Takoma Park Founders Day – November 24

On November 24, 1883, Benjamin Franklin Gilbert purchased approximately 100 acres known as lots 2 and 3 of the “Grammer Farm” straddling the Maryland-DC line and the B&O Railroad. He paid $7,500. Though just six miles from downtown Washington, this was the “wilderness,” mostly scrubby forest. There was no train station, just a three-sided shelter (then called Brightwood). Only Blair Road (then Left Fork Road) and a portion of Carroll Street/Avenue (then Sandy Spring Road) existed. [See maps below] The rest of the streets were just lines on a paper map. 

On this same date Gilbert’s “Takoma Park” subdivision was approved, turning the 100 acres into 15 “blocks” with nearly 250 lots, the beginning of Gilbert’s vision of  a “Sylvan Suburb” where families could live in a healthy, rural wilderness just a 20- minute railroad commute to Washington.Read More

See Past Features