History Archives - The MoCo Show

Published April 14, 2023 at 9:52PM

The African American Heritage Preservation Program provides grants to assist in the preservation of buildings, sites, or communities of historical and cultural importance to the African American experience in Maryland. The competitive program is funded through an appropriation from the Maryland General Assembly and is administered as a partnership between the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture and the Maryland Historical Trust.

Grant awards range from $10,000 to $250,000. Eligible applicants include nonprofit organizations and local government jurisdictions. Business entities and individuals may also apply for program grants when seeking funds for a preservation or development project that serves a high public purpose. There is no match requirement for program applicants.

Gaithersburg

‘When the Stars Came to Gaithersburg: Remembering the Shady Grove Music Fair’ Will Be Focus of Montgomery History Online Presentation on Thursday, April 6

By Patrick Herron

Published March 29, 2023 at 1:50PM

Per Montgomery County: For most of the 1960s and ’70s, Gaithersburg was an entertainment mecca for the greater Washington area. Shady Grove Music Fair—first under a big-top tent and then in a theater-in-the-round venue complete with a revolving stage—hosted Broadway hits and a wide variety of pop, rock and soul singers. That era will be the subject of Montgomery History online presentation at 2 p.m. on Thursday, April 6.

“When the Stars Came to Gaithersburg: Remembering the Shady Grove Music Fair” will be hosted by Ralph Buglass. He is a Montgomery County native and avid history buff who speaks frequently to community groups, businesses and at national conferences.

MoCo Government

Registration Now Open for Montgomery County’s Office of Human Rights Maryland Civil Rights Educational Freedom Experience

By Patrick Herron

Published January 3, 2023 at 4:06PM

The tour will leave Rockville on Friday, March 24, and return on Saturday, April 1. The tour will travel to Greensboro, N.C.; Atlanta; Birmingham, Montgomery and Selma, Ala.; Memphis, Tenn.; Little Rock, Ark., Sumner and Jackson, Miss. It will retrace the steps of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers, the Little Rock Nine and many other civil-rights heroes.

MoCo History

17th Annual Montgomery History Conference to be Held Online in January

By Patrick Herron

Published December 29, 2022 at 1:38PM

Per Montgomery County: Montgomery History will hold its 17th Annual Montgomery County History Conference as an online event Jan. 21, 25 and 28. The conference will offer a myriad of opportunities to participate, including three keynote sessions, 12 breakout sessions and a film screening.

Breakout sessions will cover topics such as restrictive covenants and housing discrimination, Frieda’s Cottage, LGBTQ+ history, the archaeology of the enslaved, suburban growth in the 1980s and the changing face of agriculture. There also will be a session on the Oyster Wars on the Chesapeake Bay.

MoCo History

‘Glen Echo’s Wurlitzer Band Organ—A 50-Year Perspective’ Will Be Focus of Montgomery History Free Online Presentation Starting Monday, Dec. 19

By Patrick Herron

Published December 15, 2022 at 9:17AM

Per Montgomery County: Durward Center, the restorer and caretaker of Glen Echo’s Wurlitzer 165 Band Organ for the last 50 years, will explore the journey of the organ at the historic park in a free online presentation from Montgomery History. The presentation will be available for a one-week period starting Monday, Dec. 19.

Glen Echo Park is an arts and cultural center in Glen Echo. The park’s site was initially developed in 1891 as a National Chautauqua Assembly. Following the foreclosure and sale of the Chautauqua grounds in 1903, leisure facilities were developed there to serve Washington’s growing population. In 1911, the site was expanded to become the privately owned Glen Echo Amusement Park, a popular facility that operated until 1968. The National Park Service now operates the park, which serves the Washington area as a regional cultural resource offering classes, workshops and performances in the visual and performing arts.

MoCo History

Historic African American Community ‘Gibson Grove: Gone But Not Forgotten’ Will Be Featured in Montgomery History Free Online Presentation That Will Be Available Starting Monday, Nov. 21

By Patrick Herron

Published November 16, 2022 at 9:39PM

Per Montgomery County: The historic African American community of Gibson Grove no longer exists in Montgomery County, but its spirit lives on. The Montgomery History free online presentation, “Gibson Grove: Gone But Not Forgotten” will tell the story of the community and its people. The presentation will be available starting Monday, Nov. 21, and can be accessed for one week.

According to a story about Gibson Grove in Maryland Matters in 2021 by Chandler Louden, after the end of the Reconstruction (1865–1877), the rise of segregation led to a large disparity between white and Black communities. Many Black communities did not have adequate infrastructure for things such as schools and cemeteries. To address their needs, they began forming benevolent societies and fraternal organizations funded by member dues. The societies acted as insurance agencies providing payments to families during illness and upon the death of loved ones and provided for burials. The societies were a source of social support and community cohesion.

MoCo History

Germantown Historical Society to Hold Presentation on the Metropolitan Branch of the B & O Railroad

By Patrick Herron

Published November 8, 2022 at 11:47AM | Updated November 9, 2022 at 8:24AM

Many of you have ridden over this viaduct on the train or seen pictures of it, but not many have actually visited the structure from below. That is because there are only two ways to access it – either by a very steep and overgrown path from Waring Station Road at the top, or through the private property of the Izaak Walton League below. For this event the League has granted GHS and our guests access through their property. We may even have a picnic in their pavilion if the weather cooperates.

From the time the Metropolitan Branch of the B & O Railroad began service to Washington D.C. in the spring of 1873 it started to transform the County. Suburban railroad towns started popping up down-county and the farmers up-county began planting peach and apple trees and milking cows. Steam-powered mills and factories were built near the train stations, bringing us into the Industrial Age. City folk came up from the city in the summer to escape the sweltering heat, noise and pollution. So people in the up-county opened their homes as rooming houses or built hotels to accommodate them.

MoCo Government

Montgomery Commission on Remembrance and Reconciliation Will Hold Special Month of Events in November

By Patrick Herron

Published October 19, 2022 at 3:33PM

The schedule of events actually gets started in late October with the Poolesville Community Conversation Circle on Tuesday, Oct. 25, and a celebration of Emancipation Day at Button Farm Living History Center in Germantown on Saturday, Oct. 29. There will be two major events on Saturday, Nov. 5. The Sandy Spring Slave Museum Emancipation Day Open House will have a full day of activities starting at 10 a.m. A Montgomery County: Historical Black Sites and Places Bus tour hosted by the Lincoln Park Historical Foundation, Inc. will begin at noon.

The schedule of events for Remembrance and Reconciliation Month:

MoCo History

‘Preserving Historic Cemeteries’ Will Be Focus of Montgomery History’s Online Presentation Available Sept. 26-Oct. 2

By Patrick Herron

Published September 21, 2022 at 8:51AM

Preserving Historic Cemeteries, including the importance—and excitement—of researching, locating, archiving and preserving these historic places—will be the theme of an online presentation of Montgomery History starting Monday, Sept. 26, and available through Sunday, Oct. 2.

Author Glenn Wallace, coordinator of “Montgomery County Cemetery Inventory Revisited” for Montgomery Preservation, will lead the presentation.

MoCo

Former Local Newspapers, including 77,000 Pages of The Gazette, Now Available

By Patrick Herron

Published September 15, 2022 at 8:43AM | Updated September 15, 2022 at 9:07AM

The Jane C. Sween Research Library and Special Collections is located at the Beall-Dawson Historical Park in Downtown Rockville. Named in honor of its first librarian, Jane C. Sween, the library supports Montgomery History’s mission to collect, preserve, interpret and share the history of the County.

The pages now available at the Sween Research Library include:

MoCo History

Remembering Shakey’s Pizza Parlor

By Patrick Herron

Published August 9, 2022 at 11:02PM | Updated December 11, 2023 at 5:01PM

Known for their pizza, mojo potatoes, and game rooms, Shakey’s Pizza Parlor is fondly remembered by many MoCo residents over the age of 30. The restaurant was popular with both children and adults as parents could drink pitchers of beer while the kids played Pac-Man or watched the chefs prepare pizza through their open kitchen. As the first franchise pizza chain in the United States, the company expanded to as many as 500 stores worldwide at the height of it’s popularity. Shakey’s had multiple locations in Montgomery County in the 70’s and 80’s, including in Gaithersburg on Bureau Dr. and in Rockville on the pike.

The company was founded in 1954 by Sherwood “Shakey” Johnson and Ed Plummer in Sacramento, CA. According to wikipedia, Johnson’s nickname resulted from nerve damage following a bout of malaria during World War II. After multiple ownership changes in the 80’s, most of the U.S. locations were closed by the early 1990’s. Currently you can only find Shakey’s in California (47 locations) and Washington state (2 locations). Who’s up for a road trip to the West Coast?