Montgomery County is a county in the U.S. state of Maryland, situated just to the north of Washington, D.C., and southwest of the city of Baltimore. It is one of the most affluent counties in the United States,[1] and has the highest percentage (29.2%) of residents over 25 years of age who hold post-graduate degrees.[2] The county seat and largest municipality is Rockville.[3] As of 2010 the population was 971,777.[4] Most of the county’s residents live in unincorporated locales, the most populous of which are Silver Spring, Germantown and Bethesda, though the incorporated cities of Rockville and Gaithersburg are also large population centers. It is a part of both the Washington Metropolitan Area and the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area.
In 2008, Montgomery County was the second richest county in terms of per capita income in the state of Maryland and 13th richest in the United States, with a median household income of $92,213.[5][6]
Montgomery County is an important business and research center. It is the epicenter for biotechnology in the Mid-Atlantic region. Montgomery County is the third largest biotechnology cluster in the USA, holding the principal cluster and companies of large corporate size in the state. Biomedical research is carried out by institutions including Johns Hopkins University‘s Montgomery County Campus (JHU MCC), Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the University of Maryland. Federal government agencies engaged in related work include the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.
Many large firms are based in the county, including Discovery Communications, Coventry Health Care, Lockheed Martin, Marriott International, Host Hotels & Resorts, Travel Channel, Ritz-Carlton, Robert Louis Johnson Companies (RLJ Cos), Choice Hotels, MedImmune, TV One, BAE Systems Inc, Hughes Network Systems and GEICO.
Other U.S. federal government agencies based in the county include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE),the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the National Naval Medical Center (NNMC), U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).
Downtown Bethesda and Silver Spring are the largest urban business hubs in the county; combined, they rival many major city cores.
Top employers
According to the County’s 2009 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report,[7] the top employers by number of employees in the county are:
| # | Employer | # of Employees |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States Department of Health and Human Services | 39,979 |
| 2 | Montgomery County Public Schools | 20,953 |
| 3 | United States Department of Defense | 14,709 |
| 4 | United States Department of Commerce | 8,749 |
| 5 | Montgomery County | 8,525 |
| 6 | Lockheed Martin | 7,000 |
| 7 | Adventist HealthCare | 6,911 |
| 8 | Marriott International | 3,957 |
| 9 | Giant | 3,816 |
| 10 | Holy Cross Hospital | 3,200 |
History
Map of Montgomery County, Maryland. Compiled in the Bureau of Topographical Engineers from the latest and best authorities, Sept. 1862.
Before European settlement, the land now known as Montgomery County was covered in a vast swath of forest crossed by the creeks and small streams that feed the Potomac and Patuxent rivers. A few small villages of the Piscataway, members of the Algonquian people, were scattered across the southern portions of the county. North of the Great Falls of the Potomac, there were few permanent settlements, and the Piscataway shared hunting camps and foot paths with members of rival peoples like the Susquehannocks and the Senecas.
Captain John Smith of the English settlement at Jamestown was probably the first European to explore the area, during his travels along the Potomac River and throughout the Chesapeake region.[8]
The Madison House in Brookeville was built around 1800 and originally owned by Caleb Bentley. The house provided refuge for President James Madison, on August 26, 1814, after the British burned Washington, D.C., during the War of 1812.
These lands were claimed by Europeans for the first time when George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore was granted the charter for the colony of Maryland by Charles I of England.[9] However, it was not until 1688 that the first tract of land in what is now Montgomery County was granted by the Calvert family to an individual colonist, a wealthy and prominent early Marylander named Henry Darnall. He and other early claimants had no intention of settling their families. They were little more than speculators, securing grants from the colonial leadership and then selling their lands in pieces to settlers. Thus, it was not until approximately 1715 that the first English settlers began building farms and plantations in the area.[10]
These earliest settlers were English or Scottish immigrants from other portions of Maryland, German settlers moving down from Pennsylvania, or Quakers who came to settle on land granted to a convert named James Brooke in what is now Brookeville. Most of these early settlers were small farmers, growing a variety of subsistence crops in addition to the region’s main cash crop, tobacco. They transported the tobacco they grew to market through the Potomac River port of Georgetown.[11] Sparsely settled, the area’s farms and taverns were nonetheless of strategic importance as access to the interior. General Edward Braddock‘s army traveled through the county on the way to its disastrous defeat at Fort Duquesne during the French and Indian War.[12]
Like other regions of the American colonies, the future Montgomery County saw protests against British taxation in the years before the American Revolution. Following the signing of the Declaration of Independence, representatives of the area helped to draft the new state constitution and began to build a Maryland free of proprietary control.[13] The new state legislature formed Montgomery County from lands that had at one point or another been part of Charles, Prince George’s and Frederick Counties, naming it after General Richard Montgomery. The leaders of the new county chose as their county seat an area adjacent to Hungerford’s Tavern near the center of the county, which later became Rockville.[14] The newly formed Montgomery County supplied arms, food and forage for the Continental Army during the Revolution, in addition to soldiers.[15]
In 1791, portions of Montgomery County, including Georgetown, were ceded to form the new District of Columbia, along with portions of Prince George’s County, Maryland, as well as parts of Virginia that were later returned to Virginia.
In 1828, construction on the C&O Canal commenced and was completed in 1850. Throughout the 19th century, agriculture dominated the economy in Montgomery County, with slaves playing a significant role. In the 1850s, crop production shifted away from tobacco and toward corn. Montgomery County was important in the abolitionist movement, with slave Josiah Henson, who wrote about his experiences in a memoir which became the basis for Harriet Beecher Stowe‘s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852). Josiah, the inspiration for the character “Uncle Tom”, was a slave in the county and a slave cabin where he is believed to have spent time still stands at the end of a driveway off Old Georgetown Road.
Until 1860, only private schools existed in Montgomery County. Initially, schools for European American students were built, and in 1872 schools for African-Americans were added.
Like most of Maryland, the county’s southern sympathies resulted in it being occupied by Union forces during the Civil War.[16]
In 1873, the Metropolitan Branch of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad opened, with a route between Washington, D.C., and Point of Rocks, Maryland. The railroad spurred development at Takoma Park, Kensington, Garrett Park and Chevy Chase.[citation needed]
On July 1, 1997, Montgomery County annexed a portion of Prince George’s County, after residents of Takoma Park, which spanned both counties, voted to be entirely within the more affluent Montgomery County.[citation needed]
The county has a number of sites on the National Register of Historic Places.[17]
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 507 square miles (1,313 km2), of which 496 square miles (1,285 km2) is land and 12 square miles (31 km2) is water. Montgomery County lies entirely inside the Piedmont plateau.
Adjacent jurisdictions
- Frederick County (northwest)
- Howard County (northeast)
- Prince George’s County (southeast)
- Washington, D.C. (south)
- Loudoun County, Virginia (west)
- Fairfax County, Virginia (southwest)
National protected areas
- Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park (part)
- Clara Barton National Historic Site
- George Washington Memorial Parkway (part)
Climate
Montgomery County spans a transition zone between the humid subtropical climate found in its southern reaches near Washington, D.C. and Prince George’s County and the humid continental climate across the county’s central and northern parts. Hot, humid summers and mild to chilly winters are found within the humid subtropical climate zone, while comparatively colder winters are found in the humid continental climate, further from any significant body of water. All of Montgomery County receives plentiful precipitation year-round, with annual totals averaging from 39 to 43 inches. The average yearly snowfall for the county ranges from 21″ in the southernmost extents to 25-28″ across the northern portions from Barnesville to Mount Airy.
