Agricultural Palimpsest

Uncovering the legacy of farming in the built environment of Gaithersburg,

Maryland

Gaithersburg

Gaithersburg is located in the DC metropolitan area.

Founded in 1802

The City is tightly connected to the Washington, DC metropolitan region. However, it was not developed as a suburb until the second half of the twentieth century. Until then, it was

a very rural, agricultural area.

Predominantly Agricultural

The city’s landscape comprises:

• Farms• Mills

Other institutions:• Rail station• Granary• Cannery

Gaithersburg Train Station

Gaithersburg closely corresponds to Keating’s “agricultural settlements” category.

Summit Hall Barn

As I demonstrate, sometimes the original edifices are no longer standing, or are fundamentally redeveloped, but names revealing the original purposes of the sites nevertheless remain.

Summit Hall Farm

• Originally a tobacco plantation• House constructed between 1807-1812• Exchanged between the Fulks and DeSellum families• When Ignatius Fulks died, it was sold to Frank Wilcot,

who later sold it to the City of Gaithersburg

Walking in the farm, 1937

Summit Hall Farm today

Summit Hall Farm occupies a central location in Gaithersburg; it gives its name to a major road and an

elementary school.

Summit Hall FarmAfter it was bought by the City of Gaithersburg, Summit

Hall was transformed into a large park.

With a water park, too!

Slides in the foreground; barn in the

background

Kentlands FarmThe Kentlands Farm, first called the Wheatlands by former owner

Frederick Tschiffely, was bought by Otis Beall Kent in 1942. Kent turned the 200 acre estate into a nature reserve. It was annexed in 1988 by the City of Gaithersburg and sold to developer Joe Alfandre, who established

a New Urbanist community there called Kentlands.

The Kentlands Mansion, built by Tschiffely’s son in 1901

An aerial view, from the sixties, of Kent’s wildlife sanctuary on the farm

Today, Kentlands houses a neo-traditionalist neighborhood

Crown FarmThis centuries old, 180-acre farm is presently being razed to make room for the development of a New Urbanist community. The project is being

spearheaded by the same developers responsible for the Kentlands neighborhood.

The Crown House, 1894

Demolished in 2010

Casey Community Center• Casey Barn was built in

1938 as a dairy barn.• The 60 cows at the dairy

barn produced 300 gallons of milk daily, which were sold to the Thompson and Chestnut Farms dairies.

• Eugene Casey gave the barn and land to the City of Gaithersburg in 1971 to be used as a community center.

The barnwas alsoused as a platform for political advertising, as seen here.

Casey Community Center today.(My mom was married here.)

Mills

• Clopper Mill (1777)• Watkins Mill (1783)• Muncaster Mill (1820)• Walker’s Mill (1799)• Goshen Mill (1737)

Muncaster Mill 2011 dedication of a plaque marking the site of Goshen Mill

“People identified with their local community and this local community was not centered on the post office or the general store or the school, it was centered on the nearest mill.” – Susan Soderberg

Because Gaithersburg was such an agricultural town, mills are continuously embedded in the City’s topology. Mills figure prominently in Gaithersburg. Even in cases where they no longer physically exist, their legacy remains, as many roads, schools, and neighborhoods in

the City are named after mills.

Clopper Mill

• There has been a mill on site since 1777.• Clopper built this gristmill in 1834. He also built a woolen mill.• The mill was destroyed by a fire in 1947.

Clopper, the miller, was a leading citizen in Gaithersburg in the mid 19th century. He was instrumental in bringing the railroad to

Gaithersburg. (As a result, the railway was built right along his mill.) Both a lake and a heavily trafficked thoroughfare near his mill bear

his name, as well as a school named Clopper Mill Elementary.

Watkins Mill

• There was a water-powered grist mill on site since as early as 1783.

• In the 1800s, the grist and saw mill was run by Levi Snyder and then by Remis Snyder. The road the mill was on was known as Snyder’s Mill Road.

• In 1877, Levi Watkins bought the mill. The road is now known as Watkins Mill Road.

• The mill itself burned down in 1908, and the miller’s house also burned down twelve years later.

This mill was owned by several millers, but Levi Watkins was the last owner. A long road winding from Route 355 up to Germantown is named after the mill. There is also an elementary and high school

named after Watkins Mill—and I attended both!

The mill no longer stands, but a plaque marks its original location.

Railroad StationIn 1873, the B&O Railroad completed the Metropolitan Branch of the network, which connected Gaithersburg to Washington,

DC. The arrival of the rails catalyzed the growth of this agricultural town.

• The station was built in 1884.• The railway integrated Gaithersburg in a broad, regional

transportation network, allowing farmers to transport goods.• Today, the station functions as a community museum. It

also houses three train cars for exhibit.

Bowman Brothers Mill

The old Bowman Gristmill, built in 1919, processed feed and grain. It was located

directly on the railroad.

Today the mill has been redeveloped into the award-winning “Granary Row,” which houses a salon, an auto shop, and a graphic design business among others.

Yet another mill was built in Gaithersburg in 1919—but this time, it was strategically located along the railroad. The

Bowman brothers had success with another mill nearby in Germantown and expanded to Gaithersburg.

“Granary Row is an example of how several of the city's former industrial buildings today give a nod to the past while taking a step toward the future.” — Sean Sedam

Thomas & Company Cannery

• Started operations in Gaithersburg in 1917

• First and largest vegetable cannery in Montgomery County.

• Vegetables were brought here from Buckeystown, Adamstown, Poolesville, Fairfax, and elsewhere.

• Until after WWII, the cannery was the primary employer in Gaithersburg. Employed more than 200 people directly, and hundreds more migrant workers.

• Closed in 1963.

From the back, located on the railroad

Converted into an office building

This cannery enabled this very agricultural area to boom, by giving farmers an opportunity to preserve their produce and ship it

immediately all across the country.

Thomas & Company Cannery

Inside the Cannery today

Gaithersburg todayToday, the City’s focus is largely on redevelopment, as we saw, to some

extent, in the repurposing of Kentlands Farm, the Cannery, and the Bowman Mill. Nevertheless, Gaithersburg’s agricultural heritage evinces

itself, through remnants in the built environment. (I am, after all, a graduate of Watkins Mill High School!)

The area rebranded itself the “technology corridor”—with the arrival of NIST and IBM.

The service sector plays a large role in Gaithersburg’s economy

Cars are the predominant form of transportation