A history of Darnestown,
then and now
Postcards, papers and photographs of Darnestown from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗The first European (mostly Scottish and English) settlements in what would become Montgomery County, Maryland, were established in 1688, near Rock Creek and what was to become Rockville. The next stage of settlements was further west along the Potomac River near what is now Darnestown and Poolesville. The land had been occupied by Native Americans of the Piscataway Confederation. Ninian Beall was the first European landowner in the Darnestown area, settling around 1749. His daughter Ruth Beall married Charles Gassaway, who built a brick home named Pleasant Hills around 1765. This was one of the first brick homes in what is now Montgomery County, and still stands today. Gassaway purchased land from his father-in-law during the late 1700s—including land that would eventually become the Darnestown village. In the last half of the 18th century, a small village grew at the intersection of wh…
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Darnestown’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewMontgomery County MD 1862, 1863: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Darnestown
See all 1 →Darnestown, decade by decade
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Poolesville-Darnestown-Rockville MD 1841 (1841) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (6). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.