units that would be absorbed into larger formations, and they remained important sites in the memory of veterans and families who traced their service back to the Queen City. While many of the documents that would detail specific units and deployments remain in archival collections in Baltimore and in federal repositories, the physical presence of the armory on South Centre Street anchored those wartime stories in the downtown streetscape.
Expansion, Modernization, and the Move to a New Armory
After World War II, state and local officials began to modernize Guard facilities across Maryland. The Board of Public Works minutes are again one of the clearest windows into that process. An entry in October 1953, tucked among Military Department agenda items, notes an “Expansion and rehabilitation of Cumberland Armory” and identifies C. Russ Minter of Cumberland as the architect, with a “Type ‘C’ fee” for his services. Later minutes in 1954 refer to funds for “two additional stories at Cumberland Armory,” although those appropriations were adjusted as other projects, such as the Pikesville Armory, came into play.
By the late 1950s the focus had shifted from enlarging the old downtown building to constructing an entirely new facility. Board minutes from 1958 describe title work for closed streets and engineering services connected with “construction of the new Cumberland Armory,” funded from the General Construction Loan of 1957. Subsequent agenda items in 1959 and 1960 record contracts and change orders for the new building, along with small utility and storage structures such as fuel racks and storage sheds. A 1960 entry notes that the new armory had been completed and that the old armory property would be sold after the move.
Facility inventories compiled by the Department of General Services reinforce that timeline. A 1960s era listing of state buildings describes a “Cumberland Armory” with a construction date of 1960 and an area of more than twenty six thousand square feet, classifying it as an office and drill facility. This younger structure, sometimes referred to in later documents as the Cumberland Readiness Center or the CPT Thomas B. Price Armory, became the main Guard installation in the area, while the brick fortress on South Centre Street began a second life outside the active military system.
From Armory Hall to Transportation Museum
Once the Guard moved into its new quarters, the old armory building had to find a new purpose. Local accounts and tourism materials suggest that the structure served for a time as a bus depot, a use that made practical sense given its location near the commercial core and its large enclosed floor. Even without a complete documentary trail, the later emergence of a transportation museum inside the armory points back toward that chapter.
In the early twenty first century a Queen City Transportation Museum operated at 210 South Centre Street. A Maryland Manual directory of Allegany County museums lists the “Queen City Transportation Museum” at that address, with a Cumberland telephone number, and notes that the museum closed in 2011. A promotional article for the museum explains that its exhibits traced the development of transportation in the region, with displays ranging from an 1840 era stagecoach through canal and railroad artifacts to later automotive and bus material, all housed in the former armory’s large interior spaces.
A photograph on Wikimedia Commons, taken in 2010, captions the building “Cumberland National Guard Armory, now the Queen City Transportation Museum, Cumberland, Maryland.” The image shows the familiar brick façade with its castle like parapet and arched doorway, while museum banners and signage identify its new role. In this phase the armory once again connected Cumberland to wider networks of movement, this time not as a military drill hall but as a place where visitors could learn about the National Road, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and the long history of bus and automobile travel through the mountains.
Windsor Castle and a Downtown Landmark
After the transportation museum closed, the old armory did not sit empty. By the late 2000s and 2010s it had been adapted again as a private event venue known as the Windsor Castle Events Centre. Local tourism and social media posts advertised Windsor Castle as the largest event center in Allegany County, located in the former Cumberland Armory at 210 South Centre Street. Weddings, banquets, and community celebrations filled the drill hall, echoing earlier decades when the same space had hosted Guard balls and civic gatherings under state ownership.
Although Windsor Castle ceased hosting events in 2019, the building remains a landmark in downtown Cumberland’s historic walking tour and in preservation documents. Its fortresslike profile continues to mark the edge of the commercial district and to link Cumberland’s story to the broader history of military infrastructure, transportation networks, and downtown renewal.
Research Paths and Archival Trails
The Cumberland Armory’s history is unusually well documented for a single building in a small Appalachian city, yet gaps remain. For historians and family researchers, several archival paths are especially promising.
The minutes of the state Board of Public Works at the Maryland State Archives are the backbone of the story. The December 1917 and April 1925 meetings anchor the timeline of armory presence and construction, while 1950s and 1960s agenda items trace expansion, the shift to a new facility, and the sale of the old building. The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Cumberland, held by the Library of Congress, let researchers follow the armory block across seven decades of urban change and verify when the armory first appears by name.
Visual sources, including early postcards captioned “Armory, Cumberland, Md.” and modern photographs, give a record of alterations to the façade and signage over time. The local historic walking tour pamphlet and Cumberland’s Preservation District Design Guidelines weave the armory into a larger narrative of downtown development, New Deal work, and mid century urban renewal.
For military context, the Maryland Museum of Military History at the Fifth Regiment Armory in Baltimore and the Maryland Military Department’s research center hold unit histories, photographs, and Guard records that can tie specific Cumberland soldiers and companies to the South Centre Street armory. Joseph Balkoski’s history of the Maryland National Guard offers statewide context on how armories functioned in communities like Cumberland, while the National Register nomination for the Hyattsville Armory sheds light on architect Robert Lawrence Harris and the statewide armory program that shaped the Cumberland building’s design.
Finally, local custody and interpretation have passed through the hands of the Allegany County Historical Society and partner institutions, whose museum records, oral histories, and exhibit files can help document the armory’s years as a bus depot, transportation museum, and event center. Together these sources make the Cumberland Armory more than a picturesque castle on South Centre Street. They reveal it as a working building that mirrored the changing needs and identities of an Appalachian city, from drill hall to depot, from museum to hall once again.
Sources & Further Reading
Maryland Board of Public Works. “Meeting of December 14, 1917.” Minutes of the Board of Public Works, Annapolis, MD, 1917. https://bpw.maryland.gov/MeetingDocsArchives/12-%201917%20December%2014.pdf
Maryland Board of Public Works. “Minutes of Meeting of April 1, 1925.” Minutes of the Board of Public Works, Annapolis, MD, 1925. https://bpw.maryland.gov/MeetingDocsArchives/04%20-%201925%20April%201.pdf
Maryland Board of Public Works. “10-1953 October 19.” Minutes of the Board of Public Works, Annapolis, MD, 1953. https://bpw.maryland.gov/MeetingDocsArchives/10-1953%20October%2019.pdf
Maryland Board of Public Works. “04-1958 April 8.” Minutes of the Board of Public Works, Annapolis, MD, 1958. https://bpw.maryland.gov/MeetingDocsArchives/04-1958%20April%208.pdf
Maryland Board of Public Works. “04-1959 April 15.” Minutes of the Board of Public Works, Annapolis, MD, 1959. https://bpw.maryland.gov/MeetingDocsArchives/04-1959%20Apr%2015.pdf
Maryland Board of Public Works. “01-1963 January 3.” Minutes of the Board of Public Works, Annapolis, MD, 1963. https://bpw.maryland.gov/MeetingDocsArchives/01%20-%201963%20January%203.pdf
Maryland State Archives. “Board of Public Works (BPW).” Guide to Government Records, agency entry, n.d. https://guide.msa.maryland.gov/pages/combined.aspx?agency=BOARD+OF+PUBLIC+WORKS
Sanborn Map Company. Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Cumberland, Allegany County, Maryland. 1921, republished 1956. Library of Congress digital collection. https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn03592_008
Sanborn Map Company. Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Cumberland, Allegany County, Maryland. April 1892. Library of Congress digital collection. https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn03592_002
“Allegany County MD Map Records.” LDSGenealogy, n.d. https://ldsgenealogy.com/MD/Allegany-County-Map-Records.htm
Allegany County Tourism. “Historic Walking Tour of Downtown Cumberland.” Brochure PDF, n.d. https://assets.simpleviewinc.com/simpleview/image/upload/v1/clients/alleganymd/cumberland_historicwalkingtour_web_20220921_3c981825-84f5-4d03-abf3-7e3135b4833c.pdf
City of Cumberland. Preservation District Design Guidelines, Chapter 3: Historic Context. Planning and Preservation Division, n.d. https://www.ci.cumberland.md.us/DocumentCenter/View/1205/DesignGuidelines_Chapter-3-Context
Maryland Historical Trust. “Maryland National Guard Armories Thematic Group.” National Register of Historic Places Thematic Nomination, 1980s. https://apps.mht.maryland.gov/medusa/PDF/NR_PDFs/NR-933.pdf
Maryland Historical Trust. “Hyattsville Armory.” National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, NR-610, n.d. https://apps.mht.maryland.gov/medusa/PDF/NR_PDFs/NR-610.pdf
Aleshire, William A., Robert F. Sellers, and James Maher. “Hyattsville Armory, 5340 Baltimore Avenue.” Historic American Buildings Survey data pages, National Park Service, n.d. https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/master/pnp/habshaer/md/md1100/md1171/data/md1171data.pdf
Maryland Military Department. “Our History: From 1634 to the Present.” Maryland National Guard official history page, n.d. https://military.maryland.gov/NG/Pages/History.aspx
Balkoski, Joseph. The Maryland National Guard: A History of Maryland’s Military Forces, 1634–1991. Baltimore: The Guard, 1991. https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Maryland_National_Guard.html?id=hHd7G8tvgvgC
Maryland Military Department. “Maryland Museum of Military History.” Official site of the Maryland Museum of Military History, Fifth Regiment Armory, Baltimore, n.d. https://military.maryland.gov/NG/Pages/MMMH.aspx
Maryland Military Historical Society. “About Us.” Maryland Museum of Military History supporting organization, n.d. https://www.marylandmilitaryhistory.org/about
U.S. Army Center of Military History. “Maryland Museum of Military History, Baltimore, Maryland.” Army Museum Directory entry, n.d. https://history.army.mil/Army-Museum-Enterprise/Find-an-Army-Museum
Army Historical Foundation. “Maryland Museum of Military History, Baltimore, Maryland.” Armyhistory.org feature article, n.d. https://armyhistory.org/maryland-museum-of-military-history/
Explore Baltimore Heritage. “Fifth Regiment Armory.” Explore Baltimore Heritage online tour entry, n.d. https://explore.baltimoreheritage.org/items/show/432
Acroterion. “Cumberland Armory MD1.jpg.” Photograph of Cumberland National Guard Armory, now the Queen City Transportation Museum, 5 August 2010. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cumberland_Armory_MD1.jpg
Kilduffs. “Armory Old Maryland Buildings.” Kilduffs.com, n.d. https://www.kilduffs.com/MarylandArmoryBuildings.html
Maryland Department of the Environment. “Appendix D: Federal Facility Contributions to Maryland’s Phase II Watershed Implementation Plan.” Chesapeake Bay TMDL documentation, 2012. https://mde.maryland.gov/programs/water/TMDL/TMDLImplementation/Documents/Archive/FINAL_PhaseII_Report_Docs/Final_Documents_PhaseII/Appendix_D_Federal_PhIIWIP_Reports_091712.pdf
Maryland Department of the Environment and Maryland Army National Guard. “Cumberland National Guard Armory” entry in Federal Facility Contributions to Maryland’s Phase II Watershed Implementation Plan, 2012. https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc5300/sc5339/000113/014000/014218/unrestricted/20120029e-006.pdf
Maryland Manual Online. “Museums – Allegany County.” Maryland State Archives, 2023 edition. https://2023mdmanual.msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/01glance/museums/al/html/al.html
MuseumsUSA. “Queen City Transportation Museum – CLOSED, Cumberland, Maryland.” MuseumsUSA.org entry, n.d. https://m.museumsusa.org/museums/info/21360
Great American Stations. “Cumberland, MD – Amtrak Station (CUM).” Amtrak Great American Stations project, n.d. https://www.greatamericanstations.com/stations/cumberland-md-cum/
CBS Baltimore. “Funding Cuts Doom Western Md. Transport Museum.” WJZ CBS News, 2011. https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/funding-cuts-doom-western-md-transport-museum/
Queen City Transportation Museum. “Queen City Transportation Museum | Cumberland MD.” Official Facebook page, n.d. https://www.facebook.com/p/Queen-City-Transportation-Museum-100069779143962/
Appalachian Regional Commission. “Appalachian Counties Served by ARC.” ARC official data page, accessed February 18, 2026. https://www.arc.gov/appalachian-counties-served-by-arc/
Town of Bel Air. “History of the Bel Air Armory.” Town of Bel Air official website, n.d. https://www.belairmd.org/499/History
Author Note: Writing about the Cumberland armory brought together military, civic, and transportation history in a single brick building on South Centre Street. I hope this story helps you see the old armory not just as a former drill hall, but as a place where Guard service, bus transfers, and museum exhibits all share the same roof.