Brickyard Historic Black Community, Potomac

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.

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.

1879 Hopkins map.

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. Other families included Elizabeth Blair, Lewis Hinkle, Horace Diggs, Jarrett Bowman, Henry Randall, John Robinson, Alsey Toney, Reuben Sims, James M. Davis, Tobais Grey, Edward A.Cooper, and John H. Spriggs – all from Maryland except Mr. Hinkle, who was from Missouri. (McMahon 2022b, p. 198)

Johnstown Flood 1889, Lock 44, Hagerstown, MD. Photo courtesy of WHILBR (Western Maryland Historical Library) 

McMahon notes that the Johnstown Flood of 1889 also affected Maryland. Because of extensive damage to the canal, the C&O Canal went into receivership and eventually went bankrupt, and other businesses such as mills closed. Brickyard, Tobytown, and Gibson Grove, among other HBCs, were dependent on jobs on the canal. The direct damage from the flood on these communities, and the resulting economic depression caused many local families to leave the area in search of jobs and housing. (McMahon 2022b, p. 39) 

The neighborhood is now full of luxury homes.