The Glades Hotel
Facing the railroad tracks directly in front of you was the Glades Hotel. Deriving its name from the nearby area called “Youghiogheny Glades,” the Glades Hotel was built in the mid-1850’s by Perry Lyle directly across the tracks from the 1851 Oakland railroad station. John Dailey, who gradually extended it parallel to the tracks tripling its original length, purchased it in 1859. Among guests at the hotel were a number of railroad officials and, before the Civil War, U.S. Senator Jefferson Davis.
For a number of years railroad passenger trains did not have dining cars, and the Glades Hotel was one of the many regular stops along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad where passengers could get a quick meal in the hotel's dining room.
During a raid by Confederate troops on the town of Oakland on Sunday, April 26, 1863, the Glades Hotel was the only building in town subject to cannon fire. The troops had information that an injured Union officer was recuperating in the hotel so they fired a cannon shot down the rail line toward the hotel from the Second Street crossing. John Dailey was able to convince the Confederate troops, after allowing a thorough search of the building, that a Union officer was not in the building, thus sparing the hotel.
After Garrett became a county in 1872, visiting Circuit Court judges used the old and later the new Glades Hotel as a place to hold court until a regular courthouse was built in 1877. The original Glades Hotel burned to the ground in 1874, but in the same year a new version was built east of the old location in the area now occupied by the Town of Oakland parking lot.
Mr. John Dailey continued to manage the new Glades Hotel until his death in 1881. John Brant, a long time employee, then assumed management until it finally closed in the early 1900’s. The building was torn down for the lumber in 1908.
Marker is on West Liberty Street near South 2nd Street, on the left when traveling west.
Courtesy hmdb.org
