Gaithersburg's growth and prosperity can be attributed to the coming of the railroad. These photos show a view from the tracks, looking towards Germantown. Archived Comments
Built in 1926 on the grounds of the "Rolling Acres" dairy farm, Asbury Methodist Village was originally a "Methodist Home for the Aged". The community rapidly grew to a sophisticated yet caring place where seniors of all denominations could enjoy a productive and healthy retirement. Archived Comments
The Meem family sits in front of Martha Meem's house in this early photograph. Martha Meem clearly intended her property to be developed as a prestigious neighborhood with grand houses. In 1879, she built this French Second Empire-inspired house at 104 Chestnut Street. Archived Comments
The brick fire station for the Gaithersburg-Washington Grove Fire Department was built at 13 East Diamond in 1930 to replace a two-stall metal building constructed nearby in 1895. The building included a six-lane bowling alley that was used to raise operating funds for the department. The station closed in 1977, when a new station on Montgomery Village Avenue was built. Today, the old fire station is the Gaithersburg Fire Museum. Archived Comments
Clopper Road is one of the oldest roads in Montgomery County and was originally a Native American trail. For the most part, the road still follows the original trail, except for a small section between the bridge over Seneca Creek and the entrance to the State Park. Before 1951, travelers crossed over a small stone bridge and winded through a gravel Clopper Road, which led up towards the present-day Visitor Center parking lot, and back out to the modern route, directly across the street from Game Preserve Road. Shown here is the old section of Clopper Road in 1945, which is today part of the Great Seneca Trail in Seneca Creek State Park.
In John Denver's famous song "Take Me Home, Country Roads", the country road was Clopper Road. Songwriters Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert wrote most of the tune while driving on Clopper Road near Gaithersburg, on their way to a family reunion. They completed the song, with the help of John Denver, in December 1970. Archived Comments
On the left is a picture of the old Clopper house, The Woodlands, which was built in 1812. It burned down in the 1960s. The visitor's center at Seneca Creek State Park now sits next to where this house used to be. The Woodlands, a short self-guided trail located at the visitor's center, interprets the life and the estate of the Clopper Family. Archived Comments
Francis Cassatt Clopper bought this mill and 541 acres in 1810, but the earliest mention of a mill on this site dates back to 1777. Clopper's mill was a square, three-story grist mill, with basement and first floor levels made of local fieldstone and a third story of brick. The mill was destroyed by a fire in 1947. Archived Comments
