When Rhiannon Brown relocated the Queen City Scoop Shop in downtown Cumberland last year, she hung a sign inside that says “BELIEVE.” The Cumberland native borrowed the slogan from a community advocacy campaign in Baltimore from the years she lived there. It inspired the educator-turned-entrepreneur to revisit her roots and buy a beloved frozen custard store.

Brown isn’t alone. She’s one of about 20 small business owners—both Cumberland-raised and come-heres—who’ve bet on themselves and the future of this scenic, once-industrial Western Maryland city, which recently completed a $17.2-million downtown revitalization.

For many, Cumberland is the gritty city that Interstate 68, aka “The National Freeway,” passes over—literally and figuratively—as it dips briefly between mountains in Allegany County. If you’ve never visited, or haven’t in years, it’s time to exit the highway and explore Cumberland’s outdoorsy appeal, its surprisingly rich history, and its emerging culinary and arts scenes.

When work got underway in early 2023, Cumberland’s main drag, Baltimore Street, belonged to an endangered commercial species—the pedestrian mall. Left behind by shopping centers and e-commerce, served by an electrical grid so outdated it struggled to light the city’s Christmas tree, many of its businesses had either moved or closed.

Today, the area has re-opened for business in a big way. Once-empty storefronts hold a veritable United Nations of restaurants, plus crowded coffeehouses, a new visual and performing arts gallery, and a growing number of specialty shops. A boutique hotel—Cumberland’s first—will open later this year in a renovated Victorian-era building, one of the city’s many architectural gems.

Thanks to major upgrades in water, sewer, and electrical systems—as well as the introduction of 5G internet—some buildings house modern office and residential spaces on their upper floors. (A 2024 city program dangled $20,000 relocation packages for those willing to move here. The gambit drew national media attention and, to officials’ surprise, far more applicants than expected.)

Traffic flows again, slowly, on a three-block stretch of brick-paved Baltimore Street. Its now curb-less sidewalks are wider and re-landscaped to accommodate pleasant outdoor dining areas bordered by planters brimming with greenery. Trees that once hid the façades of stunning old buildings have been replaced with flora that gracefully frame them. There are new benches, streetlights, bike racks, a cascading wall fountain, and—for the first time in almost 50 years—on-street parking.

For much of its nearly 240 years, the “Queen City” was a fortuitously located transportation and industrial hub that rivaled Baltimore or Pittsburgh. Just west of Cumberland, Wills Creek cuts a deep, rocky-topped gap through the gently mounded Allegheny Mountains, opening a passage Cumberland Narrows—just wide enough for civilization to squeeze through on its roll westward centuries ago.

A path blazed by Native Americans became a wagon road and eventually Route 40, the nation’s first federal highway. From the east, the B&O Railroad arrived in 1842, and the C&O Canal linked the city to Washington, D.C., in 1850. Cumberland became a way station for travelers pursuing big dreams. Fur traders and settlers in the 18th century. Underground Railroad riders and commercial-rail tycoons in the 19th. George Washington arguably launched his early career here as a surveyor and a soldier before moving on to higher pay grades.

→ EXPLORE OUTDOORS

Today, big adventures are Cumberland’s primary attraction. The city of fewer than 20,000 lures more than 300,000 annual visitors: cyclists and hikers traveling the C&O Canal towpath and the Great Allegheny Passage (which meet here), sightseers riding the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad, and outdoor enthusiasts eager to explore Allegany County’s boundless beauty.

Begin your orientation at the Allegany Museum, whose impressive collection of 50,000 artifacts traces local history from Cumberland’s frontier days through its golden era as a maker of glassware, beer, tires, textiles, iron, and steel. Don’t miss the scale model of Fort Cumberland, a hillside British outpost built in 1754. Washington served as a young aide-de-camp there and the museum features a spectral 3D bust of our first president “reverse aged” by artificial intelligence to resemble his 1750s visage.

Allow ample time to explore nearby Canal Place Heritage Area, where centuries of transportation lore converge around C&O Canal National Historical Park. A pedestrian-friendly plaza with a shaded picnic area, it’s also home to the 1913 Western Maryland Railway Station. This grand reminder of Cumberland’s rail prominence still welcomes passengers. Western Maryland Scenic Railroad offers seasonal roundtrip excursions that chug through the Cumberland Narrows to the mountain town of Frostburg. Rail buffs will love Locomotive 1309, one of the nation’s largest still operating vintage steam engines.

The station platform faces Riverfront Park, a scenic strip overlooking the confluence of Wills Creek and the North Branch Potomac River, as well as  the canal turning basin. Check out The Cumberland, a full-scale, landlocked replica of a canal boat and visit the C&O Canal Visitor Center & Museum, located in the rail station.

Canal Place marks the juncture of two famously scenic bike trails: the 184.5-mile C&O Canal Towpath and the 150-mile Great Allegheny Passage, aka “The GAP.” Traversed end to end, they link D.C. and Pittsburgh. Because it’s a readily accessible trail town, cyclists naturally come to Cumberland, and it to them, offering repairs, rentals, shuttle service, and even bike-washing stations.

Trailside at Canal Place you’ll find Wheelz-up Adventures, which rents, sells, and services bikes, and provides guided tours and shuttle service for cyclists. Owner Mandela Echefu also outfits and instructs climbers, hikers, mountain bikers, paddleboarders, and kayakers at two locations. “It’s all about getting people out- doors,” says the Nigerian-born Echefu, who, inspired by the area’s natural beauty, abandoned a health-care career to start the business with his wife, Jamie.

→ DRINKS AND DINING

Before leaving Canal Place, savor some trailside refreshment. Sample a flight of craft beers at Dig Deep Brewing Co., located in the historic Footer’s Dye Works Building. Dig Deep’s rotating selection of more than a dozen homebrews pays a sudsy nod to Allegany’s coal-mining heritage, with offerings like Pay Dirt brown ale. Steps away, Charis Winery & Distillery produces around 14 different wines using grapes grown almost exclusively in Maryland, as well as more than 18 kinds of rums, brandies, whiskeys, and liqueurs. Sip Afternoon Delight, a lovely mead-style wine, in Charis’ tasting room or on its inviting patio.

From Canal Place, you’re just two blocks away from the downtown historic district and its main thoroughfare, Baltimore Street. After 20 dusty months of construction, the refurbished area was unveiled at a ribbon-cutting last November. Defunct late 19th- and early 20th-century department stores, banks, and jewelry shops—their fancy façades still remarkably intact—are filled with new businesses and iconic enterprises that persevered through the construction.

Brown bought Queen City Creamery from its about-to-retire owners, keeping creamy frozen custard in Cumberland. Now called Queen City Scoop Shop, it offers more than two dozen flavors (the pistachio is excellent), and if yours happens to be the “name du jour” (check the sign board), you get a free scoop. Curtis Famous Weiners, a half-block off Baltimore Street, has been operated since 1918 by the Giatras family—Cumberland retail royalty whose original trade was candy-making. Slide into one of the restaurant’s vintage wooden booths, enjoy a Coney Island chili dog, and let garrulous owner Gino Giatras narrate family history as displayed on the shop’s memorabilia-lined walls.

Cumberland’s grand old stores—Rosenbaum’s, Schwarzenbach’s, McMullen Brothers, and Lazarus—are gone, but their ornate structures are being repurposed for 21st-century commerce. When Hayden Ort-Ulm sought a second location for his popular Greene Street coffeehouse, Basecamp Coffee Co., he landed in the old Rosenbaum building. This Baltimore Street coffee stand shares first-floor space in the refurbished 1899 building with Madison Paige Boutique, a chic women’s store; AJ’s Cookie Jar, specializing in French macarons; and Lefty’s Place, a new Detroit-style pizza and wing bar. Luxury lofts and Airbnb apartments are slated for the upper floors.

Basecamp’s Ort-Ulm, raised nearby in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, is another entrepreneur who’s come home—in his case all the way from the Pacific Northwest. He now lives 10 minutes away in La Vale, site of Basecamp’s roastery, and collaborates with businesses like Queen City Scoop Shop and Dig Deep Brewing on their coffee-flavored offerings.

Another morning buzz option is Café Mark, a favorite for specialty coffees, fresh-brewed teas, smoothies, and its creative breakfast and lunch menus. You’ll find a welcoming vibe (think brick walls and pressed-tin ceilings), killer breakfast burritos, and super-friendly servers. Just beware the pastry counter, which seduces you sweetly while you wait to order.

Other dining choices abound. Try Baltimore Street Grill, a cozy pub-style restaurant, for Cajun specialties including seafood gumbo, crawfish étouffée, and catfish strips. At Centre Street Collective, a festive food court, order at the bar from an internationally inspired menu, featuring wraps, flatbreads, breakfast bowls, sushi, and build-your-own ramen bowls. On Baltimore Street, City Lights American Grill does popular gourmet burger and-beer nights on Thursdays. Around the corner, Mise En Place offers French cuisine in a delightful bistro setting.

On Centre Street, Ristorante Ottaviani imports New York-style Italian fare to its romantic dining room. Order from the house specialty Abruzzo entrees and conclude your meal on a heavenly note with house-made warm butter cake. The restaurant’s less formal Tasting Room and Lounge serves brick-oven pizzas, salads, and charcuterie. Opened in 1906, Caporale’s Bakery on North Mechanic Street offers compulsory Cumberland noshes like fresh-baked pepperoni rolls (once a coal miner’s staple), Italian breads, and sugary confections.

→ NIGHTLIFE

Downtown’s most anticipated newcomer occupies the historic McCleave Building at 63-69 Baltimore Street. The 20-room Wills Hotel will be Allegany County’s first boutique lodgings when it opens, as early as this fall. Co-owner Brian Gilbride of Ohio, who cycles the GAP, was quite familiar with Cumberland. When he saw the Italianate-style building, he realized its potential. When completed, the three-story hotel—Gilbride’s “passion project”—will offer bespoke suites, a potential steakhouse with an adjoining bar, and first-floor space offering cyclists bike works, storage, and laundry facilities. Eyeing possible expansion, Gilbride also purchased the building next door.

Take your pick of after-dark diversions. Watch a play at Embassy Theatre, located in a landmark 1931 Art Deco movie house. Enjoy live music at Loft 129, which features everything from rock and pop to jazz and classical. Toss tools at Fore Axes, a bar catering to wannabe lumberjacks as well as aspiring Scottie Schefflers who can tackle simulation golf courses like Pinehurst, Torrey Pines, and Royal Melbourne.

One of downtown’s newest arts venues, Ferleman Gallery & Gallery Stage showcases contemporary art. Its intimate, intra-gallery stage hosts live acoustic music performances and boasts its own digital recording studio. Owners Thomas and Rebecca Ferleman, who moved to Allegany County to escape suburbia, plan to open RootSTable on the second floor, serving locally sourced New American cuisine. If you’re visiting the gallery this summer or fall, check out works by Baltimore’s own Joseph Sheppard, the noted sculptor, muralist, and portraitist who created the Brooks Robinson statue near Camden Yards.

→ LANDMARKS 

Also discover some of Cumberland’s lesser-known landmarks. B’er Chayim Temple, an 1864 Greek Revival building downtown, is the longest continuously operating synagogue in Maryland, housing a congregation originally chartered in 1853. On a hillside overlooking Wills Creek, built atop Fort Cumberland’s remains, Emmanuel Episcopal Church in the Washington Street Historic District is well worth touring. The earthworks below—tunnels Washington once strode—were used a century later by African Americans following the Underground Railroad.

Walking the dimly lit space today is powerful and chilling. Inside the church itself, docent-led tours reveal another surprise. The chancel was designed by renowned artist Louis Comfort Tiffany, who personally visited and created three breathtaking stained-glass windows and several ornate candelabras.

When city leaders were planning the Baltimore Street Redevelopment Project, they dubbed the initiative “Reimagine Cumberland.” Now that the work is complete and downtown businesses have bought into the venture, they hope travelers will find the new Queen City as alluring as its predecessors.

The golf cart that whisks Del McCoury around the Allegany County Fairgrounds during DelFest, the four-day music festival he hosts each Memorial Day weekend in Cumberland, makes more pit stops than a racecar at Daytona. The legendary bluegrass singer, guitar player, and band leader can’t travel more than a few feet without being stopped by fans eager for a photo or just hoping to share a moment with the man whose what’s-not-to-love-about-life spirit permeates the musical celebration he founded in 2008. McCoury, almost always dapperly dressed in a suit, not a strand of his white hair out of place, usually obliges.  

That bond between artist and audience has made DelFest an annual pilgrimage for thousands of bluegrass lovers of all ages, from Maryland and beyond. 

Many people arrive Thursday, when the performances begin, and don’t leave until Monday, after the final late-night concert has ended. In between, local and national acts play tunes that span the bluegrass spectrum, with some country, rock, folk, and Americana mixed in. And musicians often sit in with one another, creating indelible, one-off performances. 

This year, Phish frontman Trey Anastasio will headline with his own band. Joining him on the bill—and possibly onstage—are Dierks Bentley, Béla Fleck and Chris Thile, Gov’t Mule, and the Steep Canyon Rangers, among others.

“I think the festival, with Del as the patriarch, honors diversity, celebrates innovation, and honors tradition,” says musician Joe Craven, who will emcee his ninth DelFest this year. “He creates a metaphor for how this country can be unified through music.”

The DelFest drive is a fairly straight shot from Baltimore via interstates 70 and 68. Though the scenery is beautiful, there aren’t many attractions to break up the two- to three-hour jaunt. But once you arrive in Cumberland, a small city of about 20,000 in Western Maryland’s panhandle, there are a few diversions that warrant a gander. Nearby Rocky Gap State Park (12900 Lakeshore Dr., Flintstone, 240-357-4404) features a nature center, miles of trails, and the 243-acre Lake Habeeb, plus all the amenities of the Rocky Gap Casino Resort: an 18-hole golf course, a full-service spa, and four restaurants. In Cumberland proper, George Washington’s Headquarters (38 Greene St.), a one-room cabin built circa 1755, demands a quick visit. If you have more than a minute to spare, the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad (13 Canal St., 800-TRAIN50), a historic railroad running between Cumberland and Frostburg, mixes mountain scenery and history. For outdoorsy types, the C&O Canal (13 Canal St., 301-722-8226) and Great Allegheny Passage trail (gaptrail.org) provide breathtaking natural splendor. 

For lodgings, the area offers just about every chain hotel known to man. For convenience and economy, it’s hard to beat Rodeway Inn (12310 Winchester Road SW, Lavale, 301-729-6700), which offers free Wi-Fi and is less than a 10-minute drive from the fairgrounds. For more creature comforts—and a central location in Cumberland’s historic downtown—try The Bruce House Inn (201 Fayette St., 301-777-8860) or Cumberland Inn & Spa (120 Greene St., 240-362-7111). Both book up fast for DelFest, but you might get lucky if there’s a cancellation.

But most attendees forgo all that and flock to the fairgrounds, which are nestled along the banks of the Potomac River. Multi-day passes include on-site camping privileges (but not parking), so people pitch tents near ball fields, along the railroad tracks, and in the woods near the water. Campers and RVs fill the lots near the grandstand. Grills are fired up, jam sessions erupt, dancing commences, inner tubes are inflated and plopped in the Potomac, and DelFest becomes home for the long holiday weekend.

Camping locations can get rowdy—this is a festival, after all—so attendees with youngsters generally opt for the Family Camp area, which is closer to the main stage and quieter late at night. Glampers can choose The Show Sherpa—a large cabin-style tent will be ready for you upon arrival. The rentals, which start at $425 for two people, also include cots, camping chairs, a lantern, and amenities like free coffee in the morning, a daily bag of ice, and a full camp kitchen. The only downside is that you are still largely at the mercy of Mother Nature. (Concertgoers are still talking about the epic hailstorm that bore down on the festival in 2009.) 

Festival organizers do go to great lengths to ensure that most needs can be met at the fairgrounds. Dozens of vendors offer an array of cuisines, including barbecue, vegetarian, and Chinese. More than 20 merchants line the back perimeter of the main stage area for an Art and Craft Fair that features clothing, jewelry, musical instruments, and other handmade items from around the world. Movement Playshops offer classes like yoga in multiple locations on the grounds, and the Kidzone (Fri.–Sun. 9-11:30 a.m., 1-7 p.m.) is packed with activities like face painting and scavenger hunts. 

No matter how people choose to experience DelFest, music is the tie that binds. Songs emanate nearly nonstop from two outdoor stages and one smaller indoor venue.  Main Stage acts play until midnight and then bands take tunes inside the Music Hall for intimate (separately ticketed) late-night shows. Music is also omnipresent in the parking lots and at the campsites, where impromptu jam sessions welcome musicians of all skill levels. 

“Sometimes jams go for two, three, four hours, and people come and go,” says Strawhand, a mandolin player. “There’s some rock-solid, amazing musicians, and there are people just strumming along and singing. Young people, old people. Everyone.”

If you want to impress, musicianship can be honed the Sunday through Wednesday prior to DelFest at DelFest Academy. Tickets are $400 and buy you instruction for guitar, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, bass, and, new this year, dobro. Hosted by The Travelin’ McCourys (Del’s sons’ band), the sessions target individual needs and leave ample time for one-on-one interaction.

Presiding over the whole event is McCoury, 78, who grew up in York, Pennsylvania, where he learned to strum the guitar from his older brother, G.C. In his early 20s, he frequently played small clubs in Baltimore—then a hotbed of bluegrass—and developed an impressive enough reputation that Bill Monroe, often called the father of bluegrass, asked him to join his band. 

After a year with Monroe, McCoury set off on other musical adventures and got married. He worked in logging to support his family, which includes sons Ronnie, now his mandolin player, and Rob, who’s on banjo. It wasn’t until 1992, when Del moved to Nashville, that he became one of bluegrass’ most beloved ambassadors. In 2003 he joined the Grand Ole Opry, and in 2010 he received a lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Along the way, he performed at nearly every bluegrass festival around the country, but never thought of establishing his own until the idea was suggested by his manager. Sites in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and elsewhere in Maryland were considered, but “the first place we went was the Allegany County Fairgrounds in Cumberland,” says McCoury. “I said, ‘We’ll never find a prettier location to have a festival.’ It’s really flat there, but you look across the river at West Virginia and it’s straight up. I said, ‘As far as I’m concerned, we don’t have to look any further.’”

They didn’t, and in 2008, DelFest was born. It quickly gained a national reputation as a festival embraced by both traditional bluegrass enthusiasts and those with more progressive tastes. It also has paid dividends for local charities and nonprofits. The DelFest Foundation has contributed $300,000 to a number of organizations, including the Western Maryland Food Bank and Allegany County Habitat for Humanity. 

“DelFest has become a part of the community,” says Brian Grim, a diehard festivalgoer, lifelong Cumberland resident, and, for the past six years, the city’s mayor. “It just has a really positive vibe that makes people feel welcome.”

That’s delightfully evident in the makeup of the crowd, which includes toddlers in diapers, grandpas wearing overalls, and many makes and models in between. They partake in various levels of partying. Friendships form in the rarely short beer lines (suds from craft breweries like Victory, Devils Backbone, and SweetWater are sold along with big boys like Stella Artois), and clouds of pungent smoke waft through the air—but remarkably, there never seems to be any friction between the factions. 

“It’s everybody’s happy place,” says Little. “Everybody’s having the best weekend ever. Kids are happy, parents are happy. It’s fun being around people when they’re happy.”

The man who makes this all possible has a passion for music that is infectious. Despite Del’s age (“I feel like I’m 17,” he says, chuckling), he will play sets every night but Saturday, and usually joins each major act for at least one number. To conclude its final show at last year’s festival, The Del McCoury Band chose “White House Blues,” a tune about presidents William McKinley and Teddy Roosevelt. The song, like the man who sung it that night, is old but still so very relevant today. After it ended, a cheer rang out from the crowd, one that has evolved specifically to honor the patriarch of this festival. 

“Del yeah!”