Town Hall
July 28, 2022
The 5 – 7 Jackson Street building is part of the Town of Lonaconing Historic District. More specifically, the building is part of the centrally-located Lonaconing Business district. The historic district includes 278 buildings within the Town limits. The Town of Lonaconing is situated in western Maryland in scenic Allegany County, approximately 14 miles southwest of Cumberland, Maryland, which serves as the County seat. The buildings within the district represent a variety of late 19th to early 20th-century commercial, industrial, and residential properties associated with the Town’s development. The historic district is focused on the Town’s commercial district that line Main Street and its intersecting streets, including Railroad and Jackson Streets (Edwards and Coxe 1981).
Before 1837, the area that became Lonaconing was primarily forested with small, scattered settlements. However, the region did boast large coal and iron deposits close to the surface. These resources led to the area’s settlement as people moved in to take advantage of those deposits (Edwards and Coxe 1981, Thomas and Williams 1923). In 1837, construction began on an iron furnace in the area. As construction continued, several needs became apparent, particularly a need for housing workers. This led to the construction of houses, a store, a church, a sawmill, and other support buildings that created a small village in the area. Two years later, the village’s population jumped to 700 people, primarily workers hoping to make a living at the iron furnace (14). Named the “Lonaconing Residency,” the village was named for Lonacona, an Indian chief who lived in the area (Scharf 1882, Edwards and Coxe 1981).
When the George’s Creek Coal and Iron Company began operating at the furnace site, the managers believed the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal would be completed in a few short years to provide for their transportation needs. However, that did not happen, and a lack of transportation improvements in other areas, such as turnpikes and railroads, hurt the Company’s operations. This lack of adequate transportation led to the furnace ceasing operations in 1856. Since the village had been established as a coal mining village, the George’s Creek Coal and Iron Company expanded its coal mining operations after the close of the furnace. This expansion brought additional workers to the village, including immigrants from Western Europe, especially settlers from Germany, England, Scotland, and Wales. With this new endeavor, railroads finally reached the area in 1857 and continued expansion throughout the 1860s and 1870s.
The railroad growth inadvertently led to the Town of Lonaconing developing along the primary streets with less development off the main roads (Stegmaier, Jr., Dean, and Kershaw 1976, Edwards and Coxe 1981). This expansion plan was evident particularly in the growth along Main Street and Jackson Street as businesses moved into the buildings along these streets to create the Town’s primary business district. The Town grew throughout the latter half of the 19th century and eventually became the largest and most prominent mining town in the area (Edwards and Coxe 1981). By 1870, the Town had a general store, two hotels, various churches, banks, civic organizations, and two newspapers. However, the Town would suffer two major disasters in the 1880s. The first came on September 7, 1881, as a major fire ripped through the Town destroying 53 buildings. Three years later, the same area witnessed an extensive flood that significantly damaged the Town.
By this time, John and Josephine Knapp owned the property at 5 – 7 Jackson Street. After the fire and flood in 1888, they sold the property to Barbara Robinson. No improvements were mentioned in the deed for this transaction. Historical records indicate that there was an opera house in Town by 1870. According to Sanborn Fire Insurance maps, an opera house was located at 5 Jackson Street by 1897 (Figure 1). However, given the fire and flood damage, it is unclear if this is the original opera house in Town or if Robinson built a new opera house. The building continued to serve as an opera house through 1906 when Robinson sold the property to Thomas S. and Jane Allen (Figure 2).
Thomas Allen passed away in 1913 and left the property to John Allen. He retained the property until his death in May 1933. During this period, the property ceased to be used as an opera house, and the building was torn down and replaced with the current building (Figure 3). John Allen died intestate leaving the property to revert to his only heirs James Allen and Margaret (Allen) Morgan. They retained the property but eventually had a dispute over ownership and in 1947, Gorman E. Getty, a trustee, sold the property at public auction to Bessie and Harry E. Lease. The property, which included the existing building, remained in the Lease family until 2005 when the property went into foreclosure. At that time, the Town of Lonaconing purchased the property. During the Lease’s ownership, the building was used as the Town Hall as early as 1970, as indicated by a 1977 photo of Jackson Street showing the building with a sign noting Lonaconing Town Hall (Plate 1). However, the building has sat vacant for quite some time and is now part of several empty buildings along Jackson Street (Plate 2).
Today, 5 – 7 Jackson Street, which has had three additions since its construction, contains the remains of the Lonaconing Town Hall (see attached floorplans and Plates 3 – 10). Upon entering the building through the main entrance on Jackson Street, there is a foyer and lobby. A window was cut into the lobby wall with an office behind that was used to accept payments and conduct Town business. A meeting room and hallway from the lobby with a stage built along the eastern wall. To the north are the Mayor’s office, the main hallway, two secondary hallways, six additional offices, two restrooms, two utility closets, and one closet. One can access the garage addition through a set of double doors at the end of the main hallway (Plates 11 – 28).
Plate 3. View of façade, looking north.
A staircase in the southwestern corner of the building leads to the second-floor landing. The second floor of the Town Hall contains three offices, two storage rooms, one restroom, one utility room, one storage closet, one closet, one main hallway, and one secondary hallway (Plates 29 – 40). Through a set of double doors in the storage closet, one can reach a wooden deck and a set of wooden stairs that leads along the garage addition to the rear of the building.
Plate 38. View of the hallway (Room 25), looking north.
Plate 40. View of the storage closet and doors leading to a deck (Room 30), looking north.
References Cited:
Allegany County
No date Various land tax records and personal property tax records. Available at the
Allegany County Courthouse, Cumberland, Maryland.
Edwards, Mark R., and Ellen K. Coxe
1981 Town of Lonaconing Historic District Nomination form. Available at the Maryland Historical Trust archives, Crownsville, Maryland.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Company
1897 Fire insurance map of Lonaconing, Maryland. Available online at http://www.loc.gov/maps/collections
1906 Fire insurance map of Lonaconing, Maryland. Available online at http://www.loc.gov/maps/collections
1921 Fire insurance map of Lonaconing, Maryland. Available online at http://www.loc.gov/maps/collections
Scharf, J. Thomas
1881 History of Western Maryland, Vol. II. L. J. Everts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Stegmaier, Harry I. Jr., David M. Dean, Gordon E. Kershaw, and John B. Wiseman
1976 Allegany County: A History. McClain Printing Company Parsons, West Virginia.
Thomas, James W. Thomas, and T. J. C. Williams
1923 History of Allegany County, Maryland, Vol. I. L. R. Titsworth and Company, Cumberland, Maryland.