MoCo History

A Piece of MoCo Housing History #2: Lyttonsville

By MCS Staff

A Piece of MoCo Housing History #2: Lyttonsville

Lyttonsville is a historically Black community that’s situated between current day Bethesda and Silver Spring. It was founded by Samuel Lytton, a free Black laborer working for the Blair family, in 1853. Lyttonsville is one of numerous historically Black communities in Montgomery County. Today, the community has a 17.1 acre park and an elementary school. With the completion of the Purple Line, there will also be two transit stations and a new Ride-On Bus depot.

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A Piece of MoCo Housing History

By MCS Staff

This map of residential sub-areas in the DC metro region was produced by the Federal Housing Administration in 1937. The map categorizes neighborhoods into grades that represent how worthy they were for investment and insured mortgage lending. The grading system was directly influenced by race and class.

Montgomery County is visible on this map. The higher graded regions (which are shaded darker) include Bethesda, Chevy Chase, and a portion of Silver Spring. Neighborhoods that had higher concentrations of African Americans were assigned the lowest grades (shaded lighter).

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Brief History of Anchor Inn (Wheaton)

By MCS Staff

The Anchor Inn was one of the most popular restaurants in MoCo for 50 years. Established in 1954 in the heart of Wheaton, The Anchor Inn was one of the first places in Montgomery County to apply for and receive their liquor license in 1964.

“Anchor Inn was part of traditions for many others in the community, said Scaggs, such as the Colesville Lions Club, Wheaton-Kensington Chamber of Commerce, Good Counsel High School and the Wheaton Volunteer Rescue Squad. The fund-raisers, high school events and community fellowship were a part of the family’s service to the area apart from serving quality food.”

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East Gude? West Gude? Gilbert Gude.

By MCS Staff

If you’re from MoCo, you’re likely familiar with East and West Gude Drive (pronounced Goo-Dee), but you may not be as familiar with the family the road is named for.

The Gude family business was A. Gude Sons Co. Nursery. It was located where Gude Drive and Crabbs Branch Way are today. Gude Drive cuts through where the family farm was located.

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Remembering Hechinger

By MCS Staff

Sidney Hechinger opened his first hardware store in Washington D.C. in 1919. In 1953, the company had grown to five stores. Sidney brought in his son, John Hechinger, and his son-in-law, Richard England, as partners. By the early 70s, the company had doubled in size to ten stores. Hechinger and England took the company public in 1972.

John Hechinger Jr. became was named president of the company in 1986. He was the third generation of Hechingers to run the show and reincorporated the company in Delaware the next year. At the time, the company was up to just over 50 stores. By 1995, there were 131 stores in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. That’s when the competition from Home Depot and Lowe’s forced Hechinger to close almost twenty stores, while reformatting a few others. It was the first major decrease in stores the company had ever seen.

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Remembering The Corner Kick

By MCS Staff

Though it remained open until 2002,The Corner Kick was the premier sporting facility in MoCo from 1984-2000 (2000 is when the Maryland SoccerPlex opened in germantown and the Rockville SportsPlex opened in Rockville). The Corner Kick hosted indoor soccer, field hockey, lacrosse, and volleyball leagues as well as some of the best kid’s birthday parties many in our area have ever been a part of.

One of the biggest attractions for The Corner Kick was the restaurant/pub that overlooked the fields. A gazette article from 2002 quotes co-owner Derek Oldham as saying the pub accounted for almost 50% of the facility’s business. The article also mentions an adult volleyball league known as “Bump, Set, Drink” that consisted of over 200 players that often stayed at the facility until 2am playing and drinking…sometimes simultaneously.

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Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Founder of the Special Olympics

By MCS Staff
Photo courtesy of JFK Library

Eunice Kennedy Shriver was born in Massachusettes in 1921. She is the founder of the Special Olympics, younger sister of President John F. Kennedy, and older sister of Senators Robert F. and Ted Kennedy. She married Sagent Shriver in 1953. Sargent Shriver played an important role in the creation of the Peace Corps and is also the founder of the Head Start program and Job Corps before becoming the Democratic Party’s nominee for Vice President in 1972.

In 1962, Eunice Shriver created a camp at her Potomac home for children with intellectual disabilities. She was inspired by her sister, Rosemary Kennedy, who was born with intellectual disabilities. Rosemary eventually underwent a frontal lobotomy that caused brain damage, leaving her permanently incapacitated. At first, Camp Shriver was a day camp. The camp allowed children with intellectual disabilities to participate in athletic events. This led to Shriver promoting the concept of involvement in physical activity and other opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities as Camp Shriver evolved into the Special Olympics in 1968.

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Diversity On The Rise In MoCo

By MCS Staff

Since 1990, the amount of residents identified as Asian/Pacific Isl. has nearly doubled. Black or African American residents have seen an almost 6% increase in population. The Hispanic population has nearly tripled, and the Non-Hispanic/White population has seen a decrease of approximately 28%. “Other Race” has seen an increase of almost 4%.

The 1990 MoCo numbers are very similar to the 2016 numbers for Frederick County, which are:

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