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History · Oldtown

1 of Oldtown’s places is on the National Register

Its Register listing is the Michael Cresap House. Most of Oldtown was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1967. Below: 2 old photos and papers and maps from 1899 on.

1on the National Register
0.0%homes built before 1940
2old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Oldtown’s archive · credits on each photo

What stands out about Oldtown’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 2 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.On the map since 18995 editions of the USGS map, 1899 to 1998. Watch Oldtown change.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Oldtown’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Oldtown’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewNORTHWEST AND NORTHEAST ELEVATIONS - Ch…: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
On the map

Oldtown on the map, 1899 to 1998

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Oldtown. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Oldtown on the 1899 USGS mapOldtown on the 1900 USGS mapOldtown on the 1950 USGS mapOldtown on the 1974 USGS mapOldtown on the 1998 USGS map1899Flintstone sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Oldtown.

The story

How Oldtown came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Oldtown.

Read it all →

It was founded in 18th century colonial times and was initially called "Opessa's Town" or "Shawanese Old Town" because it was the site of a Shawnee Amerindian village established by Opessa Straight Tail and abandoned about 1725. In later years the explanatory prefix was dropped from the name and the place because known simply as "Oldtown". Oldtown was begun (on a soon to be busy road) with the building of a trading post along an old Native American trail, the Nemacolin Trail, as traders, especially fur traders (and trappers) pushed through the Cumberland Narrows mountain pass into the Monongahela River valley.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Oldtown, 1795 to 1960

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 18th century
  2. 1795Post officeThe Oldtown post office opens
  3. 19th century
  4. 1899On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  5. 20th century
  6. 1960In the archiveNORTHWEST AND NORTHEAST ELEVATIONS - Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, Busey Cabin, 151.18 miles…
By decade

Oldtown, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1960s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1960s2 items
NORTHWEST AND NORTHEAST ELEVATIONS - Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, Busey Cabin, 151.18 miles above tidewater1960NORTHWEST AND NORTHEAST ELEVATIONS - Chesapeake and O…HPC-0004251961HPC-000425
1970s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Today4 recent
US Post Office Oldtown MD Dec 112011US Post Office Oldtown MD Dec 11Trading Post at Camp Potomac2010Trading Post at Camp PotomacThe Small Lodge at Camp Potomac2010The Small Lodge at Camp PotomacCamp Office at Camp Potomac2010Camp Office at Camp Potomac
Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

NORTHWEST AND NORTHEAST ELEVATIONS - Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, Busey Cabin, 151.18 miles above tidewater
Retake this viewNORTHWEST AND NORTHEAST ELEVATIONS - Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, Busey Cabin, 151.18 miles above tidewater, 1960

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Oldtown’s page.

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

1 historic place in Oldtown

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
1972
Michael Cresap House
Michael Cresap House
Buildings
Michael Cresap HouseBuilding

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Places that used to be

Old burying grounds

Oldtown’s post office has been open since 1795.

3cemeteries and burying grounds inside Oldtown
Oldtown CatholicOldtown United MethodistVeterans of Foreign Wars Burial Park

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Oldtown’s history

What is on the National Register in Oldtown?

One place: the Michael Cresap House (listed 1972).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (6), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.