10/10/2025
Doc Alvin Putnam Twigg was born 11 (gravestone) or 12 (Twigg Genealogy files) January 1860, at Twiggtown, before the Civil War! He was the son of Oliver and Mary Ann Twigg. Doc Twigg did his professional training at Bellevue Hospital, NY and was licensed in 1889. He married Agnes Apple Ash on 9 Nov 1887 and at some point they lived in the Flintstone Hotel. Doc Twigg was a country doctor in spirit who also used modern methods. He died 27 March 1944 and is buried at Hillcrest Burial Park in Cumberland. His wife was born 21 Sep 1861 and died 29 Jul 1941. Doc Twigg was legendary in Flintstone for serving the community. Neighbors named their children after Doc.
He purchased the Flintstone Hotel in 1901 from John Piper Jr.’s single daughter, Annie M. Piper and son-in-law, John Howard. Doc Twigg closed the tavern and turned it into a doctor’s office. He was the only doctor in the area. He closed the hotel and dining room in the late 1930’s. When Doc Twigg died in 1944, his daughter, Lena Twigg, inherited hotel property and rented rooms as apartments until the 1970’s (Lowrey).
Doc Twigg made structural changes to the hotel. He added three dormers to the roof and he made the porch roof flat for a sitting area. The original tavern roof was half a story below the rest of the building. Doc Twigg raised the roof and then used a piece of metal to fill in the gap. Doc also sealed off the tavern basement with a rock wall. (Lowrey)
Memories:
Olive (Twigg) Davis told a great story about her maternal grandparents, “Urilla Grace Clark (1834-1928) met her man, Josiah Eyler (1829-1909) when she was working at the Flintstone Hotel. He rode up on a dappled grey horse and was wearing a green suit. She thought, ‘That’s the man I’m going to marry.’ Josiah was surveying for the government at Baltimore, Maryland and was a Civil War Veteran.”
Jackie Langton remembered staying with her great Aunt Lena Twigg during the summers. She and husband lived in the hotel circa 2001 and tried to secure funding to renovate the hotel.
Claudette and Darlene Twigg remember staying in the hotel during a winter when their lane to their family home was drifted closed with snow.
History:
In 1791 the State of Maryland commissioned a road from Hancock to Cumberland. The hotel was built circa 1807 for John Davis. He had a store and supplied materials for the road-building and to sustain the workers. The large building probably first served as a home and was built of handmade bricks over a structure of hand hewn logs. It was fastened together by wooden pegs and hand forged nails. The outside of the building was covered with stucco (Matthias Lowrey, Flintstone Hotel, 2020 ).
Around 1812, the Cumberland Road was finally being surveyed and it opened circa 1818. By 1850, the building was serving as a hotel along the National Highway and Baltimore Pike. Famous people who were rumored to stay at the hotel were Marquis de Lafayette (1824), Henry Clay and Theodore Roosevelt.
“The hotel had twenty-two rooms with an open fireplace in each room. Most of the food for the hotel customers was cooked in the summer kitchen. The fireplace in the summer kitchen had a raised hearth and an iron crane to hang kettles. A large seven room addition was built onto the eastern part of the building. The addition became the tavern and a stagecoach stop. The tavern was more profitable than the hotel. In the tavern was a room with a large walnut bar table. There was a trapdoor behind the bar which led down a tunnel to the basement. Barrels of whiskey or beer were rolled up or down the ramp” (Lowrey).
“There was a ballroom along the front half of the building and it had a very large fireplace in one end. One time for a wedding, Doc Twigg played the violin with the orchestra. (Lowrey)”
“Bed sheets were washed in the wash house. Customers could save money by sleeping on sheets that had already been slept on by someone else. Water for washing and cooking was hauled from the fifty-four foot, hand dug well. Other buildings included a smokehouse, milk house and slave quarters” (Lowrey).
“The basement had shackles cemented into the wall. Constables could secure prisoners overnight while the Constable stayed in the hotel” (Lowrey). By 1850, the building was serving as a hotel along the National Highway and Baltimore Pike. Famous people who were rumored to stay at the hotel were Marquis de Lafayette (1824), Henry Clay and Theodore Roosevelt. The hotel was demolished in 2023.
“Across the road from the hotel was a very large stable where customers could bed their horses for the night. There were enough stalls to house at least twelve horses. The stable also serviced the stagecoach and private wagons. The building was converted to a post office, then a funeral home and now it is a private dwelling”. (Lowrey)
“John Piper Jr. “came to the (Davis’s) store a poor boy, but in the course of time he acquired the store, the farm and tavern stand (Hillary Willison). John Piper Jr. and his wife, Sally (Robinette) purchased the hotel and tavern stand from John Davis on June 12, 1846” (Lowrey).
“The hotel became popular as a resort during Colonial John Piper’s ownership. Every day, one of Piper’s carriages would go to Cumberland and transport guests arriving on the B&O railroad. The mineral springs nearby increased in popularity so much that the hotel was at one time called the Springs Hotel. Other names were Piper’s Tavern and Piper’s Hotel. “(Lowrey)
Thanks especially to D.Kyle for sharing his folder of clippings and photos!
