Nicknamed the "Gateway to the Nation's Capital," Montgomery County is home to a number of federal agencies and a highly educated and affluent population that has grown increasingly diverse in recent years. Established in 1776, Montgomery County now consists of urban centers like Bethesda and Silver Spring; suburban neighborhoods like Wheaton, Germantown, and Potomac; and scenic rolling farmland interspersed with historic villages, like Brookeville and Barnesville. An additional 50,000 acres of federal, state, and county ...
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Nicknamed the "Gateway to the Nation's Capital," Montgomery County is home to a number of federal agencies and a highly educated and affluent population that has grown increasingly diverse in recent years. Established in 1776, Montgomery County now consists of urban centers like Bethesda and Silver Spring; suburban neighborhoods like Wheaton, Germantown, and Potomac; and scenic rolling farmland interspersed with historic villages, like Brookeville and Barnesville. An additional 50,000 acres of federal, state, and county parkland provide numerous recreational opportunities for its residents.
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Montgomery County, Maryland consists of roughly 500 square miles on the Northwest border of Washington, D.C. It is best-known today for the affluence and high education levels of its residents. As a long-time resident of Washington, D.C. I am familiar with Montgomery County. I live in D.C. within easly walking distance of Silver Spring and in fact lived in Silver Spring, the community that borders Washington D.C. north of Georgia Avenue, itself for some years.
The books of photographic local history in the Images of America series have frequently helped me to see the familiar with new eyes. Michael Dwyer's book on Montgomery County (2006) brought home to me images of a region that I know in ways I had not known it before. Dwyer is a historian for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. In the early 1970s he conducted a historical survey of resources in Montgomery County and in the adjacent Prince Georges County. He uses many of the photgraphs resulting from this survey in this book. Dwyer's photos deliberately have an aura of the commonplace. In the introduction to this volume he writes "[p]articular emphasis was paid to structures and scenes that were perhaps not the most elegant but rather the ordinary places often overlooked." Dwyer emphasizes the rural background of Montgomery county rather than the busy urban and suburban communities that will be most familiar to people today. I was reading this book the other day on the subway on my way home. I got into a conversation with a fellow-passenger who was reading the book over my shoulder. We had a pleasant conversation about the photos and about the extent to which the county had changed.
Dwyer offers a survey of Montgomery County in 128 pages of photos and annotations. Early in its history Montgomery County was overwhelmingly rural. Tobacco was the chief cash crop, and the county was also dotted with mills. Slavery was common in pre-Civil War Montgomery County. Thus, the county offered substantial sympathy to the Confederacy during the Civil War even though the Blair family of Silver Spring was instrumental to Lincoln's war effort. Dwyer offers many rare photographs of Montgomery County, including photos of old slave quarters, during these early years.
The portions of the book I most enjoyed were those that focused on the urban development of the County. Dwyer offers photos of early Silver Spring, Bethesda, and other communities I know showing streetcar lines, roads, community landmarks and old stores and homes. I was moved by his several photographs of African American housing during the many years in which Montgomery County was heavily segregated and overwhelmingly white. This too, together with its pro-Southern stance, is sometimes easily forgotten in thinking about Montgomery County and its past.
The larger portion of Dwyer's book consists of photographs of farms and rural areas in the upper parts of Montgomery County -- those at a greater distance from Washington, D.C. Agriculture plays a critical and sometimes overlooked role in the county's life even today. Dwyer present photographs of old barns and farm houses, log cabins and shacks. The scenes cover homes from the most prosperous individuals of the day to the impoverished field hands. He shows how housing developed from the simple dwellings of the early days to large, expensive homes as the county grew and prospered. The most impressive photographs are those that document simple and common life. The book includes photographs of churches and schools ranging from the simple to the elaborate. Scenes of logging, milling, quarrying, and commercial activity in addition to farming offer a portrait of early life in the county. Dwyer's own photographs from the 1970s are among the most eloquent in the book. With the continued pace of development in Montgomery County, many of the these places and buildings were demolished a short time after he recorded them with his camera. Dwyer has preserved a valuable legacy.
This book helped me get beyond my own preconceptions of Montgomery County as an upper-middle class enclave of comfort and complacency. Every community has a history and a depth that are open to be discovered if we look at them afresh. I enjoyed getting to know Montgomery County anew in Dwyer's book.
