Page "Washington Grove, Maryland" Paragraph 3

Washington Grove is listed on the National Register of Historic Places both for its humanistic layout and for the way the town was founded.

In the early 1870s, shortly after the B & O Railroad ’ s Metropolitan Branch ( now the MARC Brunswick Line )) was extended from Washington DC to Gaithersburg, Maryland, a group of Methodists purchased land nearby as a site for a camp meeting.

In 1873 the first meeting was held in a rainstorm at the “ Sacred Circle ” in what is now the center of town.

Tents were pitched to protect the camp meeting attendees.

As more meetings ensued and their occupants began to stay for longer and longer periods, the tents were converted to cottages constructed to echo the traditional tent shape.

Herein lies the origin of one of the Grove ’ s most distinctive features, the oddly-shaped, tightly-spaced homes radiating out from the Sacred Circle.

Uniquely, the houses were arranged to face each other across a network of pedestrian paths, with streets relegated to the rear to provide service.

Intended to be used for two-week tent meetings in July and August, the tree-shaded camp became a refuge from the heat of Washington, D. C ..

While the smorgasbord of later additions on these houses gives the older part of town an eccentric and fanciful personality, each of these older houses has a small, tent-shaped core dating from the first cottage construction.

They often had steeply peaked roofs with high windows and the rooms only had walls, no ceilings.

Cooling breezes flowed through the houses and vacated any summer heat.

This nature has been lost in many cottages that have been remodeled inside for year-round occupation and for an additional floor of rooms occupying the once lofty interior structures.