Potomac
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We now think of Potomac as wealthy, filled with big – sometimes palatial – homes, private schools and soccer clubs. But fifty years ago, in the 1960s and 1970s, “urban renewal” threatened many of the historic Black communities who had lived there for thirty, fifty, or even one hundred years. Surviving decades of neglect by the county, most (all?) of these segregated communities had no paved roads, no electricity, no running water, and no street lights. Their children were only now leaving one or two-room schools to integrate local white schools, and for the first time were seeing new books, well-kept, county-maintained school buildings, and classes separated by grade.
Bells Mill | Big Pines | Brickyard (linked with Cropley) | Cropley (linked with Brickyard) | MacArthur Blvd. | Oaklyn Drive | Piney Meetinghouse | Pleasant View / Quince Orchard Colored School | Poplar Grove | Scotland / Snakes Den | Seven Locks | The Flats | The Pines | Tobytown | Travilah | Community Redevelopment | References
Bells Mill
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Big Pines
Potomac, MD
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Photo by Doga Dogan on Unsplash
Brickyard HBC, 1879 Hopkins map
Brickyard (linked with Cropley)
Potomac, MD​
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Lawton Garner, William Gibbs, and Joseph Toney were the founders of the historic Black community of Brickyard, buying three acres of land in 1884 with the intention of using ½-acre to build a schoolhouse. The community predated the “Brickyard” name and company by ten years, and in 1900, half of the men in the community worked on the Washington Aqueduct.
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Most of the men worked on the railroad, or on the Aqueduct, which also began being built in 1884. National Park Service research and checking censuses suggests that the men did not work at the Brickyard, though they lived near it.
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​The Brickyard Colored School can be seen on this 1920 Baist map near the Potomac Brick Company to the west of what are now Brickyard Rd. and MacArthur Blvd. The neighborhood is now full of luxury homes.
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Cropley (linked with Brickyard)
Potomac, MD
From the same 1918 Baist map, Black owner Mr. C. Frye, who owns five acres of land, lives in what is presumably Cropley, about a mile from the Brickyard community and school.
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By 1930, Joe and his wife, Carestion Toney are able to support a home worth $2,000 doing odd jobs in the area. Few of the Black residents had consistent, named work–most were scattered among the white community doing odd jobs or living-in as domestic servants. There is one Black man nearby who works as a laborer in the post office.
Cropley (linked with Brickyard).
1904 Baist map
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MacArthur Blvd.
Potomac, MD
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Over Cross the Creek
Creek in Montgomery County.
Piney Meeting House
Potomac, MD
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Quince Orchard Colored School 2025.
Photo by Neile Whitney
Pleasant View / Quince Orchard Colored School
North Potomac, MD
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Poplar Grove
North Potomac, MD
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Poplar Grove is one of the few Black Baptist churches in Montgomery County.​
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More coming soon...
Archival photo courtesy of The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC)
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Photo at top of page is of Poplar Grove today (2025), by Neile Whitney
Renovated Scotland AME Church, 2025.
Scotland / Snakes Den
Potomac, MD
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Scotland is one of the most well-known historic Black communities in Montgomery County. When Scotland began, most of Montgomery County was still composed of farms, large and small.
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In the aftermath of the Civil War, with the loss of free labor by the enslaved, landowners began to sell off parcels of land. Usually, the land sold to Black residents was the least desirable for farming. The community was known until the 1920s as “Snakes Den,” because that was the name of the original draft (parcel) of land, which was known for its rocky terrain and dens of snakes. The name “Scotland” may have been taken from a nearby property and replaced the “Snakes Den” moniker.
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At its peak, Scotland, with 500 acres, was not only the largest community in the county, but was also known for its long struggle as pressures by developers and the county tried to condemn family homes and buy their land. Scotland is a story of survival in the midst of the “urban development” pressures of the 1960s and 1970s, which threatened to erase the community entirely....
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Seven Locks
Potomac, MD
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“It was believed that Mr. Moore created the first subdivision in Cabin John in 1885 by selling plots on Seven Locks Road (Conroy Road) to ten African American families worked for him on his farm." (Armstrong 1947, Offutt 1995).
Although Mr. Moore offered five acres of land many did not purchase up to five acres because each plot varied in size and price. For example, Lloyd Jackson bought his two-and-a-quarter acres for $56 (MCCC 1885: a) and George and
Sarilla Scott bought four-and-a-half acres for $114 (MCCC 1885: b). All of the African American families' properties bordered Seven Locks Road (Conroy Road).
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Another family, Charles and Christina Brown, purchased their property from J.D.W. Moore on Dec 21 of 1885 for the $101 (MCCC 1885). Charles and Christina lived on their property along with their adopted daughter Lena Brown. (Jones 2010, 13)
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The Flats
Potomac, MD
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The Pines
Potomac, MD
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Tobytown
North Potomac, MD
Tobytown residents worked on the C&O Canal and on neighboring farms. When the canal came through, part of their land was seized by the county via eminent domain.
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Tobytown lobbied the county for improved bus access. Residents of Tobytown didn’t have access to public buses until 2016. Until then, the nearest bus was in Potomac, over 5 miles away.
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Archival photo courtesy of The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC)
Travilah
North Potomac, MD
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Community Redevelopment
We now think of Potomac as wealthy, filled with big – sometimes palatial – homes, private schools and soccer clubs. But fifty years ago, in the 1960s and 1970s, “urban renewal” threatened many of the historic Black communities who had lived there for thirty, fifty, or even one hundred years. Surviving decades of neglect by the county, many of these communities had no paved roads, no electricity, no running water, no plumbing, and no street lights. Their children had just recently left one- or two-room, segregated schools to integrate local white schools, and for the first time were seeing new books, well-kept, county-maintained school buildings, and classes separated by grade.
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The Mapping Segregation Project by Montgomery County Planning, notes that between 1890 and 1960, the white population in the county increased 1800%, while the Black population grew only 19%. “These racial population shifts were not the result of organic growth. Rather, they occurred due to the specific actions of land developers, property owners, real estate boards, and the government who used de jure and de facto segregation to limit opportunities for Black Americans by directing investments into majority white communities, prohibiting Black homeownership in those neighborhoods, and controlling the development of entire communities.” (Schoenfeld, Cherkasky, and Kraft 2026)
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Decades of neglect by the county had left Black residents, whose ancestors' labor had been foundational to its development, with substandard housing, education, and economic security. The redevelopment of these communities created improved housing, but at the same time forced them to forfeit ancestral properties, built housing that excluded space for gardens that provided food security for poor communities, and tore apart kinship groups.
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Construction, Scotland community. Photo by Alan R. Seigel, courtesy of Montgomery History.
References
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Baist, George William. 1904. “Baist’s Map of the Vicinity of Washington D.C.” Library of Congress. G.W. Baist. 1904. https://lccn.loc.gov/87691445.
Brostrup, John O. 1933. “Rock Hall & Slave Quarters, Dickerson, Montgomery County, MD.” The Library of Congress. Historic American Buildings Survey. 1933. https://www.loc.gov/resource/hhh.md0211.photos/?sp=6.
Bruder, Anne E. 2017. “Chevy Chase Historic District.” Maryland Historical Trust.
https://apps.mht.maryland.gov/Medusa/PDF/Montgomery/M;%2035-99.pdf.
Buglass, Ralph. 2026. “Montgomery County, Maryland’s Historic African-American Communities.” MontgomeryHistory.org. Maryland: Montgomery History. January 2026. https://montgomeryhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Montgomery-County-African-American-communities.pdf.
Dove, Edgar. 2018. Oral History of Edgar Dove Interview by Joan Zanzen. Montgomery History Archive. https://montgomeryhistory.catalogaccess.com/archives/27026.Dwyer, Michael F. 1975. “Bell’s Mill Site.” Maryland Historical Trust. May 12, 1975. https://apps.mht.maryland.gov/medusa/PDF/Montgomery/M;%2029-17.pdf.
Friends of Moses Hall. 2019. Help Us to Help Each Other, Lord: The Story of Morningstar Tabernacle No. 88 of Cabin John, Maryland. Documentary video. Directed by L. Paige Whitley. Friends of Moses Hall. Cabin John, MD: Friends of Moses Hall. https://www.friendsofmoseshall.org/helpustohelpeachother-docfilm.
Griffin, Elia. 2025. “New Beginnings: Historic Black Church in Potomac Celebrates Rebuilt Facility.” Bethesda Magazine. May 2025. https://bethesdamagazine.com/2025/05/01/new-beginnings-historic-black-church-in-potomac-celebrates-rebuilt-facility/.
“History – Poplar Grove Baptist Church.” 2017. Poplargrovebaptistchurch.org. 2017. https://poplargrovebaptistchurch.org/history/.
“History of Gibson Grove Church.” 2021. Voices from the Past: Gibson Grove Church. 2021. https://www.legacyofgibsongrove.com/history-of-gibson-grove-church.
Holden, Dr. Patrise. 2025. “Standing on Legacy, Rising to New Beginnings: Scotland A.M.E. Zion Church Celebrates Historic Restoration.” The Washington Informer. May 5, 2025. https://www.washingtoninformer.com/scotland-am-e-zion-church-ribbon-ceremony/.
Hopkins, Jr., Griffith Morgan. 1879. “Atlas of Fifteen Miles around Washington, Including the County of Montgomery, Maryland.” Philadelphia, PA: G.M. Hopkins. https://lccn.loc.gov/87675339.
Johnson, Suzanne. 2023. Conversations about HBCs in upper Montgomery County Interview by Neile Whitney.
Jones, Alexandra. 2010. “Gibson Grove Gone but Not Forgotten: The Archaeology of an African American Church.” https://mcatlas.org/filetransfer/HistoricPreservation/Cemeteries/105_Moses-Hall_Cabin-John/105_Gibson-Grove_Church_Gone%20But%20Not%20Forgotten.pdf.
Levine, Harvey A. 2000. “The Resurrection of ‘Scotland.’” The Montgomery County Story 23 (2): 125–35. https://web.archive.org/web/20190619200802/https://montgomeryhistory.org/pdf/43-2.pdf.
Martenet, Simon J. 1865. “Martenet and Bond’s Map of Montgomery County, Maryland.” LOC.gov. Library of Congress. https://lccn.loc.gov/2002620533.
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Maryland Historic Trust. 1994. “State Historic Sites Inventory Form: Tobytown Cemetery.” State Historic Sites Inventory Forms. https://apps.mht.maryland.gov/medusa/PDF/Montgomery/M;%2025-14.pdf.
Maryland Historical Trust, Department of Planning. 2024. “Medusa, Maryland’s Cultural Resource Information System (Map) - Version 1.6.” Maryland.gov. 2024. https://apps.mht.maryland.gov/medusa/.
Maryland State Archives, Special Collections. 2006. “Montgomery County Mill Chapter (June 2, 2006).” List of Historic Mills in Montgomery County, MD. 2006. https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc4300/sc4300/000005/000000/000011/unrestricted/montgomery%20mills%20to%20edit.pdf.
McDaniel, George W. 1982. Hearth & Home, Preserving a People’s Culture. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
McMahon, Heather. 2022a. “African American Communities along the C&O Canal: Tobytown (near Travilah), Maryland.” NPS.gov. National Park Service. 2022. https://www.nps.gov/articles/tobytown-near-travilah-maryland.htm.
———. 2022b. “Historic Resource Study: African American Communities along the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal.” Travilah & Tobytown: Mid-Twentieth Century: Displacement and Urban Renewal, October, 206–17. https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/DownloadFile/678190.
Montgomery County Historic Preservation Commission. 2017. “The Historic African American Community of Gibson Grove, Cabin John, MD.” Blogspot.com. 2017. https://historicwanderings.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-historic-african-american-community.html.
National Park Service. 2023. “Brickyard, Cropley (Carderock), Maryland (U.S. National Park Service).” NPS.gov. National Park Service. December 11, 2023. https://www.nps.gov/articles/brickyard-cropley-carderock-maryland.htm.
National Park Service National Capital Area. 2022. “Historic Resources Study African-American Communities along the Chesapeake in Ohio Canal.” National Park Service History. https://npshistory.com/publications/choh/hrs-african-american-communities.pdf.
Owens, Christopher. 1975. “Maryland Historical Trust Worksheet: Poplar Grove Baptist Church.” Mcatlas.org. Montgomery Planning. February 26, 1975. https://mcatlas.org/hp2/hpdocs/M_%2024-16.pdf.
Schoenfeld, Sarah Jane, Mara Cherkasky, and Brian Kraft. 2026. “Mapping Segregation Project, Montgomery County, MD.” Arcgis.com. 2026. https://mcplanning.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=0d26456118d34a14b2d27aec8d6f2b1a.
Scotland 2023 Juneteenth Planning Committee. 2022. “Pride of Place: The Scotland Community.” Potomac, MD: Scotland A.M.E. Zion Church.
Scotland Juneteenth Heritage Festival. 2025. “Scotland Juneteenth Heritage Festival.” 2025. https://www.juneteenthscotland.org/history-of-scotland.
Shaw, Phyllis. 2023. Conversations about Tobytown, 2023-2025 Interview by Neile Whitney.
The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. 2019. “Second Battle of Bull Run | History, Summary, Casualties, & Facts.” In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/Second-Battle-of-Bull-Run-1862.
“U.S. Census 1880: Darnestown (6th) District, Montgomery County, Maryland.” 1880. Familysearch.org, Census P. 5, Familysearch Image 788. June 1, 1880. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MNQR-8BQ?lang=en.
U.S. Department of the Interior, Census Office. 2019. “U.S. Federal Census 1870, Montgomery County, Maryland, 4th District.” Familysearch.org. 2019. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-6QPW-JGP?view=index&cc=1438024&lang=en&groupId=.
Zinn Education Project. 2025. “Dec. 8, 1936: Gibbs v. Broome Leads to Pay Equity for Black Teachers.” Zinn Education Project. 2025. https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/gibbs-v-broome/.​