Author: Susan Soderberg

The Lincoln Assassination Connection, by Susan Soderberg of the Germantown Historical Society 

If you’ve seen the movie The Conspirator you know that George Andrew Atzerodt (alias Andrew Atwood), was one of the Lincoln assassination conspirators executed on July 7, 1865. Atzerodt was arrested in Germantown, the town where he had spent many years as a boy. How he got involved with the Booth gang and why he ended up back in Germantown is a compelling story.

Originally published in 2021. Courtesy Susan Soderberg of The Germantown Historical Society. 

It was a sad day in September 1990 when the last of the artist residents said goodbye to their commune home on Frederick Road in Germantown. They left behind their gardens, their lap swimming pool, their treehouse with the triple-chair zipline, their annual masquerade balls; and they took with them their art, their music and their joie de vivre. But the house, the magnificent 125 year-old house with its wrap-around porch and huge fireplace, was not to be torn down– it would be reborn in another location.

Originally published in 2021. Courtesy Susan Soderberg of The Germantown Historical Society.  (more…)

According to his obituary in 1911, John Hanson Gassaway was one of the most prominent men in Montgomery County — county commissioner, school commissioner, trustee of the Andrew Small Academy, […]

Clopper Road is named for Clopper Mill, but the history of the mill dates back long before Frances C. Clopper owned it, and the mill is connected with the first government sponsored road in the county, an inheritance suit, and the Lincoln assassination.

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Courtesy Susan Soderberg, President of the Germantown Historical Society.

The peace of the little village of Germantown was broken by the sound of gunshots on January 20, 1932. Robbers had entered Horace Waters’ store at around 7 p.m. They shot and killed Mr. Waters, a prominent citizen of Montgomery County, and wounded his clerk. (more…)

It was just before the election in 1920 and several men were gathered informally at the Waters General Store in Germantown discussing the pros and cons of the various candidates. When it came up that a local citizen, John Bolton, was refusing to vote, one of the men, Guy Vernon Thompson, volunteered to try to persuade him to do his civic duty.

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Burned down in the 1970s, Germantown Train Station was rebuilt to its 19th century splendor, the vision of a famous Baltimore architect.

Today, Germantown Train Station is used as a waiting room for commuters and has a coffee shop, Alafia Crossing, operated by Bota King. More than 800 passengers board the trains that leave the MARC (Maryland Area Regional Commuter) train in Germantown every weekday morning, a stop along the Brunswick Line that travels from West Virginia to Washington, DC.CSX Transportation owns this line of rail. But the tracks used to be part of a Baltimore & Ohio network dating back to the 19^th century.

The peace of the little village of Germantown was broken by the sound of gunshots on January 20, 1932. Robbers had entered Horace Waters’ store at around 7 p.m. They shot and killed Mr. Waters, a prominent citizen of Montgomery County, and wounded his clerk

Horace Waters was known to carry a large amount of cash, and often loaned money to local people in need, both white and black. He operated a general store in Germantown at the corner of Germantown Road and Clopper Road for more than 50 years. A grandson of one of the first settlers of the area, William Waters, Horace was a director of the Farmer’s Banking and Trust Company of Rockville and well respected in the community.