Aug 8, 2023 | History Features
Why are documents relating to the Prisoners’ Relief Society in Washington Grove’s WWII archives? At first, one might think that this Society relates to the foreign prisoners of war held here in the Gaithersburg area during WWII. However, the prisoners...
Jul 1, 2023 | History Features
(based on Robinson & Associates’ 2019 Historic Context Report, Town of Washington Grove (PDF)) The Chautauqua Movement developed in the last quarter of the nineteenth century to provide programming and courses for cultural uplift and recreation. Those who...
Dec 3, 2022 | History Features
The founders of Washington Grove intended from the start that it would also operate as a summer resort. A promotional pamphlet from July 1873 read, “After the land has been plotted, it is the intention of the Trustees to issue renewable leases to sites suitable for...
Nov 4, 2022 | History Features
The Washington Grove campground was located southwest of Emory Grove, a Methodist camp meeting established by African Americans. Although the exact date of the first Emory Grove camp meeting is unknown, it is believed to have begun informally in the 1860s by area...
Jun 20, 2022 | History Features
The Metropolitan Branch of the B&O Railroad, which commenced passenger and freight operations on May 25, 1873, stretched at its completion from the northwest corner of Washington, D.C., to the mouth of the Monocacy River and revolutionized transportation and trade...
Mar 4, 2022 | History Features
Washington Grove’s initiative to seek incorporation followed national trends. Starting in the early twentieth century, many camp meeting associations across the country began to transition into independent municipalities or transferred their assets to other local...
Feb 6, 2022 | History Features
At the height of the camp meeting era, the Metropolitan Branch of the B&O Railroad served Washington Grove with as many as 20 excursion trains a day. (One Sunday in the summer of 1882 saw camp meeting attendance swell to some 12,000 people.) So, how were the...
Dec 2, 2021 | History Features
Robinson & Associates, Inc.’s research for Washington Grove’s 2020 Updated and Expanded Historic District Nomination to the National Register included the preparation of Viewshed Documentation (PDF) that identified and recorded historic properties and landscapes...
Nov 4, 2021 | History Features
The period of significance for the Washington Grove Historic District spans the years 1873 to 1969. It begins with the establishment of the Washington Grove Camp Meeting and ends in 1969 (50 years before the updated and expanded 2020 form nominating Washington Grove...
Sep 2, 2021 | History Features
The Historic Context Report researched by Robinson & Associates, Inc., in conjunction with their work in preparation of the Town’s National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, provides perspective on the significant regional and national events and...
Aug 11, 2021 | History Features
The research of Robinson & Associates, Inc., in preparation of Washington Grove’s Updated and Expanded Historic District Nomination to the National Register is gratefully acknowledged. It is the basis of the following. Washington Grove’s initiative to seek...
Jun 23, 2021 | History Features
This month, we share the brief history of indigenous people of Washington Grove environs that Town resident Ann Philips has researched and compiled with information contributed by Sarah Hedlund, Montgomery County Librarian/Archivist, and Heather Bouslog, Montgomery...
Apr 3, 2021 | History Features
Virtual Social Distancing – Archival Style During these past months of social distancing due to the 2020 pandemic, my companions in the Town Archives were men and women who lived here in the Grove over a hundred years ago. After hours – and days – of reading their...
Feb 1, 2021 | History Features
The Commercial Corner in the 60s and 70s The research of Robinson & Associates in preparation of the Updated and Expanded Washington Grove Historic District Nomination forms the basis of this month’s overview of our Commercial Corner’s more recent past. It is...
Jan 10, 2021 | History Features
We acknowledge with appreciation Robinson & Associates’ research in preparation of the Updated and Expanded Washington Grove Historic District Nomination; it forms the basis of this month’s look back at the early days of our Commercial Corner. As Washington Grove...
Dec 5, 2020 | History Features
Once again, we acknowledge with appreciation the research of Robinson & Associates in preparation of the Updated and Expanded Washington Grove Historic District Nomination. Their research forms the basis of this month’s overview of shelter at camp meetings. The...
Nov 1, 2020 | History Features
We appreciate the research of Robinson & Associates in preparation of the Updated and Expanded Washington Grove Historic District Nomination; it forms the basis of this month’s overview of the choice of camp meeting locations and their physical arrangements. While...
Oct 4, 2020 | History Features
While no standardized definition exists, a camp meeting is an outdoor preaching event at which participants sustain themselves and camp overnight, often in tents. Camp meetings are temporary gatherings, typically lasting a few days to a week at the end of the summer....
Sep 11, 2020 | History Features
Last month, we looked at the role of the Auditorium in the Chautauqua Movement and the significance of the Auditorium in the early development of Washington Grove. Again, we express our appreciation for the work of Robinson & Associates in preparation of the...
Aug 6, 2020 | History Features
In June, we looked at the Chautauqua Movement and its manifestation in Washington Grove. Again, we express our appreciation for the research of Robinson & Associates in preparation of the Updated and Expanded Washington Grove Historic District Nomination. Excerpts...
May 31, 2020 | History Features
We are grateful for the research of Robinson & Associates in preparation of the Updated and Expanded Washington Grove Historic District nomination. Excerpts from their work, which follow, focus on the Chautauqua Movement and its manifestation in Washington Grove....
Apr 24, 2020 | History Features
(as researched and compiled by Wendy E. Harris, Volunteer Associate Archivist and HPC Commissioner) Tennis has been an important part of the life, culture, and landscape of Washington Grove since the camp meeting days. Philip Edwards (Washington Grove, 1873-1937) and...
Jan 7, 2020 | History Features
A second camp meeting was served by the B&O Railroad when it stopped at the Washington Grove station… Did you know that Johnson’s Park at Emory Grove, alongside Washington Grove Lane, was the site of a camp meeting? The community of Emory Grove, unplatted and...
Nov 3, 2019 | History Features
Presented below are a few highlights about the history of lighting in Washington Grove, based on Gail Littlefield’s research as we prepared for the Town’s updated nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. Gail’s research relied heavy on Philip K....
Oct 2, 2019 | History Features
By Archival Staff & HPC Commissioner Mimi Styles It was customary in Washington Grove’s earlier days as a camp meeting association with a Board of Trustees, that the president of the Washington Grove Association* would give an annual report to the stockholders. In...
Jun 30, 2018 | History Features
By Patricia Patula, Town Archivist When one looks through old books, perhaps having a slight tinge of mustiness, there is always the anticipation of a “find.” In May of 2018, the Town’s archival researchers were not disappointed. The “find” – a heavy, thick tome with...
Dec 2, 2017 | History Features
By Wendy E. Harris, Volunteer Associate Archivist In our last two articles, we used concepts borrowed from the world of historic preservation to discuss whether Washington Grove’s woods could be considered historic. Once again we return to the world of historic...
Oct 9, 2017 | History Features
By Patricia Patula, Town Archivist The Evening Star correspondent, who signed his article with his initials J. R. M., began his Aug. 8, 1892, newspaper report with a split, and unusually long title: “Everything’s Ready for the Camp Meeting – Directory of the Grove.”...
Sep 2, 2017 | History Features
By Gail Littlefield, HPC member Watch a video of the WG Sign Restoration Project Hey, what’s the big deal about our street signs? Did you know our brown wood street signs with white letters, on wood posts, found at intersections throughout the Town, are a rare and...
Aug 3, 2017 | History Features
By Patricia Patula, Town Archivist In part one of this article, we ended with the Washington Post correspondent’s brief history of camp meetings and with his personal conclusion, that over time, camp meetings had become more of a “religious luxury rather than a...
Jul 4, 2017 | History Features
By Patricia Patula, Town Archivist “Washington Grove, Montgomery County, Md. August 11 [1881] –To-day the ninth annual camp of the Washington Grove Camp Meeting Association of the District of Columbia and the State of Maryland, began.” The Washington Post...
Jun 4, 2017 | History Features
By Wendy E. Harris, Volunteer Associate Archivist In our last two articles, we used concepts borrowed from the world of historic preservation to discuss whether Washington Grove’s woods could be considered historic. Once again we return to the world of historic...
May 1, 2017 | History Features
By Wendy E. Harris, Volunteer Associate Archivist Recently there has been much discussion as to whether various non-architectural features such as our community’s woods and walkways are truly “historic.” Whether or not this is the case, the woods of Washington Grove,...
Apr 4, 2017 | History Features
By Wendy E. Harris, Volunteer Associate Archivist During the past two months there has been much discussion as to whether various non-architectural features such as our community’s woods and walkways are truly “historic.” Whether or not this is the case, the woods of...
Mar 3, 2017 | History Features
By Patricia Patula, Town Archivist The full title of this newspaper article of June 2, 1903, is Washington Grove Meeting, Many Improvements Have Been Made by the Association. Acknowledgement of the author is listed only as “Special to the Washington Post.” To one...
Feb 1, 2017 | History Features
By Wendy E. Harris, Volunteer Associate Archivist In our previous installment, we left Amelia during the spring of 1913. That April, fundraising efforts were underway to construct the “Amelia E. Huntley Hall” on the campus of a Methodist boarding school for girls in...
Jan 7, 2017 | History Features
By Patricia Patula, Town Archivist Washington Grove Camp is given as the location for this day devoted to the Cause of Temperance by the Special Correspondent of The Post who wrote this piece. He sets the mood by observing that few people were there from the county,...
Dec 6, 2016 | History Features
By Patricia Patula, Town Archivist We pick up again the lengthy article in The Post titled “Many People Attracted There—A Picture of Rural Loveliness” which described the events at the Grove camp meeting on August 17, 1886. At 2 p.m. the children’s service was...
Nov 2, 2016 | History Features
By Patricia Patula, Town Archivist Some of the newspaper writers at the end of the 19th century were romantic poets at heart. A social news article about Washington Grove, which appeared in The Post on August 17, 1886, was titled: “Many People Attracted There–A...
Oct 12, 2016 | History Features
By Wendy E. Harris, Volunteer Associate Archivist This past August, the Town Bulletin published Part 1 of an account of the life of Amelia Elmore Huntley, who in 1913 became the first woman in Washington Grove’s history to be elected to the Board of Trustees. Her...
Sep 2, 2016 | History Features
By Patricia Patula, Town Archivist According to the July 3, 1880 issue of The Washington Post, the camp-meeting of the Methodist churches was set for August 12, 1880, but by July 3 most of the cottages were already occupied. The author of The Post article speculates...
Aug 1, 2016 | History Features
By Wendy E. Harris, Volunteer Associate Archivist The headline to a story appearing in the June 8, 1913 edition of The Washington Post read: “Washington Grove Elects” and beneath it “Three Progressives Are Given Places on the Colony’s Board of Trustees.” Among them...
Jul 4, 2016 | History Features
By Patricia Patula, Town Archivist The Washington Post issue of August 6, 1879 announced the opening of the annual Methodist Camp Meeting to begin the next day “at Washington Grove, on the Metropolitan branch of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, a few miles above...
Jun 4, 2016 | History Features
by Wendy E. Harris, Volunteer Associate Archivist Introducing a series describing Washington Grove’s earliest days Town Archivist Pat Patula and I have recently begun to use an exciting new source of information for researching the early history of Washington Grove....
May 1, 2016 | History Features
By Patricia Patula, Town Archivist Note to reader. The original minutes of this portion of the Town Council’s meeting are a fun read. Special effort was made by the writer to retain as much of the original order of the text as possible. If you feel a little confused,...
Feb 12, 2016 | History Features
In working with archival material and the rapid updating of computers to save that material, one comes across terms that can be challenging, confusing, surprising and even amusing. How about these for starters? Antiquarianism, n. – An interest in things that are...
Nov 5, 2015 | History Features
Kids may have been more “lawless” in those golden, bygone days, but they probably had more fun at Halloween. Evidence for this of was recorded in minutes of the Oct. 14, 1946 WG council meeting headed by Irving L. McCathran. The following was edited slightly to...
Apr 1, 2015 | History Features
By Wendy E. Harris; Volunteer Archivist The National Register of Historic Places came into being in 1966 with the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act. By the end of the decade, 1200 properties had been found “worthy of preservation” and listed on the...
Feb 1, 2015 | History Features
By Wendy E. Harris, HPC Volunteer Archivist As noted in the Congressional Record (Volume 126, No. 84), Washington Grove, in its entirety, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 17, 1980. By this action of the federal government, the Town now...
May 1, 2014 | History Features
by Patricia Patula, Town Archivist The agenda for the Town Council meeting of October 15, 1964, is an interesting combination of formal, politically correct titles of topics, such as Minutes, Treasurer’s Report, Old Business, etc., with an informal, chatty style...
