16 Altamont Terrace
NE corner of Altamont Ter. and Union St., Cumberland, MDSixteen Altamont Terrace in Cumberland, Maryland, is significant for its architecture and for its historical association with the development of health care facilities in Allegany County. The design of the house, erected in the mid nineteenth century, is an example of a folk form of the Greek Revival style. It consists of Greek decorative elements applied to the traditional center hall house. The architectural historian William H. Pierson, Jr. describes this combination as the most common form of the "folk manifestations" of the Greek Revival style. The building has a five bay symmetrical facade with a free-standing Ionic order columnar portico and decorative iron balconies. The house is also representative of the domestic architecture of a wealthy mid nineteenth century citizen of Cumberland.
It is said that the house was constructed for John Oliphant, a businessman who purchased the property in 1851 and is listed for the building on the 1853 Map of Cumberland. The property is located in Dilley's Addition, which was laid out about the mid 1840's. In several of the past deeds, Altamont Terrace is referred to as Ellen Street.
In 1889 Charles James Orrick and his wife purchased the house. It was during their ownership that the house was used as the first facilities of the present Memorial Hospital, known then as the Home and Infirmary of Western Maryland. Orrick was one of the original incorporators of the hospital and his wife served as the first president of the organization
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.