Appendix : Historic Preservation Program

Objective
The intent of the County’s preservation program is to provide a rational system for evaluating, protecting, and
enhancing the County’s historic and architectural heritage for the benefit of present and future generations. Historic
sites and districts are essential elements of community identity and the unique character of the County and its
communities.

The Master Plan for Historic Preservation and the Historic Preservation Ordinance, Chapter A of the Montgomery
County Code, are designed to protect and preserve Montgomery County’s historic and architectural heritage.
Placement on the Master Plan officially designates a property as a historic site or historic district and subjects it to the
procedural requirements of the Ordinance.

Any substantial changes to the exterior of a resource or its environmental setting must be reviewed by the Historic
Preservation Commission (HPC) and a historic area work permit issued under the provisions of the Ordinance, Section
A-. In accordance with the Master Plan for Historic Preservation and unless otherwise specified in the amendment,
the environmental setting for each site, as defined in Section A- of the Ordinance, is the entire parcel on which the
resource is located as of the date it is designated on the Master Plan.
Historic Sites in Gaithersburg West

The Gaithersburg West Master Plan

includes historic sites that were
designated in the 
Gaithersburg
Vicinity Master Plan (Belward Farm,
St. Rose of Lima) and the  
Germantown Master Plan (Clopper
Mill Ruins). Immediately bordering
the area are Maple Spring Barns and
Pleasant View Church, designated
in the  Potomac Subregion
Plan. One resource is identified on
the Locational Atlas and Index of
Historic Sites: the Humpback Bridge
across the CSX tracks at East Deer
Park Drive.

Area resources included in the

National Register of Historic
Places, described at the end of this
section, are located in the City of
Gaithersburg (Railroad Station, Belt
Building, Thomas Company Cannery,
and Observatory) and the Town of
Washington Grove (Historic District).
Gaithersburg and Washington Grove have their own preservation programs and resources within these municipal
boundaries, including locally designated historic sites, and are not subject to the County Preservation Ordinance.

The following historic sites in the Gaithersburg West Master Plan area are subject to the Preservation Ordinance,
Chapter A of the County Code. The status indicates whether a property is designated on the Master Plan for Historic
Preservation (Master Plan) or identified on the Locational Atlas and Index of Historic Sites (Atlas). The England-Crown
Farm, described in the text that follows, was designated as a historic site in the 
Gaithersburg Vicinity Master Plan
but was subsequently annexed by the City of Gaithersburg and is no longer subject to the Preservation Ordinance.


 Historic Name Date Location Status Resource Number
Clopper Mill Ruins c;  Clopper Rd at Waring Master Plan /

Station Rd
Belward Farm   Key West Ave Master Plan
/

(
 Darnestown
Road)
St. Rose of Lima   Clopper Rd Master Plan
/

Humpback Bridge   East Deer Park Drive at Atlas
/


CSX Tracks

/
 Clopper Mill Ruins (c 
;  ), Clopper Road at Waring Station Road

The Clopper Mill Ruins are significant as one of the few remaining distinguishable mills in the County, representing an
industry once essential to economic development. The popularity of the mill led to a road network connecting it with
farms and markets in the region. Nicholas Sibert built the original mill on this site in the  s. About  
, Zachariah
MacCubbin rebuilt the mill, constructing a two-level stone structure. Clopper renovated and expanded the mill in
 , adding a third story of bricks made at a manufactory on this estate. A stone in the mill’s gable read “FCC  .”
An undershot water wheel used water from the Great Seneca Creek to turn the millstone. Business at the mill declined
after the steam-powered Bowman Brothers Mill opened in  in Germantown. Clopper’s Mill was heavily damaged
by fire in  . The ruins consist of stone and brick walls with no roof. Local fieldstone on the basement and first floor
levels has corner quoins and heavy stone lintels.

The mill is located within Seneca Creek State Park. This plan supports stabilization of the mill ruins and historical
interpretation of this site, such as a plaque or historic marker.

The Clopper Mill Ruins are remnants of the extensive property of Francis C. Clopper, influential businessman in
Montgomery County in the mid- s. Clopper’s mansion,
known as Woodlands, was located near the visitors center
at Seneca Creek State Park. A prosperous owner of a woolen
factory and mills, Clopper was a principle backer of the
Metropolitan Branch in the 
s, and was instrumental in
persuading the B&O to take over construction of the
railroad branch after the original company failed. Francis
Clopper donated land both for a nearby railroad station,
named in his honor, and for St. Rose of Lima Catholic
Church.



/
 Belward Farm (c ), 
 Key West Avenue (
Darnestown Road)

Belward House Ignatius Beall Ward established the Belward

Farm in the mid- s. Ward operated the Hunting Hill Post
Office and Store, a community center located at the front of
his farm, offering groceries and supplies for sale, mail
delivery, wheelwrighting, and blacksmithing. The Belward
Farm complex
includes a
gambrel roof
dairy barn,
milk house
and large
frame cow
barn. The
large, picturesque Belward House (c ) is a significant example of
late th century Victorian farmstead architecture with Queen Anne-
style shingled gables, polygonal bay windows, and turned porch posts.
In the second half of the th century, Ward’s grand-daughter,
Elizabeth Beall Banks, continued the family tradition, residing here and farming the land. Ms. Banks died in .

When the Belward Farm was designated a historic

site, the setting was  acres. A Preliminary Plan was
approved in  subject to a condition specifying an
environmental setting of . acres.

The development plan included provisions for open

space on either side of the existing tree-lined driveway
to maintain a view of the house from Darnestown Road,
and open parking surrounding the designated setting, but
was never built. A new proposal for development of the
Belward Farm must include re-evaluating an appropriate
setting for this historic resource.

Significant features of the setting include vistas of the

farmstead from the south, east, and west along Key West
6.98 ac Avenue/Darnestown Road; views of the farmstead from
the north, east, and west along proposed CCT alignment;
historic house, barns, and other historic outbuildings;
and mature trees in and around the farmstead. The modern house that Johns Hopkins University built for Elizabeth
Beall Banks is not historic and may be substantially altered or demolished upon review by the Historic Preservation
Commission.



/
 St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church (c ),  
Clopper Road

St. Rose of Lima is a fine example of a rural Carpenter Gothic chapel and is one of the earliest Catholic congregations in
the mid-County region. The wooden, front-gable church has a steeply pitched roof,
pointed arch windows and door. Sheltering the door, on the main (south) façade, is
a bracketed door hood with king-post truss. Above, a rose window lights the
interior. On the north end, gabled wings flank a polygonal hipped roof apse.

Influential property-owner Francis Cassatt Clopper established the first Catholic

Church in the Gaithersburg area in   . A Protestant, Clopper had married Ann
Jane Bryant, a fervent Catholic, and their children were reared in the Catholic
faith. When the Cloppers moved to the area in  , the closest Catholic churches
were in Rockville and Barnesville. They donated land from their estate on Clopper
Road, and a church was built in   and dedicated by Bishop Eccleston in  .
Following extensive remodeling in  , the church was re-dedicated, but was destroyed by fire three years later.
Plans for the present church were immediately designed. The cornerstone for the new St. Rose’s Church was laid on
July ,  . The cost of construction, completed the same year, was about $. The church grounds include a
champion Douglas fir tree.

/ England-Crown Farm (c - ),   Fields Road

Designated on the Master Plan for Historic Preservation,
subsequently annexed by City of Gaithersburg.
This farm includes a frame house built by   and an
earlier log house. The main block of the frame L-shaped
dwelling is five bays wide and one room deep. The cross-
gable roof has wide unbracketed eaves and a cornice
with deep side-gable returns. Gothic Revival influence
is evident in the pointed-arch front-gable window and
cutwork porch brackets, while heavy window cornices
are typical of the Italianate style. First story windows
extend down to the porch floor. Windows on side
elevations have plain, flat window moldings. A log house,
which may have been a tenant house, appears to date
from the mid- s. The dwelling has a gable-end door,
chimney in the opposite gable, and corner boxed
staircase leading to a loft. Hattie England lived on this
-acre farm by  .

/

 Humpback/Deer Park Bridge (

), East Deer Park Drive at CSX Tracks

In 
, the Planning Board added the Humpback Bridge to the Locational Atlas and Index of Historic Sites as a
potential historic site. The Humpback Bridge spans the railroad tracks near the Washington Grove station site. Located
adjacent to the City of Gaithersburg and the Town of Washington
Grove, the bridge represents the origin and development of
Washington Grove, Oakmont and Gaithersburg. The Humpback
Bridge is a local landmark that is a unique established and
familiar visual feature. The form and profile of the bridge are
reflective of bridge construction from 
, the year that the
structure was erected. A timber bridge has been in place at this
location since the  s. The bridge, which is maintained by
MCDOT, was rehabilitated in  and . MCDOT conducted
a comprehensive structural test to examine the condition of the
East Deer Park Drive Bridge over CSX Railroad and published
their findings in November  .


The study determined that timber supports were deteriorated and required replacement. MCDOT, working in
cooperation with Planning Department staff, developed a rehabilitation program that provides for the replacement of
existing timber bents with similar wooden bents in a compatible structural arrangement. Under Chapter A- of the
County code, a determination that the project was a substantial alteration would have triggered an expedited review
by the Historic Preservation Commission and the Planning Board to establish whether the bridge merited designation
on the Master Plan for Historic Preservation. The in-kind replacement was found not to be a substantial alteration.
The project is expected to take place in the summer of .

Potomac Subregion Master Plan Historic Sites Adjacent to Gaithersburg West

/ Pleasant View Methodist Episcopal Church () and Quince Orchard School (c
) Darnestown Road

Pleasant View Church is representative of the post-Civil War era growth of the Methodist Church in general, and the
Washington Negro Conference in particular. It is estimated that between   and , more than  percent of all
new congregations in the County were Methodist. Reflective of the Gothic Revival tradition of church architecture,
Pleasant View features lancet or pointed arch windows, and a three-part central entrance tower crowned with a
crenellated turret. In 
, a rear wing was built and the original church renovated to accommodate a pastor’s study,
choir room, and choir loft.

The Howard Brothers built the original church on the site

in  . In , that structure was in such poor condition
that it was razed and rebuilt. The congregation was
established about   , when the land was first acquired
for a church. Early services were likely held in a nearby
house until the church was built. In  , a school for
black children was established in a Quince Orchard area
house. After a fire destroyed the building in , a school
building, abandoned by the white population, was moved
to the site. The latter, built about 
, had been located
on the opposite (north) side of Darnestown Road.

The Quince Orchard School is representative of the

crowded and inadequate facilities that were the result of
segregation in the late  s. In , the school served
 children in seven grades, making it the fifth largest
elementary school for blacks in the County. The following year the building was expanded with two additional rooms.
Soon thereafter, the school consolidated with Tobytown and Seneca Colored Schools. After County wide integration of
black students with white, the school building was used as a parish house for Pleasant View M.E. Church.

 / Maple Spring Barns (), 

 Dufief Mill Rd

A prime example of an early th century, state of the art agricultural facility, Maple Spring Farm was once one of
the State’s leading dairy operations. The primary structure is the -bay long dairy barn (), with gambrel roof
punctuated by four metal ventilators. The barn is highly visible on this section of well-traveled Darnestown Road in
the densely populated Gaithersburg-Rockville area. The collection of outbuildings, built between c and , date
from the heyday of specialized large-scale dairy farming.


Maple Spring Farm was recognized in the metropolitan
region as a model dairy operation with its mechanized
milking parlor, sanitary concrete interiors, and above
average milk production. The 

-acre, -cow farm

was owned and operated by Thomas Moore Garrett, a
statewide agricultural leader who served as a director of
the Farm Bureau, the Soil Conservation Board, and the
Southern States Cooperative, and a charter member of
the Maryland-Virginia Milk Producers Association,
established in . Other important agricultural
structures include two terra cotta silos, a concrete block
milk house, a two-story horse barn, one story wagon
house/granary, and an equipment building. Still standing
on an adjacent lot is the associated residence, located at
the heart of a medical facility at   Darnestown
Road.

National Register Resources

/ Washington Grove Historic District ( ), Municipality

Known as The Town within a Forest, Washington Grove is a community with Carpenter Gothic cottages, mature
oak trees, pedestrian walkways, public parks, forest preserve, and independent, community-oriented residents.
Washington Grove began as a summer camp meeting ground established in   by Methodist clergy of Washington,
D.C. Founders selected a wooded site along the newly opened Metropolitan Branch of the B&O Railroad as a retreat
from hot, malarial, urban summers. Sunday meetings drew as many as , worshippers.

The campground was laid out with six walkway avenues radiating from a circle upon which founders built a wooden
tabernacle. Campers erected 
 tents along the avenues in the first year, soon replaced by small wooden tents, and
later by narrow Carpenter Gothic cottages. Though the tabernacle no longer stands, the Sacred Circle site has been
preserved as a park. In contrast to the Tent Department, an area called the Cottage Department was platted between
the circle and the railroad station. Lots and cottages in the Cottage Department were more spacious than in the Tent
Department, reflecting the evolution of the community in its first decade from a two-week meeting to a season-long
retreat, later year-round residence.

The early cottages are Carpenter Gothic in style, with steeply pitched, front gable roofs, full-width porches, and
bargeboard trim. The style is derived from the form of the tents they replaced and succeeded, ecclesiastical
associations, and the romantic, rural ideal popularized by Andrew Jackson Downing in the mid- s.

Unlike most communities built on a grid, cottages were built

to face pedestrian avenues. Wagons and horses were
restricted to roads that ran behind the houses. Grove
Avenue served as the Town’s Main Street, extending from
the train station, and leading to the Assembly Hall, hotel,
and tabernacle. A defining feature of Washington Grove
is its mature tree canopy. Beginning in  , the Camp
Meeting Association established rules to restrict the
cutting of trees for construction of cottages or widening
avenues. In  , the Town dedicated more than half of its
 acres to parkland and forest preservation.


Washington Grove joined the Chautauqua Circuit and built the Assembly Hall in . The octagonal building,
measuring  feet on each side, had no plumbing, heat or electricity, but it provided shelter for lectures and shows
as well as religious services. In  , the Camp Meeting Association dissolved and the Town of Washington Grove
incorporated. Residents renamed the Assembly Hall McCathran Hall in 
, in honor of retiring Mayor Irving Leroy
McCathran. The hall, now with a restored cupola and new office addition, serves as the town hall as well as meeting
place. The bell hung in the portico once announced camp meeting services and today calls residents to the Annual
Town Meeting and rings in celebration of the Town’s Independence Day festivities.

/
Gaithersburg B&O Railroad Station( ),

Summit Avenue, City of Gaithersburg

The Gaithersburg Station is a well-preserved example of a

high-style, small-scale train station. Designed by Ephraim
Francis Baldwin, architect for the B&O, the station was
built in  , replacing an   station. The picturesque
brick structure ( feet inches by
 feet  inches) has a
front-gable central tower, patterned brickwork walls, and
gable-end wood stickwork. The east  feet were added

- to increase storage. In  , an early telephone
switchboard was installed in the station, the first to serve
County residents. A small brick freight house, also designed
by Baldwin and built in the  s, stands further east.
Both structures have overhanging shed roofs supported
by oversize brackets that provide shelter for trackside
passengers. The freight house currently holds a railroad
museum.

Gaithersburg Latitude Observatory ( )

 DeSellum Drive, City of Gaithersburg

This structure is one of six observatories located in

the United States, Russia, Japan, and Italy that are
associated with an important and long-lived program
of international scientific cooperation. In  , the
International Geodetic Association established the
International Polar Motion Service. This worldwide
cooperative effort among scientists studied the nature
of the Earth’s wobble on its rotational axis. From its
construction in   until the obsolescence of manual
telescopic observation forced its closing in  , the
Gaithersburg Latitude Observatory played an integral
role in this scientific endeavor. The frame, -foot square
structure has a gable roof constructed of two sections
that move apart on wheels to accommodate an elevated
telescope.


J. A. Belt Building (),  E. Diamond Avenue,
City of Gaithersburg
John A. Belt constructed this ornate Classical Revival
building in  to house his prosperous general store. A
contemporary wrote that the “magnificent” Belt Building
was “the largest mercantile house in Montgomery
County and is filled to its utmost capacity with a choice
stock of general merchandise.” Prominently located
at the corner of Diamond and Summit Avenues, in the
center of Old Town Gaithersburg, the two-story brick
store has paneled, rusticated pilasters and a paneled
parapet which is inscribed “ J. A. Belt.”

Thomas and Company Cannery ( - )

W. Diamond and N. Frederick Avenues, City of Gaithersburg

The largest and longest-lived cannery in Montgomery

County, the Thomas and Company Cannery operated
from  until . While Baltimore had been the
center of the canning industry in the th century, the
outbreak of World War I created a need to regionalize.
Frank and Clyde Thomas were leaders in the th century
canning industry in Maryland. In  , the Thomas
family opened a cannery in Gaithersburg, the first in
Montgomery County. The factory was the focus of local
industry and economy, providing an important market
for farmers, and employment for local and migrant
workers. Built along the B&O Railroad to facilitate
shipping, the brick cannery had three main parts that are
still extant: the central processing section, the shipping
section (left), and boiler plant (right). In 
, the
cannery was expanded with a front concrete-block ell.