Montgomery County Maryland, Washington DC’s Northwest neighbor, is one of America’s most ideal residential areas. The moderate climate, lovely suburban neighborhoods, access to both cultural and outdoor activities, and the economic stability of the government-fueled capital area economy, make Montgomery County exceptionally attractive to home buyers. The following is a Brief History of Residential Life in Montgomery County, Maryland. I had fun putting this together, and learned a lot in the process, so I hope you’ll find it interesting.
History of Life in Montgomery County, Maryland
Before it was settled by non-natives, Montgomery County was primarily forested, and richly populated with buffalo, deer, wild turkeys, duck, bear, wolves, and scores of other wildlife. From about 12,000 B.C., nomadic Native Americans, the Susquahannocks and Senecas primarily, moved through the area, with the seasons, to hunt and fish. The large river, running to the Chesapeake Bay was known as “Potomac,” an Algonquin word meaning “trading place.”
English settlers began to move into what would become Montgomery County, from the Eastern shore. In 1624 Henry Fleet, among the first Englishmen to describe the area, called it “…the most pleasant place in all the country.” Soon thereafter, George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, was given the land by King Charles I, that he would name “Maryland,” and he and his sons began encouraging development and business.
In the year of America’s independence, and Maryland’s declared statehood, 1776, Montgomery County Maryland, divided from Frederick County, was named for Irish-born General Richard Montgomery, the first American general to die fighting for independence in the revolutionary war. Montgomery County’s valuable port was Georgetown, which dealt mostly with tobacco, the area’s original cash crop, and Charles Hungerford’s Tavern served as the county’s first courthouse, at the intersection of the roads from Georgetown to Frederick, and Bladensburg to Mouth of the Monocacy.
Soon after Maryland’s new government was formed, however, George Washington chose a national capital, and took part of Montgomery County, including the port of Georgetown, for the capital district, along with parts of Prince George’s County Maryland, and parts of the Commonwealth of Virginia. (The portion taken from Virginia was later returned to the Commonwealth.) Transportation at that time was primarily stagecoach and horseback. President Washington set out to improve access to and from the area, which was poor and slow, and set up the Patowmack Company, to open the river route for navigation through Montgomery County and beyond, and he began a canal, completing six locks by 1802, beyond Great Falls.
The Washington Turnpike Company was formed in 1805, to improve the important Georgetown-Frederick thoroughfare, which was renamed Rockville Pike, and they collected tolls to finance the improvements. Although the Patowmack Company had declared bankruptcy, due to excessive cost for maintaining the canal, in 1832 President John Quincy Adams restarted the canal project, with the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company. By 1833 the C&O Canal was completed from Georgetown, through Montgomery County.
Things began moving, and life improved significantly, thanks to the canal. Montgomery County farmers were able to get their tobacco, wheat, corn and other crops to market, red Seneca sandstone was brought in to build structures such as the Smithsonian Institution, on the capital mall, and homes, schools and businesses spouted up all along these important business routes.
Unfortunately, Civil War brought an ugly stop to peace and prosperity in Montgomery County. The area was soon occupied by both Union troops, defending the capital, and Confederate troops, making advances on it. Tent cities sprung up everywhere. Families were torn apart over allegiances, and homes and businesses were plundered by both sides. Accounts were that the Potomac River ran red with bodies and blood. It would take some time, and a remarkable transportation advancement born of the industrial revolution, for the area to recover.
In 1873 the Metropolitan Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad began service through Montgomery County, and gave the area the steam it needed to begin to grow again. Farmers and crafts people were able to get products to market much more quickly, and communication increased significantly as well. Land speculation was hot along the route, and trolley lines were built to link the B&O with other areas of the county.
During the 1920s Montgomery County grew by even greater leaps, as electricity and gas-powered vehicles made it possible for the housing industry to thrive. The county was steered at this time by a great visionary named E. Brook Lee, who insisted Montgomery be planned as a residential area, rather than industrial. He saw to the creation of the some of the best schools, and the best professional police and fire departments, in the country. In 1927 Lee organized the Maryland - National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NC PP), and the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission. He and his professional planners organized sensible, elegant, clean communities, with large homes, on sizable plots of land, with community parks, and they carefully regulated growth.
Once again the nation suffered a setback though, as the 1930s approached, and the economy tanked. The banks that had been so eager to lend money for development, began to foreclose on properties. Montgomery County was hurt badly by the depression, as family farms and homes were auctioned off on the red brick steps of the Rockville courthouse, to satisfy debts.
But as the nation pulled out of the depression, so did Montgomery County, and at an accelerated rate, in large part because many of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “New Deal” programs were run out of the capital locally, bringing new jobs and money into the area. Many of the administration’s new leaders, who had money, established their homes in Chevy Chase, and in Bethesda, where the new Naval Medical Center, designed by FDR himself, was to be built. By the end of World War II, the lower third of the county was largely filled with residential development. The American dream of homeownership, and a car in every garage, was becoming a reality.
In 1957, the M-NC PP adopted a comprehensive plan for Montgomery County’s future development. This plan would prove to be quite successful in enabling the county to maintain thriving population centers, along-side beautiful open spaces. The Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce formed in 1959 to encourage good business in the area.
When the Atomic Energy Commission built a very large campus-like facility in the area of the Village of Germantown, I-270 was built to connect it to the capital.
Though a capital beltway had been in the planning stages since 1950, known as the “Circumferential Highway,” the first section of I-495, was opened in December 1961, and the Capital Beltway inner loop was completed in 1964. This 64-mile-long Interstate freeway that encircles Washington DC, became the loop that would define, for most people, the greater capital area (District of Columbia, Montgomery and Prince Georges Counties in Maryland, and Fairfax and Arlington Counties in Virginia). The Beltway would add an outer loop, more lanes, and new and expanded interchanges over the years to come, as it became necessary to handle enormous amounts of added traffic.
Washington’s Metro subway rail system was also extended twelve miles into Montgomery County, with the original lines completed in 1984, to address commuter needs and traffic. Metro’s Red Line extends as far as Shady Grove in the Western part of the county, and Glenmont/Wheaton in the eastern part.
The County planned for preservation of architecturally important and historical buildings, as well as preservation of open space. Nearly 100,000 acres between the Potomac, Monocacy, and Patuxent rivers were preserved by the county, in the master plan, as a “green wedge” for agriculture and park space, with 25 acre zoning.
In Bethesda, planners carefully stipulated the number and varieties of median trees and plantings, street light, trash receptacles, and other items. They granted higher density to developers who incorporated art into their designs. They also carefully preserved the Capital Crescent Trail, which meanders through the area and remains a valuable community asset for recreation. Other communities have had success following Bethesda’s lead in their own careful planning.
All the while, through the 80’s and 90’s, construction continued at a healthy pace, and relatively steadily property values in Montgomery County continued to increase.
In approximately 1999 here in the Washington DC area began what David Lereah, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, has called “The Great Real Estate Boom of the 21st Century,” in the US. Baby Boomers, with money they’d earned during the recent great economic times, and Generation Xers, buying their first homes, taking advantage of record low lending rates, created unprecedented housing demand. Real estate also became the nation’s hottest investment vehicle, after the bursting of the dot-com bubble caused securities investors to look elsewhere, for big returns. Land values increased in the most sought-after areas of Montgomery County, new construction reached astounding record levels, and renovations kept construction companies so busy they were able to double their rates, and still had to turn down work. Home buyers began tearing down smaller houses in areas like Chevy Chase and Bethesda, and rebuilding mansion-sized estates on ¼ acre or smaller lots, and also looking upcounty and beyond for more space to build their dream homes. All types of homes, in all areas of the county, benefited from the increase in demand. By the start of 2005 many homes had appreciated as much as 100% or more, from their values at the turn of the millennium.
The effects of the boom exist still at the time of this writing, but it appears that it is well past its peak. Though there is no reason to believe property values won’t hold steady (because the economy is still strong, and demand still exists), there is now much more inventory, and fairly-priced homes are not attracting multiple offers the first day they are listed, like they were just a few months ago, for the most part. Whether appreciation rates slow down, from the double digits annually, to single digits, or not, as many predict, what is clear is that Montgomery County will continue to be a great place to live, and a solid investment. (See Lisa’s latest Market Report, for the latest market conditions.)
- NUMBER1EXPERT™ 
