October 21st, 2016 by WCBC Radio

The Memorial Hospital Portico will star once more in Cumberland, this time as the entrance to the newly renovated and restored Allegany Museum at 3 Pershing St.

Memorial Hospital, which was e stablished on Baltimore Ave as the Western Maryland Hospital in 1888, and was renamed in 1929 in honor of those who gave their life in World War I.

The entrance to the Museum, which is now on Pershing St, will be reconfigured to face Interstate 68. The new entrance will lead into the extensive Crossroads of America exhibition, slated to be open fall 2017. Crossroads of America will occupy most of the first floor of the Museum, and provide a sensory as well as visual story of human movement in the area, by road, water, and rail.

While government grants will pay most of costs of the remodeling and the new exhibition, the Museum does not have any income to pay for staff or for day-to-day expenses, like power, cleaning, and so on. Nearly everything is done by unpaid volunteers. We always welcome new volunteers, donations, and endowments.