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History of the Dumbhundred
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An overview of how Dumbhundred developed as a working neighborhood and became part of Cumberland’s historic landscape. It introduces the people, buildings, streets, institutions, and traditions explored throughout this series.
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH: AN 1849 LANDMARK IN DUMBHUNDRED
The Bedford Street church that served as a Civil War hospital and later received a dramatic new façade
By Dan Mullin
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First Baptist Church at 212 Bedford Street, with the Town Clock Church visible farther up the hill. Built by separate congregations during Cumberland’s mid-nineteenth-century growth, the two churches remain prominent landmarks overlooking historic Dumbhundred. Photograph by Dan Mullin, 2026.
Standing at the corner of Bedford and Columbia streets, First Baptist Church is one of the most distinctive landmarks within Cumberland’s historic Dumbhundred neighborhood. Its towering windows and light-colored Gothic façade make it appear, at first glance, like a church constructed during the early twentieth century.
The building, however, is considerably older than its present front suggests.
Behind the white glazed-brick façade remains much of the original red-brick church erected in 1849. The present building was not moved here from another location, nor is the congregation a recent arrival on the site. The Maryland Historical Trust’s National Register documentation specifically identifies the building as occupying its original site at 212 Bedford Street.
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The red-brick body of the original church rises above a stone retaining wall on its sloping Bedford Street site. This view helps reveal the nineteenth-century structure that survives behind the prominent 1917 façade. Photograph by Dan Mullin, 2026.
Meetings Above a Fire Station
The earliest recorded Baptist meetings in Cumberland took place during the 1840s, when a small group assembled in a hall above a fire station. The Reverend Benjamin Griffith, a Baptist missionary, ministered to this developing congregation and later became its first pastor.
By 1849, Reverend Griffith had gathered enough members and support to erect a permanent church on Bedford Street. The cornerstone was laid on June 18, 1849, and the completed church was consecrated on November 4 of that year.
Local historian Will H. Lowdermilk later noted that the church’s seating capacity was considerably larger than the congregation initially required. The founders were evidently building with confidence that the Baptist presence in Cumberland would continue to grow.
These details are recorded in the church’s National Register nomination, which draws upon Lowdermilk’s 1878 History of Cumberland and the 1923 History of Allegany County, Maryland by James W. Thomas and T. J. C. Williams.
Was the Church Built in 1848 or 1849?
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The church cornerstone bears the dates 1848–1916. Other historical records place the cornerstone ceremony and consecration in 1849 and the addition’s dedication in January 1917, suggesting that the stone may commemorate the beginning years of the two construction periods.
Photographs by Dan Mullin, 2026.
A stone incorporated into the present building bears the inscription:
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH
1848–1916
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH
1848–1916
The inscription can understandably cause confusion because the nearby bronze plaque states that the cornerstone was laid on June 18, 1849.
The dates do not necessarily contradict one another. The year 1848 may commemorate the organization of the congregation, the beginning of planning or fundraising, or the opening of the building campaign. The Maryland Historical Trust documentation, the historical marker and the bronze plaque all identify 1849 as the year the surviving brick church was erected and placed in service.
Likewise, “1916” probably marks the beginning of the extensive construction that changed the church’s original appearance. The new front was constructed during 1916 and formally dedicated on January 21, 1917.
For purposes of describing the surviving church building, 1849 is therefore the best-supported original construction date.
The Church Remains on Its Original Site
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First Baptist Church appears at Bedford and Columbia streets on this detail from the 1892 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Cumberland. The map documents the church’s presence on its current site decades before the 1917 façade was constructed. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, Sanborn Maps Collection. Public domain.
The 1892 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map provides especially useful evidence concerning the church’s location. It shows a Baptist church on the same Bedford Street property it occupies today, near the intersection with Columbia Street.
The National Register nomination is even more direct. Under the question of whether the building occupies its original location or was moved, the form identifies it as standing on its “original site.”
Consequently, the present church is not a later building transported into the neighborhood. The red-brick body of the 1849 church survives behind and alongside the much more elaborate twentieth-century front.
The complete 1892 Sanborn map sheet may be viewed through Wikimedia Commons. The Library of Congress identifies its online Sanborn Maps Collection as public domain and free to use and reuse.
A Civil War Hospital
This 1980 historical plaque records First Baptist Church’s use as a Civil War hospital, the laying of its cornerstone on June 18, 1849, its consecration on November 4, 1849, and the dedication of its addition on January 21, 1917. Photograph by Dan Mullin, 2026.
First Baptist Church also played a role during one of the most difficult periods in Cumberland’s history.
During the Civil War, Cumberland became an important transportation, supply and military center. Its railroad connections, the National Road and its proximity to Virginia—later West Virginia—also made the city a gathering place for sick and wounded Union soldiers.
The demand for hospital space soon exceeded the available military facilities. Public halls, warehouses and churches were converted into temporary hospitals where local physicians cared for wounded soldiers.
The official Maryland Historical Trust documentation for First Baptist Church provides important confirmation of the hospital story beyond the plaque. Citing James W. Thomas and T. J. C. Williams’s 1923 History of Allegany County, Maryland, the nomination reports that approximately 500 wounded soldiers were being housed in Cumberland in December 1861. By the spring of 1862, the number had risen to approximately 1,200.
Even after the large military hospital at Clarysville opened, as many as 15 locations in Cumberland continued to shelter wounded men. The Maryland Historical Trust documentation then states specifically that First Baptist Church was used to house wounded soldiers.
This official historical record corroborates the bronze plaque installed on the church in 1980. The plaque reads:
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH
USED AS A CIVIL WAR HOSPITAL
CORNERSTONE JUNE 18, 1849
CONSECRATED NOVEMBER 4, 1849
ADDITION DEDICATED JAN. 21, 1917
PRESENTED BY THE PRESERVATION SOCIETY INC.
1980
Although the surviving documentation does not identify the individual soldiers, military units, physicians or exact dates of the church’s hospital service, it establishes that this Bedford Street landmark participated directly in Cumberland’s extensive wartime hospital system.
Its use as a hospital connected the church and the Dumbhundred neighborhood with the larger story of Cumberland’s wartime experience.
Disbanded and Reorganized
The congregation experienced serious difficulties after the Civil War. According to the National Register history, the church council decided to disband the organization for reasons that are no longer known.
The congregation was reorganized in 1871. Local tradition maintains that an error in the original property title forced the congregation to pay for its land a second time. Despite these setbacks, the church survived.
By 1878, Lowdermilk reported a congregation of approximately 70 people. The later recovery and growth of the congregation would eventually lead to a major transformation of the church building.
The Transformation of 1917
The Reverend H. F. Loomis arrived in 1913 following a year-long vacancy in the church’s pulpit. He found that much of the congregation had drifted away, but under his leadership membership began to recover. By 1923, the congregation reportedly numbered approximately 300.
This renewed strength was reflected in the building campaign undertaken during the First World War era. At a reported cost of $15,000, the congregation constructed an imposing new front for its existing church.
The addition was dedicated on January 21, 1917.
The new east-facing façade was constructed of white glazed brick, which also extends one bay along the building’s north and south sides. Behind it, the remaining portions of the 1849 church are red brick laid in common bond.
The result is not two separate church buildings. It is one building that visibly records two major stages of its history: the original nineteenth-century church and its ambitious twentieth-century transformation.
The Maryland Historical Trust describes the façade as a modest interpretation of the Late Gothic Revival style. Its principal features include masonry buttresses, stone and molded-concrete trim, blind arcading, large pointed arches and soaring tracery windows. The National Register documentation describes the tracery windows as the largest in the Cumberland area.
A pipe organ was purchased and installed in 1921, completing another important stage in the church’s early twentieth-century development.
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Tall arched windows and red brick distinguish the older body of First Baptist Church from the white glazed-brick Gothic façade added during the 1916–1917 expansion. Much of the original nineteenth-century church remains visible behind the newer front. Photographs by Dan Mullin, 2026.
Two Historic Churches on Bedford Street
The proximity of First Baptist Church to the Town Clock Church is one of the most interesting features of the Bedford Street landscape. Both buildings can be seen in the same photograph, and both trace their construction to the late 1840s.
They were, however, erected by separate congregations and have separate histories.
The Town Clock Church at 312 Bedford Street was constructed for Cumberland’s German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran congregation. Those Lutherans had originally worshiped in association with St. Paul’s Lutheran Church but wanted services and preaching in their native language. They organized separately and erected the building that eventually became known as the Town Clock Church.
That congregation later became known as St. Luke’s Lutheran Church. St. Luke’s eventually left the Town Clock building, and the building later became associated with First Christian Church. Ownership was transferred to Washington First Church in 2016.
The closeness of the two buildings is not evidence that First Baptist Church moved into the area later. Instead, it reflects Cumberland’s rapid growth and religious diversity during the late 1840s. Baptist and German Lutheran congregations were erecting permanent houses of worship on the same Bedford Street hillside at nearly the same time.
Readers can learn more through the HDAC article The Town Clock Church.
See the Church Before the 1917 Transformation
The City of Cumberland’s Herman J. Miller Historic Photo Collection contains a particularly valuable photograph titled “Original First Baptist Church.”
The image appears to show the church before the present Gothic façade was added. It reveals a much plainer brick, gable-front building with round-arched windows—the earlier church that is now partially concealed behind the 1917 construction.
Because the City’s website does not provide a clear public-reuse statement for this particular photograph, it has not been reproduced in this article. Readers may instead view “Original First Baptist Church” on the City of Cumberland website.
Additional images can be explored through the City’s Herman J. Miller Historic Photos page.
A Building That Reveals Its History
First Baptist Church is remarkable because its history can still be read in its walls.
The original red-brick building recalls the small Baptist congregation that began meeting above a fire station during the 1840s. Its large auditorium recalls the wounded Union soldiers sheltered there during the Civil War. The 1917 façade records a period of renewed membership and confidence, when the congregation gave its older building a bold new appearance.
The church’s location also places it within a larger historical setting. From the same stretch of Bedford Street, one can see First Baptist Church and the Town Clock Church—two landmarks erected by different congregations during Cumberland’s energetic mid-nineteenth-century growth.
First Baptist Church was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 10, 1980. Today, it remains an architectural landmark and a visible record of religious, neighborhood and Civil War history in Cumberland’s historic Dumbhundred.
Primary Sources and Documentation
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Maryland Historical Trust — First Baptist Church National Register Property
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Library of Congress — 1892 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Cumberland
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Will H. Lowdermilk, History of Cumberland, 1878 — Library of Congress.
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James W. Thomas and T. J. C. Williams, History of Allegany County, Maryland, 1923 — Maryland State Archives.
Photograph and Illustration Credits
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First Baptist Church and the Town Clock Church, IMG_7778: Photograph by Dan Mullin, 2026.
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Original church above the retaining wall, IMG_7790: Photograph by Dan Mullin, 2026.
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First Baptist Church cornerstone, IMG_7806: Photograph by Dan Mullin, 2026.
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Civil War hospital plaque, IMG_7807: Photograph by Dan Mullin, 2026.
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Red-brick wall and arched windows, IMG_7798: Photograph by Dan Mullin, 2026.
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1892 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map detail: Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, Sanborn Maps Collection. Public domain.
No photograph from the City of Cumberland collection or the privately sold 1937 postcard has been reproduced in this article. Links are provided so readers may view those materials on their respective websites.
Further Reading
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City of Cumberland — “Original First Baptist Church” Photograph
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View the 1937 First Baptist Church postcard — linked for research and viewing only; no publication license is claimed.
Research and Composition Note
Dan Mullin researched and prepared this article using historic-site records, published local histories, institutional histories, historic maps, contemporary photographs, and digital research and editorial tools. Dates and interpretations were checked against the sources listed above wherever possible.
Readers who possess additional photographs, documents, family histories or corrections concerning First Baptist Church are encouraged to share them with the Historic Dumbhundred Action Committee.
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