HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
An 1867 Second Empire mansion turned house museum in Cumberland, cited on local ghost tours for cold spots and figures upstairs.
218 Washington St, Cumberland, MD 21502
Research updated September 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Modest admission for the house-museum tour, run by the Allegany County Historical Society. Confirm hours and rates via the museum.
Access
Limited Access
Three-story Victorian mansion with stairs between floors; period interior.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1867 · 1867 Second Empire mansion in the Washington Street Historic District · Built by attorney Josiah Hance Gordon, later C&O Canal Company president · Operated as History House museum by the Allegany County Historical Society since 1954
Josiah Hance Gordon came to the Cumberland area in 1842, studied law at the firm of McKaig and McKaig, and was admitted to the bar in 1844. He built his home at 218 Washington Street in 1867, one of a small group of Second Empire houses in what is now the Washington Street Historic District, marked by the style's distinctive mansard roof.
Gordon was a figure of some standing in 19th-century Cumberland. He served as Allegany County State's Attorney and as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, and in 1869 he became president of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, the enterprise that tied Cumberland to Washington by water. He and his family lived in the house for roughly two decades.
The property later passed to the Roberts family, whose name it now shares. In 1954 the Allegany County Historical Society purchased the house from the Roberts estate and opened it as a museum. Furnished to the Victorian era, it interprets the domestic life of Cumberland's prosperous families during the canal-and-railroad decades, and is commonly called History House.
The mansion remains a fixture of the historic district and one of the principal heritage attractions in downtown Cumberland.
Sources
The Gordon-Roberts House appears on western Maryland haunted-history roundups, which describe cold spots, unexplained noises, and occasional sightings of figures concentrated in the mansion's upper floor. It is the familiar register of an old furnished house museum, where creaking period rooms and a long line of former occupants invite stories.
The reports are not tied to any particular incident in the documented history, and no named ghost, photograph, or investigation anchors them. The Allegany County Historical Society presents the house as a heritage and decorative-arts site rather than a haunted attraction.
Hauntbound treats the upstairs cold-spot and figure reports as single-source local lore and routes the site to review, with its solid 19th-century history carrying the listing rather than the ghost claims.
Tour the 1867 Second Empire mansion built by attorney Josiah Hance Gordon, now operated as a house museum by the Allegany County Historical Society. Rooms are furnished to the Victorian period and interpret Cumberland's 19th-century gentry. Local haunted-history listings cite cold spots, unexplained noises, and reported figures in the upstairs rooms.
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