Clipper Lane

A historic black community in Montgomery County, Maryland

Macedonia Baptist Church, Bethesda, MD. The heart of the River Road communities: Clipper Road, Dorsey Road, Crows Hill

Bethesda, MD

In the 1900 U.S. census, John and Martha Clipper and their six sons and two daughters lived next to George Clipper (his son? 27 years apart in age) and George’s wife Lucy and their three children. The adult men were working as day laborers. Apparently the census takers had stopped listing an occupation for women who were doing the work of keeping the house, because no occupation is listed for any of the women on this census page unless they were a servant.

Detail from 1916 Deets & Maddox Map, Plate 11-0 (Bethesda) showing Clipper Lane families and early location of the local lodge – the Morningstar Tabernacle No. 88 Lodge of the Order of Moses

By 1910, three of the sons, William, C. (Cleveland?) and I. (Ike or Isaac?) family lived one behind the other on this lane off of River Road. Clipper Lane, Dorsey Lane, and River Road/Graysville were all connected communities, who would have worshipped together and whose children would have gone to school together.

Macedonia Baptist Church was moved to Clipper Lane in the 1940s. In the 1950s and 1960s urban development that was pushing its way north from Washington DC, pushed local black families out of their neighborhoods to areas in the county that were further north. The church is now surrounded by industrial development, restaurants, large apartment buildings, and Whole Foods.

If anyone knows a more specific location or has information about founders and residents of this community, please let us know.