BGuthrie Photos: MD -- Rockville -- Downtown

MD -- Rockville -- Downtown:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. ROCKD_150815_15.JPG: Rockville County seat of Montgomery (formerly part of Frederick) County. Made the county seat in 1776. Created a town by act of assembly 1801. Site of Hungerford Tavern where in 1774 resolution of sympathy for Boston was adopted and severance of trade with Great Britain was recommended.
2. ROCKD_150906_001.JPG: Rockville's African American Heritage Walking Tour Site #8 Jerusalem - Mount Pleasant Church and Parsonage 21 & 17 Wood Lane Racial tensions between African American and white church members peaked immediately before the Civil War. Pro-slavery parishioners joined the M. E. Church South in 1863. By 1868 the predominately African American M. E. Church North owned this property. This church had African American parishioners, slaves and free men but was segregated. White worshipers entered the front door and sat in the sanctuary while African Americans used a separate entrance and sat upstairs in the gallery. Some African American parishioners protested this racist system by refusing to attend church, listening from outside the window. The Parsonage was built in 1912 from trees harvested by the congregation at a church-owned lot in Poolesville. The Reverend James Cole, his wife Lila and their nine children lived here. These two buildings are among the few remaining historic church and parsonage units left in Montgomery County.
3. ROCKD_150906_021.JPG: Rockville Methodist Episcopal Church - Jerusalem Mount Pleasant United Methodist Church: Rockville was an early center of Methodism in Montgomery County. Methodists first met in private homes with occasional visits from a "circuit rider" minister. In 1835, the trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church purchased lot 82 of the Original Town of Rockville for $40, where "they may erect and build…thereon a house or place of worship." The Rockville Circuit was established in 1845 to serve 715 white and 527 Negro Methodists. Rockville made the largest contribution to support the circuit. In 1849, the Trustees purchased a house at the corner of Wood Lane and North Washington Street as a parsonage and interim place of worship. The Rockville Methodist Episcopal Church incorporated in 1852 and erected this building about 1858. In 1845, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South was founded, due to a doctrinal dispute over slavery. In 1868, the non-slavery Rockville Methodists fell heir to the original site and building and it became a predominantly black congregation. In 1893, the brick church was dismantled and enlarged using the original materials. Its basement housed Rockville's black elementary school in 1912 when the Negro Elementary School burned. Jerusalem merged with Mt. Pleasant United Methodist Church in 1989. The belfry was removed and the stairs enlarged when the building was stuccoed and remodeled in 1954.
4. ROCKD_150906_029.JPG: Lost Rockville -- 1801 to 1850 Rockville Methodist Episcopal Church - Jerusalem/Mount Pleasant Rockville was an early center of Methodism in Montgomery County. Methodists first met in private homes with occasional visits from a "circuit rider" minister. In 1835, the trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church purchased lot 82 of the Original Town of Rockville for $40, where "they may erect and build…thereon a house or place of worship." The Rockville Circuit was established in 1845 to serve 715 white and 527 Negro Methodists. The Rockville Methodist Episcopal Church incorporated in 1852 and erected a brick house of worship about 1858. In 1845, a doctrinal dispute over slavery caused the Methodist Episcopal Church to separate into two factions, North and South. The southern faction in Rockville left the congregation and built a new church in 1868 on West Montgomery Avenue. The old church was left to the North, or non-slavery Methodists, and became a predominantly black congregation. In 1892, the church, now named Jerusalem Methodist Episcopal Church, was dismantled and enlarged. It housed black students in 1912 when the Rockville Negro Elementary School burned and was the site of graduation ceremonies through the 1950s. It merged with Mount Pleasant Methodist Church in 1989. The belfry was removed, the stairs expanded, and the building was stuccoed in 1954.
5. ROCKD_150906_043.JPG: Rockville's African American Heritage Walking Tour Site #9 Hebron House and Print Shop 11 Wood Lane For over fifty years, Celestine and Jesse Hebron operated one of the most successful printing businesses in the county in this handcrafted building. Jesse Hebron started his printing business on Falls Road in 1932. After serving in World War II he moved his business to the basement of this house. He built the house himself, casting the concrete blocks in molds on site and tinting them a warm yellow terracotta color. The subtle variations in the blocks reveal their handmade origins. The Hebrons were long-time members of the adjacent Jerusalem-Mt. Pleasant Church. Jesse served as treasurer for almost 52 years and Celestine was involved in many charitable activities and fundraising events. After they passed away in 1977, the church purchased the house and now uses it for offices.
6. ROCKD_150906_049.JPG: Rockville's African American Heritage Walking Tour Site #10 Galilean Temple 200 North Washington Street This was once a vital center of the African American community in Rockville: the Eureka Tabernacle Number 29 of the Order of the Galilean Fisherman. Established in 1903, the Temple allowed Rockville's African American residents to work together to meet community needs that were not provided by government, churches, schools or labor unions. In this building they held meetings, lectures, classes, plays, concerts and dances presented by other African American organizations. They provided the community with land for public housing and schools. In 1917, they bought a lot in Lincoln Park and established a cemetery, which is now owned and managed by the Mount Calvary Baptist Church. The Galilean fisherman was established in Baltimore in 1856 to provide mutual aid among African Americans, including insurance for injuries and illness and expenses for lawsuits and funerals. Rivaling churches as community institutions, these voluntary fraternal associations became places of support, entrepreneurship, service and leadership.
7. ROCKD_150906_060.JPG: Mr. T's 200 North Washington Street -- Rockville's African American Heritage Walking Tour -- After being made to wait while five white patrons who came in after him were served, George "T." Johnson opened Mr. T's as a store catering to African American clientele. Taverns in Rockville were the only businesses that were allowed to remain segregated as an exemption to the l962 City law against discrimination in public places. Mr. T's initially sold ice cream, lunches, and candy. In the evening it was a popular local drinking establishment. George Johnson opened the doors of Mr. T's to customers of all races who came in part because of Mr. Johnson's popularity and his participation in Rockville politics. Johnson was the first African American member of the Rockville Chamber of Commerce.
8. ROCKD_150906_073.JPG: Rockville's African American Heritage Walking Tour Sites #12 and #14 Rockville's First Colored School 246 North Washington Street In March, 1867, twenty African Americans pledged to support a school by taking responsibility for money "as may be necessary to pay the board and washing of the teacher and provide fuel and lights for the school-house." Education was a door to the future for former slaves. In 1872, Montgomery County began to provide public education to African American students. The elementary school was built in 1876 and accepted students in grades one through seven. The two-room school-house burned in 1919 (refer to map above) and students moved into the basement of Jerusalem M. E. Church. The school was rebuilt in 1921 on the opposite side of Washington Street. Rockville's Second Colored School East side of North Washington Street The Second Rockville Colored School opened in 1921 serving grades one through seven. To continue their education students had to commute by streetcar into Washington D.C. or board with a local family. In the mid-1920's, Noah E. Clarke and other African American parents petitioned for the County's first African American high school. In 1927, the school board voted to construct a high school in Rockville. The African American community supplied $6,700 toward construction, matching a grant from the philanthropic Rosenwald Foundation. Julius Rosenwald, President and CEO of Sears, provided matching funds to construct nearly 5,000 African American schools throughout the segregated South between 1917 and 1948. Rockville Colored High School was located adjacent to the elementary school on North Washington Street. It was the only high school in the County for African American students. Many students had to ride for hours by bus to get to and from class. In 1934, the School Board purchased land in Lincoln Park for the new Lincoln High School.
9. ROCKD_150906_101.JPG: Lost Rockville -- 1801 to 1850 Montgomery Avenue and Washington Street Rockville grew from a convenient crossroads meeting place in the 1750s to become the legal and market center of the county. The tiny village was selected as the seat of local government in 1776 for its central location and the presence of taverns and inns to accommodate those with court business. Rockville was incorporated in 1860. Rockville's businesses were not separated from the residential areas as today. Craftspeople and merchants often lived on the second story or next to their businesses. However, proximity to the Court House influenced many hotels, inns, and businesses to locate along Montgomery Avenue, Commerce Lane (now West Montgomery Avenue), and Washington Street. The area consisted of a variety of uses, including brick institutional buildings, small frame residences, 19th century hotels, and small businesses. The area of North Washington Street just north of Middle Lane was the location of the earliest black settlement in the town. In the 1950s, increased traffic, lack of parking, and economic problems led City officials to redevelop the 46-acre area by demolishing most of the old buildings and replacing them with an enclosed mall. The Rockville Mall was razed in 1995 in an effort to revitalize the Town Center.
10. ROCKD_150906_111.JPG: At this point The Potomac River Water Facility constructed by the City of Rockville was dedicated to the public use, October 1958
11. ROCKD_150906_140.JPG: Lost Rockville -- 1801 to 1850 Hungerford Tavern Hungerford Tavern was the site of some of the most important events in the history of Montgomery County. Three [illegible] prior to the Continental Congress in 1774, local citizens met at Hungerford Tavern to protest oppressive actions of the British Parliament. The first election of County officials was held here when the County was organized in 1776, and the Tavern was the location of the first County court from 1777 to 1779. Hungerford Tavern was owned by Joseph Wilson from 1786 to 1791 and by his granddaughter, Susan Russell, in the 1840s. Archaeological digs were conducted at this site in 1973 and 1987. Artifacts retrieved from these digs are displayed by Peerless Rockville [in the?] Red Brick Courthouse.
12. ROCKD_150906_146.JPG: Rockville County seat of Montgomery (formerly part of Frederick) County. Made the county seat in 1776. Created a town by act of assembly 1801. Site of Hungerford Tavern where in 1774 resolution of sympathy for Boston was adopted and severance of trade with Great Britain was recommended.
13. ROCKD_150906_161.JPG: Rockville's African American Heritage Walking Tour Site #4 Dr. James Anderson House 100 South Washington Street Long before the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, some enslaved people freed themselves by escaping to Canada. In 1856, Alfred Homer walked and ran more than 500 miles from this site to freedom, despite the dangers of the Fugitive Slave Law. Dr. Anderson's house was located on this site, before the present 1893 house built by his daughter. On May 31, 1856, his slave Alfred Homer escaped bondage by fleeing Rockville on foot, finding temporary refuge with the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee and finally gaining freedom in Canada. The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 required the return of runaway slaves even from the non-slavery northern states. Being caught meant severe punishment or being sold into worse conditions in the Deep South. One hundred dollars reward. - Ran away from the subscriber, living in Rockville, Montgomery county, Md. on Saturday, 31st of May last, NEGRO MAN, ALFRED, about twenty-two years of age; five feet seven inches high; dark copper color, and rather good looking. He had on when he left a dark blue and green plaid frock coat, of cloth, and lighter colored plaid pantaloons. I will give the above reward if taken out of the county and in any of the States, or fifty dollars if taken in the county or the District of Columbia, and secured so that I get him again. John W. Anderson
14. ROCKD_150906_180.JPG: Richard Montgomery 1738 - 1775 Born in Ireland; served in the British Army in the French & Indian War. Joined the American Revolution as the most experienced general in the Continental Army. Led the invasion of Canada where he was killed in the Battle of Quebec, becoming the first general to die in the Revolution and America's first national hero. When Maryland's constitutional convention split Frederick County into three parts the following year, they named the western third Washington and the eastern third Montgomery, the first of many memorials to Montgomery in the nation.
15. ROCKD_150906_197.JPG: This is a bio-retention area that absorbs excess water runoff and filters the water before entering local streams and the Chesapeake Bay.
16. ROCKD_150906_200.JPG: This building has a vegetated roof that filters 134,000 gallons of rainwater per year.
17. ROCKD_150906_207.JPG: The plantings in these areas are indigenous and do not require potable water irrigation
18. ROCKD_150906_227.JPG: This stone dated 1803 and located on this site marked the southeast corner of the Original Town of Rockville The letters "B. R." on its face stand for "Beginning of Rockville" Dedicated by the Mayor and Council of Rockville, 1960
19. ROCKD_150906_230.JPG: Lost Rockville -- 1801 to 1850 1803 Plan of Rockville and Boundary Stone Rockville began when Owen's Ordinary, an inn and tavern, was established in this area around 1750. It functioned as the seat of lower Frederick County and in 1776 became the seat of Montgomery County when it was created. In 1784, William P. Williams subdivided 45 acres of his land into building lots and called it "Williamsburgh." Fifteen years later, structures had been built on 38 lots. The Williamsburgh plat had legal problems and in November 1801, the Maryland General Assembly directed that the lots be resurveyed and a town erected "to be called Rockville." The town plan was recorded in 1803. This boundary stone, with the letters "B.R." incised, marks the "Beginning of Rockville" shown in the lower right of the plan at the southeast corner of Block I, lot 1. The plan has a grid pattern of six streets, 19 blocks, and a total of 85 lots. The Court House lot fits into the notch on the right border in Block VIII. For many years, the boundary stone was neglected, half-buried in the weeds of an undeveloped lot. It resurfaced when the Rockville Library was built in the 1950s. It was placed near its original location in 1961 where it serves as an everyday reminder of the modest beginnings of Rockville.
20. ROCKD_150906_251.JPG: Christ Episcopal Church Vestrymen Arrested -- Gettysburg Campaign -- Early Sunday morning, June 28, 1863, 5,000 of Confederate Gen J.E.B. Stuart's cavarlymen rode into Rockville and arrested Union supporters. They sought merchant John H. Higgins at his home, but he had already left for Christ Episcopal Church (across the street). Dora, his wife, ran to the church to warn him, fellow vestrymen Judge Richard Johns Bowie, enrollment officer Lawrence Dawson, and enrollment clerk Richard Williams to remain in the vestry room. On her way home, Dora Higgins also warned the Presbyterian minister, John DeSellum, and Capt. John Vinson, but was too late to save provost marshall Mortimer Moulden and postmaster Thomas Bailey. Prisoners captured along the way or arrested in town were held in the courthouse a block away. Dora Higgins wrote that "at six [p.m.] ... they carried their prisoners off, compelling Capt. Vinson, tho' too ill to stand alone, to mount a horse, at the point of their sabers, and go with them." After Stuart left, Dora Higgins returned to the church to inform the vestrymen it was safe. A Confederate rear guard followed her, however, and arrested them. When local secessionists told her that they had taken no role in the arrests, she replied, "I know positively that not one of you could have any influence today, as Gen. Stuart had a written list of all the Union men's names. But some one here furnished that list."
21. ROCKD_150906_269.JPG: Prince George's Parish Memorial Hall 1726-1926
22. ROCKD_150906_273.JPG: Lost Rockville -- 1801 to 1850 Christ Episcopal Church The first Episcopal church in or near Rockville was built in 1739 on a two-acre parcel of land, part of which is now the Rockville Cemetery. It was constructed of clapboards and logs and was called both the "Chapel of Ease" and Rock Creek Chapel. The latter name was the same as that of the Mother Church of Prince George's Parish, located 12 miles to the south. The Parish was divided twice in the 1740s, following which the Chapel of Ease (and Rockville) became part of Frederick County. Additions were made to the Chapel of Ease in the 1750s, and a transept was added in 1770, which completed its cruciform plan. The result was said to be "considerably handsomer and more church-like" than the brick church which replaced it in 1808. By 1796, the Chapel of Ease was found to be badly decayed and the vestry contracted in 1802 for a large two-story brick building to replace it. This building was completed in 1808 and was consecrated as Christ Church by Bishop Thomas John Claggett. A new church was built on South Washington Street in 1822. In 1830, Christ Church became the Parish Church with the establishment of Rock Creek Parish. Soon afterward, a rectory was built on Montgomery Avenue. In 1863, Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart and 8,000 soldiers briefly captured Rockville. Union sympathizers sought sanctuary in Christ Episcopal Church and were seized with several members of the vestry. The captives were taken to Brookeville before release. The Gothic Revival-style church that stands here today was completed in 1887. It was almost destroyed by a hurricane in 1896.
23. ROCKD_150906_282.JPG: Rockville's African American Heritage Walking Tour Site #5 Hungerford Tavern West Jefferson and South Washington Street Hungerford Tavern was most likely operated by the tavern owner's African American slaves. African American slaves traveling with their masters were expected to care for them if they became too rowdy or drunk at taverns. A meeting place for tobacco planters and lawyers to socialize and conduct business, the tavern was a center of social activity. When the travelers stayed overnight, their slaves could exchange news of family members and relatives with the tavern owner's slaves. While the tavern served as the courthouse, a small jail was attached to the building. Slaves caught trying to escape were held here awaiting punishment and return to bondage.
24. ROCKD_150906_332.JPG: Lost Rockville -- 1801 to 1850 Rockville Academy In 1805, the Maryland General Assembly appointed a commission to raise money for a school lot and a fire engine for Rockville. The Rockville Academy was chartered and authorized to hire teachers in 1809. In 1812 and 1813, a number of lots were purchased on Jefferson Street, and construction of the original rectangular brick Federal style building was completed in 1813. Tuition was $10 a year, and students obtained room and board elsewhere. The academy faced Jefferson Street and was five bays long with interior chimneys at either end. The building contained only classrooms. Thirty to 60 young men were enrolled annually, some of whom attended seasonally when farm work was light. They received a secondary school education. The academy was one of two secondary schools in the county. Rockville Academy continued in the original building until 1890 when it was replaced by the present Queen Anne style school designed and built by Rockville builder Edwin West. Female students were first admitted in 1912. From 1917 to 1935, it housed the Rockville public elementary school for grades 1-3 and later, the Library Association. The building was vacant, deteriorated, and threatened with demolition when it was purchased and renovated for office use in 1980. The City of Rockville purchased the surrounding land with Project Open Space funds for a public park.
25. ROCKD_150906_342.JPG: Prettyman House Confederates in Rockville -- Gettysburg Campaign -- From his home, E. Barrett Prettyman, a prominent Rockville citizen and educator, watched approximately 5,000 Confederate cavalrymen ride into Rockville in three columns on Sunday, June 28, 1863. Like many other Montgomery County residents, Prettyman may have thought the troopers were black because of their deeply tanned faces. Gen. Wade Hampton's brigade, with prisoners captured between Rowser's Ford and Darnestown, entered early that morning ahead of the main body on Darnestown Road, quickly routing a small Union force. After noon, Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, with the remaining two brigades under Gens. Fitzhugh Lee and W.H.F. Lee (led by Col. John R. Chambliss), rode in on Great Falls Road. Lee's advance guard encountered members of the 2nd New York Cavalry, who quickly retreated. The Confederates took control of Rockville, tearing down telegraph lines, foraging the countryside, and arresting prominent citizens loyal to the Union. While his cavalrymen spread out, Stuart stopped at Prettyman's house, admiring the family's youngest child, two-year-old Forrest. While here Stuart learned of a large supply-wagon train from Washington heading north on the Rockville Pike to the Union army then concentrating around Frederick. He sent Chambliss to capture and secure the wagons, while Stuart continued to Rockville's Court House Square to assess progress. [Civil War Trails marker]
26. ROCKD_150906_351.JPG: Rockville's African American Heritage Walking Tour Site #6 Prettyman House 104 West Jefferson Street For many African Americans emancipation from slavery meant transitioning from a household slave to a paid domestic servant. The Johnson-Prettyman family lived in this 1841 house for five generations. During their ownership they transitioned from owning slaves to employing domestic servants. This c. 1890 photograph of the Prettyman House shows an African American domestic servant holding the family's baby. Often these servants lived with their employers or walked from their residences in Haiti or Middle Lane. The meager but steady income of domestic servants started many African American families on the long road to home ownership, financial self-sufficiency, and access to education.
27. ROCKD_150906_361.JPG: Lost Rockville -- 1801 to 1850 The Prettyman House This house was built on a 13.5-acre lot on the outskirts of Rockville in 1842. A stone marking the southwest corner of the original 1803 Rockville Plan is between this house and the adjacent Rockville Academy grounds. Matilda Holland, widow of Montgomery County Register of Wills, Solomon Holland, purchased the land in 1839. Her daughter Anne and her husband Capt. Zachariah Johnston, USN, built the Greek Revival-style house, which housed their five daughters and Matilda Holland. Its original design was a 1 1/2-story side-gabled dwelling with a pedimented front portico with classical columns. It had an attached west wing and a rear wing. It was enlarged to two full stories in 1876 and remodeled to a more Victorian style. A private lane led to the house and back to the stable and pasture along Falls Road. The property was owned or occupied by five generations of the Johnston-Prettyman family for almost 150 years. The Johnstons' daughter, Lydia, married Elijah Barrett Prettyman in 1855. He later became Clerk of the Circuit Court for Montgomery County. Many members of this family were active in County and town politics, religious and educational affairs, and the military. Various family members and others purchased land along the stable lane, which became South Van Buren Street. The Prettyman family owned the house until 1968.
28. ROCKD_150906_388.JPG: Higgins House Arresting Civilians -- Gettysburg Campaign -- Early Sunday morning, June 28, 1863, Confederate cavalrymen arrived at merchant John Higgins' house to arrest him, but he had already left for Christ Episcopal Church. Instead they captured Eblen, a 17 year-old Union soldier recuperating here. When troopers told Dora Higgins to open the doors to their store, she refused, appealing to General J.E.B. Stuart for aid. Stuart replied that she was to stay in front of the store and "let one of them dare resist you." For the next six hours, Dora kept the Confederates at bay. George Peter, a secessionist and neighbor of the Higgins, demanded that arrested citizens receive fair treatment. Dora Higgins wrote "had it not been for their endeavors, every Union man would have been taken and every store laid open,... for they said to carry out such an order would be their (Secessionists') entire ruin." Stuart could not afford to antagonize Southern sympathizers, and a captured Union wagon train answered his men's needs. Matthew Fields, secessionist owner, editor, and publisher of the Montgomery County Sentinel, was arrested twice without formal charges when many civil rights were suspended under martial law. Levin Hoskinson, his apprentice printer who joined the 7th Virginia Infantry, was killed at the First Battle of Manassas on July 21, 1861. He was the first Rockville man lost in the war. Oldest photograph of Rockville's main thoroughfare, ca. 1870, with hay scale in the public triangle. The 1840 courthouse is out of the picture to the right. The Female Seminary and John Higgins' store are out of the picture to the lower left. Stuart's prisoners were taken from the courthouse down the road toward Brookeville.
29. ROCKD_150906_393.JPG: Oldest photograph of Rockville's main thoroughfare, ca. 1870, with hay scale in the public triangle. The 1840 courthouse is out of the picture to the right. The Female Seminary and John Higgins' store are out of the picture to the lower left. Stuart's prisoners were taken from the courthouse down the road toward Brookeville.
30. ROCKD_150906_398.JPG: Merchant John Higgins. George Peter became a state senator after the war.
31. ROCKD_150906_400.JPG: Lost Rockville -- 1801 to 1850 North Adams Street and Middle Lane Residential Area The area at North Adams Street and Middle Lane has four of the oldest surviving Rockville homes: 101, 106, and 5 North Adams, and the Beall-Dawson House. The 1793 portion of the house at 5 North Adams is probably the oldest structure in Rockville. The original portion is the two-story, two-room attic and lean-to on its northwest corner. It was built by Philip Jenkins and rented out. The property was enlarged and had a stable by 1866. The Victorian addition on the south was added in 1887 by the Miller family. It is currently used as a law office. The house pictured, 101 North Adams Street, is built around a log dwelling that dates to the late 18th century. Two lots with a small house were sold by W. P. Williams, the subdivider of "Williamsburgh," to Thomas Perry Willson in 1799 for 40 pounds. The log dwelling faced Middle Lane until remodeled in the 1920s to front upon Adams. The front portion of 106 North Adams is a log-framed clapboard-covered dwelling built around 1825 by Rev. Joseph Jones of the recently-formed Bethel Baptist Church. It is a two-story, four-room Federal house with Greek Revival detailing. George Peters Jr. and his wife Lavinia added several 19th century additions to accommodate their seven children. It was again enlarged and restored in the 20th century. It remains a private home.
32. ROCKD_150906_416.JPG: Williams-Wilson House circa 1780 Rockville's Oldest Building In 1863, General J.E.B. Stuart captured the house's then owner, John H. Higgins, and several other known Union sympathizers, who were hiding in the Vestry of Christ Episcopal Church.
33. ROCKD_150906_445.JPG: Lost Rockville -- 1801 to 1850 The Bingham-Brewer House This two-story Federal structure is significant for its architecture and for its personal associations. The house is one of only two pre-1830 brick structures still intact in Rockville. The front section is 24-feet high and 24-feet wide. It rests on brick foundations and is set in flemish bond pattern brick. It is three bays across and one bay deep with a small porch sheltering the front door. Several additions were built in the 19th century. Outbuildings include a smokehouse, chicken house, a garage, and privy. Julius Bingham, publisher of a weekly Rockville newspaper, built the house in 1821 and left an interior brick inscribed "JAB 1821." The house has been owned by several other prominent leaders of Rockville, including William McClenahan, organizer of the Rockville Christian Church and teacher at the Rockville Academy; the Veirs family, local landowners; and the Brewer family, members of which were influential in local government, legal, commercial, and educational affairs. At the turn of the 20th century, the Brewer household included 10 children living in the home. The appearance of the front section of the house has been maintained as built and all modern additions constructed in the rear.
34. ROCKD_150906_462.JPG: The owner of the house. We chatted a bit.
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Wikipedia Description: Rockville, Maryland
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rockville is the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. According to the 2006 census update, the city had a total population of 59,114, making it the second largest city in Maryland.

History:

Situated in Piedmont region and crossed by three creeks (Rock Creek, Cabin John Creek, and Watts Branch), Rockville provided an excellent refuge for semi-nomadic Native Americans as early as 8000 BC. By the first millennium BC, a few of these groups had settled down into year-round agricultural communities that exploited the native flora, including sunflowers and marsh elder. By AD 1200, these early groups (dubbed Montgomery Indians by later archaeologists) were increasingly drawn into conflict with the Senecas and Susquehannocks who had migrated south from Pennsylvania and New York. Within the present-day boundaries of the city, six prehistoric sites have been uncovered and documented, and borne artifacts several thousand years old. By the year 1700, under pressure from European colonists, the majority of these original inhabitants had been driven away.

The first land patents in the Rockville area were obtained by Arthur Nelson between 1717 and 1735. Within three decades, the first permanent buildings in what would become the center of Rockville were established on this land. Still a part of Prince George's County at this time, the growth of Daniel Dulaney's Frederick Town prompted the separation of the western portion of the county, including Rockville, into Frederick County in 1748.

Being a small, unincorporated town, early Rockville was known by a variety of names, including Owen's Ordinary, Hungerford's Tavern, and Daley's Tavern. The first recorded mention of the settlement which would later become known as Rockville dates to the Braddock Expedition in 1755. On April 14, one of the approximately two thousand men who were accompanying General Edward Braddock through wrote the following: "we marched to larance Owings or Owings Oardianary, a Single House, it being 18 miles and very dirty." Owen's Ordinary was a small rest stop on Rock Creek Main Road (later the Rockville Pike), which stretched from George Town to Frederick Town, and was then one of the largest thoroughfares in the colony of Maryland.

On September 6, 1776, the Maryland Constitutional Convention agreed to a proposal introduced by Dr. Thomas Sprigg Wootton wherein Frederick County, the largest and most populous county in Maryland, would be divided into three smaller units. The southern portion of the county, of which Rockville was a part, was named Montgomery County. The most populous and prosperous urban center in this new county was George Town, but its location at the far southern edge rendered it worthless as a seat of local government. Rockville, a small, but centrally located and well travelled town, was chosen as the seat of the county's government. Thereafter, the village was referred to by all as Montgomery Court House.

In 1784, William Prather Williams, a local landowner, hired a surveyor to lay out much of the town. In his honor, many took to calling the town Williamsburgh. In practice, however, Williamsburgh and Montgomery Court House were used interchangeably. On July 16, 1803, when the area was officially entered into the county land records, however, the name used was "Rockville," believed to be derived from Rock Creek. Nevertheless, the name Montgomery Court House continued to appear on maps and other documents through the 1820s.

By petition of Rockville's citizens, the Maryland General Assembly incorporated the village on March 10, 1860. During the American Civil War, General George B. McClellan stayed at the Beall Dawson house in 1862. In addition, General J.E.B. Stuart and an army of 8,000 Confederate cavalrymen marched through and occupied Rockville on June 28, 1863 while on their way to Gettysburg and stayed at the Prettyman house. Jubal Anderson Early had also crossed through Maryland, on his way to and from his attack on Washington.

In 1873, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad arrived, making Rockville easily accessible from Washington, D.C. In July 1891, the Tennallytown and Rockville Railway inaugurated Rockville's first trolley service connecting to the Georgetown and Tennallytown Railway terminus at Western Avenue and Wisconsin Avenue.

This provided service from Georgetown to Rockville, connecting Rockville to Washington, D.C. by trolley. Trolley service operated for four decades, until, eclipsed by the growing popularity of the automobile, service was halted in August 1935. The Blue Ridge Transportation Company provided bus service for Rockville and Montgomery County from 1924 through 1955. After 1955, Rockville would not see a concerted effort to develop a public transportation infrastructure until the 1970s, when the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) began work to extend the Washington Metro into Rockville and extended Metrobus service into Montgomery County. The Rockville station of Washington Metro began service on July 25, 1984, and the Twinbrook station began service on December 15, 1984. Metrobus service was supplemented by Montgomery County's own Ride On bus service starting in 1979. MARC, Maryland's Rail Commuter service, serves Rockville with its Brunswick line. From Rockville MARC provides service to Union Station in Washington D.C. (southbound) and, Frederick and Martinsburg, WV (northbound), as well as intermediate points. Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, provides service from Rockville to Chicago and Washington D.C.

From the 1960s, Rockville's town center, formerly one of the area's commercial centers, suffered from a period of decline. Attempts to revitalize interest in the region culminated in the unsuccessful Rockville Mall, which failed to attract either major retailers or customers and which was demolished in 1994. Although efforts to restore the town center continue, the majority of the city's economic activity has since relocated along Rockville Pike (MD Route 355/Wisconsin Avenue). In 2004, Rockville Mayor Larry Giammo announced plans to renovate the Rockville Town Square, including building new stores and housing and relocating the city's library. In the past year, the new Rockville Town Square has been transformed and includes a number of boutique-like stores, chain restaurants, and apartment complexes.

The city is closely associated with the neighboring towns of Kensington and the unincorporated census-designated place, North Bethesda. The Music Center at Strathmore, an arts and theater center, opened in February 2005 in the latter of these two areas and is presently the second home of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

Notable:

The grave site of F. Scott Fitzgerald is located at St. Mary's Church, in the center of Rockville, and there is a small theater next to Glenview Mansion in the Civic Center Park named after him.

In November 2007, the new Rockville Town Center was unveiled.

The United States Public Health Service headquarters office buildings are in South Rockville. Rockville is also home to the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is located in Rockville. ...

Rockville in Pop Culture:

* (Don't Go Back To) Rockville, a song by R.E.M. is about Rockville.
* O.A.R., a rock band, was started in Rockville in 1996.
* The Don and Mike Show, a nationally syndicated talk show houses its main studio here.
* Brian Transeau, electronic music producer
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2015 photos: I retired from the US Census Bureau in god-forsaken Suitland, Maryland on my 58th birthday in May. Yee ha! Trips this year: a quick trip to Florida. two Civil War Trust conferences (Raleigh, NC and Richmond, VA), and my 10th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including Los Angeles). Ego Strokes: Carolyn Cerbin used a Kevin Costner photo in her USA Today article. Miss DC pictures were used a few times in the Washington Post. Equipment this year: I mostly used my Fuji XS-1 camera but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000. Number of photos taken this year: just over 550,000.
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