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Today
we refer to one-fourth of Rockville as “west of 270,” but what and
who were here before the interstate highway?
Hundreds of years ago Watts Branch, the creek that flows under the
interstate and west to the Potomac River, provided a stopping place
for Indians passing through. In the early 18th century, Arthur
Nelson and John Allison separately obtained land patents for large
tracts of land which they named Exchange, New Exchange Enlarged,
Cuckold’s Delight, and Allison’s Park.
Nelson and Allison sold parcels to pioneers who constructed log and
frame homes close to a crude road that led west to Monocacy or east
toward the tiny settlement that later became Rockville. The early
settlers raised tobacco and shipped it to George Town or
Bladensburg. They called themselves “planters,” and many of them
used slaves and indentured servants to clear trees and plant crops.
One
planter, Dr. Thomas Sprigg Wootton, served as a vestryman in the
Anglican (later Episcopal) church. A delegate in the Maryland
Colonial Assembly, Wootton made the motion in 1776 to carve
Montgomery County out of Frederick County. Wootton lived and was
buried on Exchange and New Exchange Enlarged, on the hill above
Watts Branch near the site of the school named for him 200 years
later. He willed his farm and slaves to his nephew Turner Wootton.
Not
long after 1800, Henry Shouse and Otho Williams opened a grist mill
on the Wootton land. A succession of millers lived in the log house
on the east side of Watts Branch, grinding grain and cutting timber
for local farmers. The Wootton family sold the mill, house, and 12
acres in 1868 for $2,400. The last millers were Lindsey and
Clarence Hickerson, who abandoned water power in 1904 for a
steam-powered mill at the railroad tracks.
William H. and Kate Holmes purchased the property for a retreat in
1905. William was an artist, anthropologist, archaeologist, and
first director of the National Gallery of Art. Kate was an artist
and teacher. They enlarged the log house, which they named
Holmescroft, and summered there until selling to Charles Veirs in
1919. The Veirs family had homes on both sides of Watts Branch,
farming the land and enjoying its natural beauty for several
generations.
The
Washington National Pike (now I-270) opened in 1957, connecting
Rockville to points north and south and opening the agricultural
land for new residential subdivisions. Much of the Veirs farm
developed into Rockshire, and the City took title to Wootton’s mill
in 1969. In the 1990s, a proposal to develop the remaining 5.63
acres with townhouses resulted in sale of the Veirs property,
historic designation for the log house, and construction of 14
single-family homes.
Just to the west of Watts Branch is Flint Ledge Farm, owned by the
Hurley-Carter family for 140 years. Henry Hurley purchased 229
acres here in 1852 from which to operate a dairy and horse-boarding
farm. After the original house burned in 1870, the present
Italianate style house was constructed. In the 1970s, the
subdivision of Watts Branch Meadows developed around the old
farmhouse.
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