Explore Rockville’s History

Our city has a long, diverse and unique story to tell.

With origins dating back to earlier than 8000 B.C., the land mass that now makes up Rockville is one of Maryland’s oldest settled areas. Indigenous people, made up of at least six tribes as part of the Piscataway confederacy, seasonally navigated the Piedmont region and used local rivers, such as Rock Creek, Cabin John Creek and Watts Branch, for travel, hunting and as refuge. These indigenous tribes eventually switched from a nomadic way of life and settled in the area. Via agrarian culture, these tribes called the area home year-round. During the late 1600s and due to growing European settlement expanding from the Chesapeake Bay and lower Potomac into the Rock Creek Valley, these tribes departed the area.

The first land patents for the area were issued by Maryland’s proprietor between 1717 and 1735. The area making up Rockville was originally a part of Prince George’s County. Due to the growth of Frederick Town, the western portion of the county was divided and became Frederick County.

In 1776, the Maryland Constitutional Convention divided Frederick County into three new units. The area making up Rockville was placed in the newly established Montgomery County. Because of its central location, this area served as the county seat and became known as Montgomery Court House. In the 1780s, the community was also known as Williamsburgh, named for the family that subdivided the central part of town, when Rockville was little more than a cluster of homes, a tavern, a courthouse and a jail. In 1801, the Maryland General Assembly officially established the name of the town as “Rockville” because of its proximity to Rock Creek. The population grew from 200, in 1800, to 400 in 1846. Rockville became incorporated in 1860 and was governed by three commissioners until 1888, when the city’s 400 residents elected the first Mayor and Council.

The opening of the Rockville depot on the Metropolitan Branch of the B&O Railroad in 1873 brought Rockville into closer contact to the growing District of Columbia, but overall growth came slowly. In the 1930s, this growth was steady but not spectacular. City limits were expanded again, this time to the south, and the population rose to 2,047 in 1940. Post-World War II, Rockville’s population skyrocketed due to rapid suburban residential development, increasing from 6,934, in 1950, to nearly 45,000 in 1980. As of the 2020 census, the population had increased to 67,000, with future growth anticipated along the city’s commercial and transit corridors.

Rockville has grown rapidly since its founding, from a leisurely, agriculturally oriented county seat to a cosmopolitan city of many neighborhoods. It is home to a well-educated population and serves as an employment center for national biomed corporations, the federal government and county government.

Walking Tours, Interactive Maps, and Publications

The following resources are available to learn more about Rockville’s history. When visiting downtown Rockville, the walking tour online maps and brochures are a perfect complement to the historic walking tour signs installed at each tour stop. 

A satellite map of Rockville, Maryland, with red map pins marking historic sites; a sidebar lists locations including churches, a tavern, and courthouses for a historic tour.

Historic Rockville Walking Tour

Historic Cemetery Walking Tour

A detailed map shows locations marked with red pins for an African-American Heritage Tour in Rockville, Maryland, with a list of historic sites on the left.

African American Heritage Walking Tour

Map showing historic districts and National Register sites in a city, with highlighted areas and icons marking specific locations and streets.

Local Historic Districts Interactive Map

Screenshot of a digital map for the Rockville Historic Buildings Tour, showing a list of historic homes with photos and locations marked on a city map.

Historic Buildings Catalog Interactive Map

A map shows annexations in Rockville, Maryland, since 1803, with different shaded regions indicating areas annexed over time. Major roads and green spaces are also visible.

Annexation History Interactive Map

Two covers: one of a book titled "Rockville: Portrait of a City" with a house, and another marking Rockville's 150th anniversary with historical images and text.

Purchase “Rockville: Portrait of a City,” a 250-page, full-color history of Rockville using this order form.

Email specialevents@rockvillemd.gov to request a copy of “The Sesquicentennial of Rockville: Local Government at 150 Years,” a short, paperback history of Rockville.

View the Historic Buildings Catalog. Paper copies of the catalog are available at Rockville City Hall.

History of Glenview Farm (prehistory-1917)

The Piscataway Indian Nation has maintained a long-standing relationship with the lands around the Glenview Farm and the surrounding area. Along with the Piscataway Conoy Tribe, the Piscataway Indian Nation received recognition by the State of Maryland in 2012. Indigenous people, comprised of at least six tribes of the Piscataway confederacy, seasonally navigated the Piedmont region. These indigenous tribes eventually switched from a nomadic way of life and settled in the area. During the late 1600s and due to growing European settlement expanding from the Chesapeake Bay and lower Potomac into the Rock Creek Valley, these tribes departed the area.

Nearly 200 years ago, when the nation was developing, Rockville was only a 200-resident village surrounded by farms. It served as a crossroads between the ports of Georgetown, Bladensburg, and Baltimore to the western frontier.

In the late 1820s or early 1830s, Judge Richard Johns Bowie purchased 500 acres of land to build a family home for his wife, Catherine L. Bowie, and his three adopted daughters. Bowie used the labor of enslaved Black people to clear forests and develop approximately 368 acres of land. The family home was built on the property’s highest point and named Glenview Farm because of its view of the Croydon Creek valley below. The two-story Greek Revival plantation residence was part of a larger agricultural property that included several outbuildings such as a summer kitchen, shed, and barn. The plantation produced corn, wheat, rye, potatoes, and hay, and raised cattle, horses, sheep, and pigs.

Census records from 1860 show that the Bowies enslaved 21 Black people to work in the family home and raise the crops and livestock, a common and horrific situation in this border state in the decades leading to the Civil War. The home and buildings were constructed, and the lands were worked at the expense of forcefully enslaved Black people. Glenview’s economic growth and development were made possible by the labor of enslaved Africans and their descendants who suffered the terror of transatlantic trafficking and chattel slavery. Between 1862 and 1864, enslaved Black people were freed in Rockville under the Maryland Constitution of 1864.

Bowie worked as an attorney and served as a state senator when Glenview Farm was under construction. By the time of his death in 1881, he had served as State’s Attorney for Montgomery County, a member of U.S. Congress, and Chief Judge for the Maryland Court of Appeals. Glenview Farm remained in the Bowie family until 1905. The property changed hands several times before 1917 when it was purchased by the Lyon family, who would reconstruct the property into the stately mansion and gardens there today.

Peerless Rockville Historic Preservation, Ltd. (Peerless Rockville) has undertaken the ongoing task of researching the enslaved people of Glenview Farm. Learning about the lives of people in the 19th century can be challenging due to the lack of written records, photographs, and other materials. Researching enslaved individuals is often much more difficult as they may only appear in documents as nameless property. It is generally much easier to find information about affluent, white landowners whose wealth meant their lives were documented in various ways: land transactions, property maps, taxes, wills, and other administrative records.

One of the few known names of an individual who was enslaved at Glenview Farm, Benjamin Smith, was provided by the man himself. Mr. Smith shared his history with his family and descendants, who celebrated his life and story and shared it with Peerless Rockville and others. Mr. Smith’s interviews have been an invaluable resource in the further study of Glenview Farm’s history.

Although many pieces of the tangible history of the enslaved Black people at Glenview Farm have been lost, research for pertinent locations is continuous. Most recently, the Montgomery County Planning Department conducted a field visit to the Avery Road Cemetery, located on land formerly included in the Glenview Farm acreage. This fieldwork found evidence that a gravesite excluded from the original boundaries of the burial site (referenced in documentation as a “colored Grave Yard [sic]” and locally as the Smith family cemetery) was previously mis-mapped.

This site may be where not only Mr. Smith’s family rests, but also where other Black bodies were interred. The findings of this study may be read here: Burial Sites, 233 Avery Road.

Rockville is now one of the most diverse small cities in the U.S. We encourage our community to converse about and reflect upon the lessons of our past so we may build a stronger future. Here are links to recommended resources to help you learn more about the Black and Indigenous experience in Rockville and Montgomery County:

For further study on African American and Black history in the U.S., please visit the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

History of Glenview Mansion (1917-1954)

Glenview Mansion is the centerpiece of Rockville Civic Center Park and the former country estate of the wealthy Lyon family and plantation for the powerful Bowie family.

This overview traces the history of the property from the 1830s to today. Nearly 200 years ago, when the nation was developing, Rockville was only a 200-resident village surrounded by farms. Still, it served as a crossroads between the ports of Georgetown, Bladensburg and Baltimore to the western frontier.

Judge Richard Bowie and wife Catherine purchased 500 acres of land, and used the labor of enslaved Black people to clear forests for a working plantation and family home. The farm produced corn, wheat, rye, potatoes and hay, and was used to raise cattle, horses, sheep and pigs. In 1838, their two-story house was built on the property’s highest point and named “Glen View” because of its view of the Croydon Creek valley below. Bowie was working as an attorney and serving as a state senator when Glen View was under construction. By the time of his death in 1881, he had served as State’s Attorney for Montgomery County, a member of U.S. Congress and Chief Judge for the Maryland Court of Appeals.

Bowie was a Union sympathizer and anti-secessionist, yet owned enslaved Black people and opposed abolishing slavery. His home and farm were built and maintained by 21 enslaved Black people, a common and horrific situation in this border state in the decades leading to the Civil War. Between 1862 and 1864, enslaved Black people were freed in Rockville under the Maryland Constitution of 1864.

Glen View remained in the Bowie family until 1904, then changed hands several times before 1917, when it was purchased by Irene and William Smith, a recently married couple whose wealth gave them political and social connections in Washington, D.C., and New York.

With the arrival of the automobile, wealthy heirs, business leaders, department store owners, newspaper publishers and other elite residents of Washington built country estates on the major roads leading to Rockville to entertain friends and escape the summer heat and urban congestion of Washington. Unfortunately, William Smith died shortly after the purchase of the home and in 1923, Irene married James Lyon, a prominent cardiologist and highly decorated U.S. Army officer. They hired architects Lochie and Porter to transform the property from a farm to a fashionable country estate, with formal gardens designed for entertaining, called Glenview. It was completed just before the birth of the Lyon’s only child, Betsy, in 1926.

The Bowie’s original house still survives as the center of the much larger neoclassical mansion. The 1926 estate is now approximately 25,000 square feet and features more than 30 rooms. In 1938, the Lyons had the Cottage built as a playhouse for their daughter. With newcomers flocking to the nation’s capital during and following World War II, Glenview was no longer in the country but in the suburbs. From 1940 to 1960, Rockville’s population grew from 2,000 to 26,000. After Irene Lyon’s death in 1950, her husband began selling off parcels of the estate for housing developments, eventually selling the mansion to the Montgomery County Historical Society in 1954.

In 1957, the City of Rockville purchased Glenview and the surrounding 28 acres for $125,000 to become a civic center — a controversial decision based on a referendum that passed by only 40 votes. It immediately became a popular place for community meetings and events. Some organizations, such as the Rockville Art League, Rockville Little Theater and Sister Cities Corporation, have continued to use the park since 1957. In time, the City of Rockville would expand the park to 153 acres and add a theater, tennis courts, hiking trail and nature center.

The property is now referred to as Glenview Mansion at Rockville Civic Center Park and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places under Glenview Farm: M-26/17. Once a plantation and private country estate, Glenview Mansion now welcomes more than 100,000 people and hosts 1,200 events and activities annually as Rockville Civic Center Park.

History of Civic Center Cottage

In 1918, Irene Moore Smith purchased the Glenview estate (now the Rockville Civic Center Park). After the death of Mr. Smith, Irene married Dr. James Alexander Lyon. Together they completed the major renovations to the property, including the addition of the formal gardens and landscaping east of the Mansion. The Lyons had one child, Elizabeth (Betsy) Moore Lyon, born in 1926. In 1938, Dr. Lyon saw designs for a doll’s house in a movie magazine. Using these plans, he had a full-scale replica built for his daughter as a playhouse at a cost of $23,000. The playhouse exists today and is known as the Civic Center Cottage. With only minor changes from its original construction, it retains much of the original features which it had when Betsy played there.

Recollections of the playhouse by early visitors indicate that it consisted of one large room with a fireplace and warming oven to the left. There was a winding staircase to the loft, in which there were bunk beds and a small bathroom with toilet, washbasin, and sink. On a small table at the foot of the stairs was a French telephone, which was part of the 16-station house intercom system and an outside phone. Opposite the fireplace was a large bay window with a window seat flanked by corner cupboards. The walls of the principal room were pine paneled. At the left of the rear wall there was an entrance to the former kitchen (now a powder room). It originally contained a sink, stove, cabinets, and a refrigerator. To the right of the former kitchen was the sleeping porch. The porch was accessed through a pair of French doors with side lights that flanked the opening.

The exterior of the playhouse was finished with clapboard. The sleeping porch was screen enclosed and had ornamental iron railing paralleling the windows. Under the sleeping porch, three archways led from the basement to the ground level: The large quadrangular-shaped yard behind the playhouse was intended to have been the site of a swimming pool or tennis court. The quadrangle was ringed with boxwood shrubbery.

Mrs. Lyon died in 1950, and Dr. Lyon sold Glenview in 1953. The property was bought by the Montgomery County Historical Society as a home for its collection of county memorabilia. The property proved too costly to operate and maintain and therefore, in 1957, it was sold to the City of Rockville. The city has used the Cottage as a classroom, a home for camps and classes, and for over 10 years the Glenview docents operated a gift shop. In 1999, the Cottage underwent interior renovations to restore it as much as possible to its original appearance. The Cottage is now used for meetings, retreats, conferences, and small parties.

Explore Rockville’s History