“They Don't Build 'Em Like That Anymore” E. Francis Baldwin, B&O’s principal architect, designed the railroad’s third Oakland station (1884), which opened for business in 1885. It’s pictured here in 1984, on the centenary of its construction.
With the completion of the Oakland Hotel (1875), the second of two luxury resort complexes in the area (the other being the Deer Park Hotel, 1873), the Railroad, and, specifically, President John W. Garrett, was largely responsible for the development of Garrett County as a vacation destination. Both hotels were also designed by Baldwin. When it came time to replace Oakland’s modest (second) B&O station, the burgeoning passenger traffic being generated by the resorts was more than sufficient to justify this elaborate Queen Anne-style depot in what would otherwise be a sle_py backwater in the Alleghenies.
The last regular B&O passenger train to call here was No. 12 on April 30, 1971. However, there was a brief respite from disuse during the tenure of Amtrak’s Washington–Cincinnati Shenandoah (Nos. 32/33) from 1976 until 1981.
Saving it from planned demolition, the town of Oakland purchased the station from the railroad (CSX) in 1998, and completely restored it by 2000. The building remains in use today (2023) as the Oakland B&O Museum.
