Home Care In Washington Grove, MD

John Compton, the mayor of Washington Grove, says the absence of a functioning post office would have a “devastating effect” on his small town, which takes up 200 acres of land.

Washington Grove, the historical “town within a forest,” was incorporated in 1937, and is home to around 555 people with about 200 households. The town is located near the CSX Train stop in Gaithersburg, and is two miles from the Shady Grove Metro station.

Washington Grove does not have mail delivery so the residents rely on the post office for communication.

“One of the unusual characteristics of our town is we do not receive mail delivery, preferring to keep our local post office as a place for communicating with the outside world,” Compton said at U.S. Rep. David Trone’s (D-Md.) “Don’t Mess with the USPS” news conference Friday outside of the Gaithersburg Post Office located on Summit Avenue.

“Obviously the post office has come under criticism, but the obvious solution—clearly not being taken by the current administration—is that you fix the problems, you don’t destroy the institutions,” Compton said.

Compton’s comments come as people across the country have been raising concerns about postal delays, especially weeks before an election affected by a pandemic that has left—according to the CDC—176,223 Americans dead as of Tuesday.

Maryland is one of several states suing the U.S. Postal Service to reverse cost-cutting policy changes, which the state’s Attorney General Brian Frosh said “are designed to disrupt the election.”

I agree that USPS is "fully capable" of delivering the mail. But "committed? We are not dropping our lawsuit. https://t.co/TSYApxudTP

— Brian Frosh, Former Attorney General of Maryland (@BrianFrosh) August 21, 2020

“They strike at the core of our democracy,” said Frosh said in a statement. “That is bad enough, but [President] Trump and [U.S. Postmaster General Louie] DeJoy are also hurting innocent bystanders: Americans who are waiting for their medicine or their social security checks. This conduct is harmful, illegal and unconstitutional. We are filing suit to stop it.”

As new developments close in on Washington Grove, residents of the wooded town are worried about the future of their historic neighborhood.

Washington Grove, home to about 500 people, according to the 2010 Census, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The town’s Historic Preservation Commission has asked a state organization to designate it a “threatened” landmark.

“We are seeking support to preserve a town that hasn’t changed much,” said Joli McCathran, a member of the commission.

She said the town’s borders are threatened by road and development construction, especially for a set of apartments on its northwest border. The developer of the apartments, to be called Towne Crest, had to lower the development’s planned density in October as residents fought to preserve the quiet environment near their borders. The developers originally had planned to build 356 apartments on its eight-acre space, more than three times the current number of units on the site.

McCathran said the Towne Crest developer’s application to build a high-density residential area was “the trigger” for the 200-acre town to seek public support.

Washington Grove sent an application to Preservation Maryland, a Baltimore-based nonprofit group that focuses on saving historic landmarks. It chooses about a dozen landmarks for its “Endangered Maryland” list every year.

For 2012, the list included the Cider Barrel in Germantown and Silver Spring Baptist Church. According to Preservation Maryland, it designated the Cider Barrel a threatened landmark because of encroaching development and plans to move the structure from the edge of the roadway.

Preservation Maryland occasionally offers help for the threatened sites it selects, said Louise Hayman, a spokeswoman for the organization, although the designation does not afford any legal or regulation-related benefits.

“We will, in some cases, provide some modest funding because we think it’s an important site,” she said.

The communities around the chosen sites mainly benefit from greater public attention, Hayman said, although Preservation Maryland was already familiar with Washington Grove. It supported a state Open Space Legacy designation adjacent to the town in 2005, expressed concern about a CSX bridge project in 2009 and reviewed the possible effects of the Towne Crest apartments this year, she said.

“It seems to be nonstop,” McCathran said. “I’ve lived here some 30 years, and we’re always under threat by development.”

Hayman said the organization’s selection committee has already chosen the sites that will be on its 2013 list, which will be published in Maryland Life magazine in late March.

Although the Endangered Maryland list mostly consists of singular landmarks, “it’s not totally novel” to nominate an entire neighborhood, said Preservation Services Director Marilyn Benaderet of Preservation Maryland.

“We have had large swaths of land like the Superblock that was designated last year,” she said.

The Superblock is a collection of historical buildings on downtown Baltimore’s west side that is under threat of demolition, according to Preservation Maryland.

McCathran said it was never an option to select only part of the town or certain aging areas to make it onto the Endangered Maryland list.

“The entire town is threatened,” she said.

correction

A previous version of this article misquoted Glen Boshart, a Flower Hill resident. This version has been corrected.

When longtime residents describe the Flower Hill community in Gaithersburg, Md., they characterize it as tranquil. The community — a mix of detached homes, apartments and townhouses — was built in the 1980s when the area largely consisted of farmland. And although the neighborhood is bordered by two busy thoroughfares, Route 124 and Snouffer School Road, the development remains an oasis of undisturbed exurban charm.

Flower Hill has plenty of green space with two parks, Nike Missile Park — on top of a former missile base — and Flower Hill Park. The community is built around a neighborhood commons.

Flower Hill resident Sonya Barnette said that the parks are well-kept and ideal for sports. She said there are several tot lots and basketball courts throughout the neighborhood.

“Kids play soccer, basketball and cricket,” Barnette said. “One really nice thing is the circle that encompasses the common area is exactly a mile. People love to walk that. … People come from other developments [such as Montgomery Village and the adjacent Strawberry Knoll] just to walk through the neighborhood.”

The Flower Hill Swimming Pool complex has three pools: a wading pool, lap pool and 50-meter pool featuring 25 metered lap lanes, a children’s area and diving well. The community also sponsors a children’s swim team.

“If you’re a golfer, Flower Hill is wonderfully situated. There are four great golf courses all within a 15-minute drive,” said Glen Boshart, a Flower Hill resident since 2002.

Boshart said he loves the diversity of the community with its mix of young families, empty-nesters and retirees.

“There is a wide range … of people, one of the most diverse in the country,” he said. “One day I was riding my bike and witnessed a beautiful Hindu wedding reception at the community center next to the pool.”

When the developers, Howard “Dave” Griffin Jr. and John Pettit, broke ground in 1980, it was one of the first Montgomery County communities to deliberately mix residences, office space and retail, according to Dick Pettit, president of Pettit Companies (originally Pettit and Griffin Inc.).

“We designed it as a step-up for the first-time home buyer,” said Pettit, noting that the 2,025 residences are a mix of split level, split foyers, two-stories, apartments and townhouses with small yards. The master plan included a neighborhood elementary school, Flower Hill.

Residents pay annual homeowners fees to the Flower Hill Central Corporation and to one of 17 sub-association boards. The total fees vary, but, as an example, Flower Hill North II pays around $525 a year with $383 going to the FHCC. Courts of Flower Hill pays around $400 per year with $383 going to the FHCC. The community boards determine architectural control, enforce covenants and home maintenance, and advocate on local zoning and traffic issues. The HOA fees include pool membership.

The Flower Hill Shopping Center boasts a Giant Food, SunTrust Bank, Advance Auto Parts and for those who want a quick meal, Wingstop, Subway and Domino’s Pizza. Mi Peru specializes in pollo a la brassa and other Latin American cuisine while a popular Mexican-Salvadoran restaurant, Ay Jalisco, is on Snouffer School Road near Earhart Court.

Neighboring landmarks to the north include the Montgomery County Airpark and Hill’s Gymnastics where Silver Spring Olympian Dominique Dawes trained. But the community can lay claim to its own athletic celebrities, NFL pro football players Stefon and Trevon Diggs, who spent their teen years in Flower Hill while attending high school at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Olney.

Gentleman Jim’s, located in the Flower Hill shopping plaza, renown locally for a pizza with sweet tomato sauce, has become the local watering hole and get-together spot. The pub has moved several times since its origins in Twinbrook and was recently located at a larger location on nearby Earhart Court.

“G.J.’s is usually pretty crowded,” Barnette said. “They have bands outside and in the fall, put space heaters out. It tends to be an older crowd, 40 and up. The bar is usually crowded. The waitresses say they are doing much better business with the smaller layout.”

Behind Gentleman Jim’s, Pettit Companies is constructing a new 16,000-square-foot retail and restaurant center, North Pointe at Flower Hill.

“We don’t want to let any cats out of the bag while working with clients, but we’ve had a lot of great interest from national companies,” Jeanne Pettit, marketing director, said.

Living there: Flower Hill is bordered by Snouffer School Road to the north, Emory Grove Road to the south, Woodfield Road to the east and Strawberry Knoll Road to the west.

In the past year, the lowest sold price for a detached home was a three-bedroom, three-bathroom split-level for $434,000, according to Craig Rosenfeld at RE/MAX. The highest priced house sold was a seven-bedroom, five-bathroom split-level for $700,000. Condominiums sold for between $150,000 and $200,000. Townhouses sold for between $305,000 and $433,000.

Schools: Flower Hill Elementary, Shady Grove Middle and Magruder Senior High

Transit: The Red Line stops at the Shady Grove Metro (5.6 miles away). The MARC Commuter train stops at the main Gaithersburg Train Station on Summit Avenue (3.5 miles away) and two nearby commuter stops at Metropolitan Grove Road (5.4 miles away) and in the community of Washington Grove (four miles away). The community is served by two Ride On bus lines. Nearby bike trails include Muddy Branch Greenway in North Potomac and Black Hill Hiker/Biker Trail in Germantown. There are also biker/hiker trails in Green Farm Conservation Park. Both community parks are bicycle friendly. The main thoroughfares include Woodfield Road/Route 124 and Muncaster Mill Road/Snouffer School Road.

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January 10, 2013

Maryland’s geocaching trail could have you wiggling through a cave or paddling through the Potomac.

At least that’s what Susan Kelley, director of the Maryland Geocaching Society, found herself doing while exploring Maryland’s statewide geocaching trail earlier this year.

As the Maryland Municipal League debuted its second statewide treasure hunt on Saturday — called Discovering Maryland MML Geotrail — Poolesville, Gaithersburg, Rockville and Washington Grove have created new caches for the new trail.

According to Geocaching.com, the hobby is “a worldwide game of hiding and seeking treasure. A geocacher can place a geocache in the world, pinpoint its location using GPS technology and then share the geocache’s existence and location online.”

Maryland made news in 2009 when it became the first state in the nation to create a statewide geocache trail. It stretched through 82 towns and cities, a model emulated in several other states.

The Discovering Maryland geotrail will include 49 towns and cities. The league will reward the first 200 people who find and record at least 20 geocaches with a commemorative trackable geocoin. To be eligible, participants must record the location, date and code of the find in the Official MML Geotrail Passport and post a picture at each cache. Completed passports must then be mailed to the MML offices.

The city of Gaithersburg — which also participated in the 2009 trail, called the Maryland Geotrail — is contributing its own geocache and prize to the list this year. The first person to find the cache will receive two one-day passes to Fitness Zone in the activity center at Bohrer Park, according to the city. Other prizes such as water park passes might be added to the Bohrer Park cache.

Eleven more caches within Gaithersburg are maintained by private citizens who had them approved by the city and added to the trail.

“It’s a fun hobby. [Geocaching] is a good way to get outside, get outdoors,” Kelley said. “It’s taken me to places I would never have found otherwise.”

Kelley said the 82 caches in the first geotrail were visited in excess of 30,000 times, by several thousand geocachers. Some geocachers visited more than one cache, she said.

Would-be geocachers who missed the official launch can access a list of the trail’s coordinates after registering at www.geocaching.com.

“Having places like Maryland setting up geotours, they’re basically inviting the global community to come visit Maryland and have this interactive outdoor adventure where they can learn something about the history, be educated, learn more about what Maryland has to offer,” said Bryan Roth, a founder of the site.

Connie Yingling, public relations coordinator for the Maryland Office of Tourism, said the trail gets people out to a number of Maryland’s tourism destinations.

“There’s a definite tourism and economic impact,” she said.

Poolesville joined the first geocache trail in 2009, said Cathy Bupp, a town official who helped set up the town’s cache.

The MML “sent us an invitation and we joined up,” she said.

They placed decks of cards, Poolesville pens and other trinkets in the cache. Visitors to the cache replaced them with other objects, she said.

Bupp said she hid the new cache near one of the town’s local historic sites.

About 200 people had visited that first cache so far, she said, and the town has just added the second one.

After visiting the first cache, one geocacher was pleased to have explored the town, according to comments on a Web site run by the town: “Poolesville looked a lot different from the last time we were here. It seems to have a lot of new development. The new Town Hall is beautiful.”

Gazette staff writer Sylvia Carignan contributed to this report.

The Steve Miller Band doesn’t seem like the sort of group to inspire violence, but on Nov. 24, 1973, eight people were arrested at the band’s performance in Gaithersburg, Md.

“It was the worst of a series of disturbances at rock concerts in the county,” Clayton Ervine, director of Montgomery County’s Environmental Protection Department, told the Washington Evening Star.

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Fans with tickets to Miller’s late show threw rocks and bottles when the early show ran long. Some stormed the doors. The melee was at the Shady Grove Music Fair, a venue that’s the subject of a presentation at the Montgomery County History Conference, which runs online Friday through Jan. 29.

The Shady Grove Music Fair opened in 1962 off what is today Interstate 270. At first, the theater-in-the-round was in a tent, said Ralph Buglass, who is presenting at the conference. That meant it operated only in the summer months, a setting mainly for Broadway road shows. It was the brainchild of Philadelphia promoters Shelly Gross and Lee Guber, who operated multiple Music Fairs, from Long Island to Baltimore.

In its fifth season, the tented structure was replaced by a 2,500-seat building.

“When it went to a permanent structure, it was year-round, so they had to fill the calendar,” Buglass said. That meant booking rock acts. Jefferson Airplane was among the first.

Buglass combed through old newspapers, play bills and concert websites to compile a list of every act to appear at Shady Grove. A highlight was the Jackson 5, who had a week-long residency in 1975. As they did in every town, the Jackson 5 challenged local DJs to a basketball game. They trounced the radio jocks, 57-41.

Competition eventually put Shady Grove Music Fair out of business. “In 1971, Wolf Trap opened. The Kennedy Center opened later that year,” Buglass said. In 1973, the much bigger Capital Centre opened.

“The first Capital Centre concert was the Allman Brothers, who had played at Shady Grove three years before,” Buglass said. In 1977, Shady Grove was closed, then torn down. A business park called Grove 270 sits where Steve Miller once tarried too long onstage.

The same year Shady Grove Music Fair closed, a record store opened in Rockville. Skip Groff’s Yesterday & Today Records would become a vital incubator for the area punk rock scene.

“I consider that store to be a real anchor or a hub during that important period,” said John Davis whose history conference presentation, “Suburban Wasteland: Punk Culture in Montgomery County from 1977 to 2002,” is on Jan. 29.

Davis grew up in the county, played in such bands as Q and Not U and Title Tracks, and is now an archivist at the University of Maryland performing arts library, where he has assembled a collection of punk material.

Davis is intrigued by what he calls “the granular nature of punk,” how each region had its own scene, including bands, venues and zines.

There were some unlikely venues back then, including the Outside Inn, a spot in a Boiling Brook Parkway strip shopping center that hosted Government Issue and Black Market Baby.

One of the earliest zines was Vintage Violence, created in the spring of 1977 by Mike Heath in his Silver Spring house. Bands of the era included Artificial Peace, Bloody Mannequin Orchestra and Gray Matter.

Said Davis: “The point is to highlight this sort of subterranean history of what went on in this place that isn't necessarily known for being countercultural.”

Tickets to the virtual Montgomery County History Conference range from $25 to $75. For information, visit montgomeryhistory.org.

While we’re on the topic of local music, let us revisit “R&B in DC,” the 16-disc box set, with accompanying 352-page book. I wrote last week that music historian Jay Bruder was able to track down many facts for the compilation but was unsure of the inspiration for “Big Sid,” a circa 1955 song by the 3 of Us Trio. To some collectors, the lyric “Can you ride, ride, ride Big Sid?/You ride Big Sid and you might get thrown a mile” suggested the title character was a rickety trolley.

Not so, said Barrett Swink of Gainesville, Va., who wrote: “Big Sid was a big, nasty rodeo bull, considered by most riders of the time to be un-ridable …. My guess is that Sid was around between 1945 and 1955.”

Bingo. I searched newspapers and in October of 1947, Big Sid was part of a rodeo at the Uline Arena. Newspaper ads promised: “$1,000 if you can ride ‘Big Sid’ the big bull. 10 seconds! Can you ride Big Sid?”

It seems no one could, though in January of 1948 The Washington Post ran a story about a local boxer named Paul Lawrence “Stonewall” Jackson who, two nights before a bout, managed eight seconds atop the bull.

Said Jackson: “If they had let me mount him backwards, I would have been up there all night.”