Frontier stone home of Captain Michael Cresap, built about 1764. It is the oldest house in Allegany County, Maryland. Michael’s father, Colonel Thomas Cresap, a famed Western Maryland frontiersman, settled the farthest west in Oldtown about 1741, eight years before Cumberland was first occupied.
Michael was a renowned wilderness explorer who expeditions led through Western Maryland into the Ohio Valley. Michael Cresap was Captain of the First Maryland Rifle Company, Cresap’s Rifles, who marched from Oldtown to Cambridge, Massachusetts to answer a Continental Congress order to assist General George Washington in 1775, at the start of the American Revolutionary War.
The Michael Cresap Museum, Inc. is a Non-Profit 501c3 Corporation registered in Maryland. It is fully volunteer run and serves to provide tours of the historic home and educate the public about Pre-Revolutionary colonial life on the frontier.
The Michael Cresap Museum, Inc. is dedicated to educating the public about Pre-Revolutionary colonial life through the preservation and interpretation of the historic Captain Michael Cresap home and the treasures it holds.
To preserve and share the legacy of Captain Michael Cresap and Western Maryland’s frontier history, inspiring future generations to explore, appreciate, and learn from the stories of a real frontier family so they protect the home he built and the country he helped form.
