Gaithersburg Community Museum

10/23/2026

Pleasant View Church stands as a powerful reminder of how Quince Orchard grew from resilience, faith, and determination — a story we’re proud to share through the Gaithersburg History Project: Black Gaithersburg.

Quince Orchard began in 1868, when community leaders George W. Johnson, Charles Beander, and Thomas Neverson purchased land to build a church — the first step in forming a strong post emancipation African American settlement. By 1880, families like the Neversons, Magruders, Jacksons, Washingtons, Brooks, Clagetts, Ijams, Ricks, Jenkins, and Greens shaped a thriving neighborhood grounded in hard work and mutual support.

Gary Green’s donation of land for the first school in 1874 deepened those roots, and in 1888 Pleasant View Church rose as a lasting symbol of the community’s perseverance. In 1968, Pleasant View joined two neighboring congregations to form Fairhaven United Methodist Church, continuing a legacy that still guides Quince Orchard today.

Image: Pleasant View Church, c. 1975. Credit: Maryland Historic Trust

10/22/2026

Dora Dorsey was a teacher, businesswoman, poet and published author. Dora was an important community leader in the vibrant 20h Century Gaithersburg Community of Metropolitan Grove.

In the summer of 1910, summer she began advertising “Country Board” in DC papers, for travelers seeking respite from the city heat. Her accommodations featured clean water, fresh produce and shade trees in which to string up a hammock. The location was conveniently located within walking distance from the nearby B&O Metropolitan Line and part of the excursion circuit heading out to Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia.

By the 1930s Dorsey had become a teacher in the Montgomery County School system. The Rosenwald School in Stewartown was one of the places where she taught. Perhaps her greatest achievements were in the realms of literature. In 1950 she cites her occupation as “Poetess” and her place of employment the “Federal Writer’s Project.”

Sometime before her passing she published “Happy Moments: The Awakening” on Gaithersburg’s Franklin Press. 1000 copies were distributed locally. In a posthumous story from the Montgomery Sentinel in 1957 her daughter Lorraine Blakey revealed plans to publish more of her works including a novella titled “Out of the Depths, a Great Surprise” another book of poems, “Shifting Scenes: The Wonderful Traveler,” a volume of original songs called “Melody Hour” and a grammar book.

Learn more about Dora at the screening of the documentary Metropolitan Grove: A Haven and a Respite on October 29th as part of the Behind the Lens with the Gaithersburg History Project Event.

10/21/2026

A single map can capture more than boundaries — it can reveal the beginnings of a community. As part of the Gaithersburg History Project: Black Gaithersburg, we’re highlighting Brook Grove, a remarkable African American settlement whose roots stretch back to the years just after emancipation.

On the 1879 Hopkins Map, names like Rezin Prather (generally credited as the founder of this community), Vachel Duffey (incorrectly rendered as Rachel Duffy on this map), Maurice Jackson, and Jeremiah Frazier appear as landowners. The Hopkins Map was a self-funding publication with local subscribers, primarily landowners, paying a fee to have their names listed on the map. This patronage helped defray the cartography, printing and associated distribution costs. As subscribers generally had some financial means, the large number of Brook Grove names on the map may be an indication of the prosperity of the settlement and their pride in landownership.

These families built Brook Grove from the ground up: establishing a church, a burial ground, a school, and a Masonic Hall, all within their first generation of freedom.
Brook Grove’s legacy didn’t end there. The community became a spiritual anchor for neighboring settlements and helped establish Stewartown’s sister church in the early 1900s. Today, Goshen United Methodist Church continues that lineage, serving descendants of Brook Grove, Prathertown, and Stewartown, while the Brook Grove cemetery remains a sacred resting place.

Map: Atlas of fifteen miles around Washington, including the county of Montgomery, Maryland, G.M. Hopkins 1879. Credit: Library of Congress

10/16/2026

We're excited to join Button Farm Living History Center and Woodlawn Manor at this program tomorrow! We hope to see you there!

“When The Stars Led the Way: Navigating the Underground Railroad”
Button Farm Living History Center, 16820 Black Rock Road, Germantown, MD 20874

Saturday, October 17, 2026
12-3pm: Self-guide
1-2pm: Navigation Presentation
Admission FREE

Discover how Freedom Seekers navigated the Underground Railroad, by day and night, with help from the nature and the cosmos. Karen Lottes of the Gaithersburg Community Museum will give a telescope demonstration. This program is part of a three‑program series with Button Farm, Gaithersburg Community Museum and Woodlawn Manor Cultural Park. This is a daytime event!

Come experience Wesley Wofford's moving sculpture, Tubman Journey to Freedom, depicting Harriet Tubman leading a child to freedom. The sculpture is open for viewing this Saturday, October 17th and again on October 31, 2026, its final day. Please check our Calendar of Events page for dates, times and weather updates at https://buttonfarm.org/calendar-of-events.html.

10/14/2026

Celebrate Earth Science Week & National Fossil Day with Us!

Looking for a fun and educational outing for the whole family? Stop by the Museum to explore the incredible world beneath our feet! In honor of Earth Science Week and National Fossil Day, we’re inviting our community to discover Maryland’s unique rocks, minerals, and fossils.

Our small but fascinating collection offers a hands on look at the geology that shapes our state. Whether you’re a curious kid, a budding scientist, or just someone who loves learning new things, there’s something here for everyone.

10/13/2026

Did you know Gaithersburg was almost names Germansburgh?

In 1769, when Gerard Briscoe subdivided land along Frederick Road (now Route 355), he named his settlement Germansburgh. Unfortunately, the name Logtown had already been adopted for the area, and he could not dislodge it.

Why Germansburgh? We don’t really know. Briscoe himself was not of German origin, but the German people already had a reputation for industriousness and perhaps he hoped to attract families that could build a community.

Image: Modern interpretation of Logtown 1765. GCM 1989.003.006

10/12/2026

Since 2019, a team from the Maryland State Archives has been working closely with Indigenous communities across the Chesapeake region to strengthen how Native history is represented in Maryland’s public records. Archivists Maria Day, Megan Craynon, and Maya Davis co-created the Indigenous Archives Program with one goal in mind: ensuring Native people can see themselves and their stories reflected in the state’s archives.

At Museum on Tap this week, Maria Day will share how Tribal consultations helped shape Mayis, an online guide created in partnership with community members. She’ll also talk about a grant-funded initiative that preserves oral histories with Tribal Knowledge-Keepers on the Eastern Shore — and highlight upcoming projects that continue these partnerships while addressing challenges Native people face in Maryland today.

Join us this Wednesday (10/14) at 7 p.m. at Head Alehouse - Gaithersburg, MD for Museum on Tap to learn more about this important work!

Guests receive $10 off their food or drink order.

10/09/2026

A field off River Road, just outside of Poolesville, used to stand one of the world’s largest radio telescopes and was the site of the discovery of planetary radio emissions.

In 1955, scientists Bernard Burke and Kenneth Franklin of the Carnegie Institution in Washington D.C. were using this radio telescope, called the Mills Cross Radio Array (or Radio Telescope) to study the northern sky. They were pioneers in this new field of radio astronomy. That spring, they noticed a strange observation. They initially brushed it off as interference, but it was happening at a regular interval and appeared 4 minutes earlier each night.

After eliminating all the obvious sources – they discovered the source was Jupiter! No one had ever considered planets could emit radio waves before this point.
Their observation opened an entirely new field of radio astronomy and new ways of understanding our solar system.

Today, the field is filled with sunflowers, but you can see a historical marker on River Road in the parking lot area that pays tribute to Burke and Franklin’s amazing discovery.

Image: The Mills Cross Radio Telescope, a 96-acre antenna array with 5 miles of wire circa 1954. Credit: The Archives of the Carnegie Institution of Washington

10/08/2026

Did you know a tree located just off 270 in Bethesda has a tie to the space race?

Command Module Pilot Colonel Stuart Roosa of the Apollo 14 Mission carried hundreds of seeds from five different tree species into lunar orbit in his personal kit. These “Moon Tree” seeds were germinated at US Forrest Service stations and planted around the country.

On September 30, 1975, one of the saplings was planted in Bethesda, just a few hundred feet south of Grosvenor Lane. Today, it is marked by a worn wooden plaque with the number 12 on it.

Learn more about this Moon Tree in this article:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/society-of-american-foresters-moon-tree

Residing quietly in suburban Maryland, this tree has a star-powered history and was grown from a seed that journeyed to space on Apollo 14.