Infrastructure troubles in Cumberland,MD.

This isn't a good time to negotiate ANYTHING with CSX and HH.  Sad but that happens in the old cities.

If memory serves, this isn't the first auto-rack to hit that bridge. Several years ago, one was mistakenly placed on a manifest out to the west end, and it sat in Keyser for several months with it's top torn off.

Ed

That's a shame about the hotel, it's in rough shape, but not beyond hope.

I doubt they will try to save that hotel after that big chunk of wall came down, The roof looks shot and the wiring and plumbing are old and obsolete plus probably has wood floors etc.

It's sad.  My wife & I visited a couple years ago and while there were several restaurants and shops in the downtown area, most of them were closed on the weekend.  Imagine most of them are now closed permanently.  

The "Discount Liquors" sign on the Brunswick Hotel gives an indication that there isn't enough economy to support the hotel. At least check in will be a bit quicker with the holes in the wall!

Sad; a magnificent example of 19th century architecture.

My grandparent's house in the South Hills section of Pittsburgh was built about the same time as the hotel. Brick, finished attic etc. My Dad grew up in it and had a "secret" room -which I found along with his sports "newspaper he typed in 1917(still have it). I Googled the location and found an empty lot !!  Torn down-the house where we celebrated the holidays, listened to the elections and WW II newscasts. Gone !!  When the roof goes bad, the rest follows.

Darn shame to see & hear what is happening to Cumberland. I spent the winter of 1962/1963 working on the delivery of 77 new GP30 units to the B&O, there with fond memories.

Here are 2 more views of the doomed building, the last business (a 77 yr. old barber) left last year. The liquor store had originally opened in 1933 at the close of Prohibition, it shut down several years ago. The hotel was popular with salesmen and RR employees through the 1950s, but had gradually declined, since 1996 the current owners apparently lost interest. I don't recall the liquor store as being very prosperous during the time I delivered there for a local beer distributor from 1979-1984.
When I did a research project on the Cumberland Fire Dept., one anecdote concerned a horse-drawn aerial ladder fire truck being driven into the front window of the hotel to avoid hitting an oncoming train at the crossing. This resulted in the death of a fire horse named "Jerry", and occurred in May,1906.

As a follow-up to this story, on Monday, 11/13, the Brunswick Hotel building was razed in a couple of hours.
The 131 year old structure exacted some revenge on its destruction when the southwest corner collapsed into Baltimore St. scattering debris over the adjacent RR tracks and taking down poles and a set of traffic signals.
Cumberland Times-news.com has a video of this.

Another Cumberland trackside landmark is gone, like so many before it...