The first McDonald’s in Montgomery County opened on January 6, 1960, marking the arrival of the fast-food chain locally during its earliest years of expansion. The restaurant was located on the 1300 block of Rockville Pike, near where Best Buy stands today. A newer McDonald’s still operates at that same location.
If you grew up in MoCo, Northern Virginia, or the Baltimore area in the 80s or early 90s, the Erol’s logo was likely a fixture in your life. Founded by Erol Onaran, a Turkish immigrant who arrived in the U.S. with just $16 in his pocket, the company did more than rent movies. It helped shape how the DC Metro area accessed technology.
Barbarian Comics (11242 Triangle Ln. Wheaton, MD) has built one of the longest-running and most enduring legacies in Montgomery County, evolving alongside the comic book industry while remaining a constant presence in the Wheaton community for more than five decades (photos below).
For nearly 45 years, Lakeforest Mall was more than a place to shop. It was where Montgomery County families spent weekends, teens found independence, kids had their first jobs, and entire generations built memories that still resonate years after the mall’s final doors closed. Redevelopment plans can be seen here.
As 2025 comes to a close, we wanted to share with you some of our most-read articles of the year. This article was originally published on October 6th, and it went on to become one of our most-read articles of 2025.
Since its closing in 2013, the absence of Roy’s Place has left a hole in the hearts of many current and former Montgomery County residents. According to the now-defunct Roy’s Place website, the restaurant first opened in Rockville in 1955, offering more than 200 sandwiches. After a couple of moves within Rockville, it relocated to 2 E. Diamond Ave. in Olde Towne Gaithersburg in 1971, where it became a local institution.
26 years ago, as the calendar crept toward the year 2000, Montgomery County Public Schools was helping lead community discussions around what many feared could be a widespread technological failure tied to the so-called Y2K problem.
The Village Mall (photos below) once stood at the heart of Montgomery Village, serving as a central gathering place for the community before eventually evolving into the shopping center that is now known as the Montgomery Village Center.
White’s Ferry, a historic Potomac River crossing between Montgomery County, Maryland, and Loudoun County, Virginia, has remained closed since December 28, 2020, due to an unresolved dispute over landing rights on the Virginia side of the river.
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.
Richard Montgomery High School, founded in 1892, continues to embrace its role as Montgomery County’s oldest public high school while looking ahead to its future. The Rockville school shared a published historical overview a couple years back, tracing its evolution from a modest addition to an elementary school into one of the county’s most recognized academic institutions.
Montgomery History, the county’s historical society since 1944, has announced a $1 million gift from publisher and philanthropist Knight Kiplinger to launch its capital campaign for a new Montgomery County History Center in downtown Rockville.