In 1947 Bill Norman opened Gaithersburg Lumber and Supply Company along route 355. Over the years this site, as well as the business, grew tremendously. In 1985 this entire site was demolished to make way for the Frederick Avenue bridge over the railroad tracks. Gaithersburg Lumber moved to the other side of 355, just a few hundred yards away, and changed their name to Barron's Lumber. The building with the red roof in the background was the ice house. Archived Comments
The Gaithersburg Ice House was located at 107 East Diamond Avenue. The building is now a Mexican restaurant and a check-cashing business. Archived Comments
Roseanne Gardens Apartments on West Deer Park have recently been demolished to make way for construction of luxury apartments, townhouses and a parking garage.
During the mid-1950s developer and builder Sam Eig built the 300-acre Washingtonian Center in, what was then, an isolated outpost along interstate 270. A few years later Eig built the 18-hole Washingtonian Country Club and the 26-story Washingtonian Towers Apartments, the nation's first luxury apartment building to be constructed at the center of a golf course. The surrounding area remained largely rural well into the 1980s. Archived Comments
The Gaither Theater, once named the Lyric Theater, was built by Paul and Hobart Ramsdell on Frederick Avenue, between Diamond and Brookes Avenues. It was the only theatre in town for a long time. The building burned down in the mid 1990s and by then, was being used to sell ready-made kitchen cabinets. The old photo was taken in 1959. Archived Comments
