Rock Spring

A historic black community in Montgomery County, MD

C&O Canal, Lock # 6

The Rock Spring Club was one of the hotels that were built near the C&O Canal and employed local Black residents. In the 1900 U.S. Census, 47-year-old Mariah Gray, born in North Carolina, is listed as working as a cook, and 40-year-old John W. Lewis, born in Maryland from parents originating in Maryland and Virginia, is a servant. Families living nearby included John and Alice Coates, and Mary and Robert Harrod. Black residents are listed as working in farming, as servants, in day labor, etc.

The C&O Canal in Maryland had been publicized as an easy way for D.C. residents to escape the summer heat of D.C. and for leisure pursuits. The Green Spring Pavilion is noted as another local hotel. Boating was also popular, and provided employment for local Black residents in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

For more detailed information, see the C&O Canal and African American Communities Historic Resources Study of 2022. (National Park Service and McMahon 2022, pp. 96-97)

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This article is part of MoCoLMP's project mapping our historic Black communities and their relationship to sites of enslavement during the Civil War. The map also shows the locations of the three known lynchings in 19th century Montgomery County, MD.

Photo by Neile Whitney.

Reference

McMahon, Heather. 2022 “Historic Resources Study: African American Communities along the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal.” National Park Service History. Washington, D.C., and Lower Montgomery County, Maryland: National Park Service. https://npshistory.com/publications/choh/hrs-african-american-communities.pdf