Jim Starcher, President
Anita Fry, Vice President
Pat Williams, Secretary
Nan Norton, Corresponding Secretary
Dan King, Treasurer
Damascus Heritage Society News
THE DEVOTED CURATOR OF DAMASCUS HISTORY
SUMMER
2015
VOL. 9
NO. 3
day. You will learn that the elegant Souder house
was replaced by the Weiss shopping center, and that
the original high school was located where the water
tower now stands, and the fitness center was once a
thriving hardware store.
From the President
It has been a very busy spring for the Heritage
Society. The “Globe Trotters” exhibit was a success
and wrapped up at the end of May. Then on June 3
we opened the new exhibit “Our Town - Then and
Now” with the help of many from the community. At
the end of May we participated in the Memorial Day
service at the Damascus American Legion, always a
wonderful afternoon.
At the end of June we
participated in the county-wide event Heritage
Montgomery, and despite the heavy rainfall that day
we had a great turnout. July brought us to our annual
town festival, Celebrate Damascus. We had a really
good time at the Friday night parade followed by
more than 200 visitors on Saturday in the museum.
In September we will be at the Community Fair again
and in October we will be repeating the very popular
“Miniatures” exhibit. Things are always busy at the
museum.
Many pictures of our town remind visitors
of the Damascus of yesteryear.
We kick off our annual membership drive every year
in July. Again we thank you for your past support and
ask that you please continue to support our efforts in
the coming year.
Damascus resident David Terrar has loaned us many
of his oil paintings from his “My Hometown” series.
See information about David later in this newsletter.
We were delighted when he offered his pictures to the
museum for this exhibit. If you missed them at the
Arts and Crafts Festival at the Recreation Center, you
can’t afford to miss them at the museum.
Jim Starcher, President
“Our Town- Then and Now”
“Our Town” opened on June 3 and has already seen
many visitors come in to reminisce about the
wonderful and varied history on which our town is
built. The exhibit was not called “Damascus – Then
and Now” because we feel that our town
encompasses much more than the town proper.
Those living in the communities of Browningsville,
Claggettsville, Etchison, Friendship, Lewisdale,
Purdum, Woodfield, and Zeiglertown also consider
themselves Damascans.
We all know the McDonalds, the Library/Senior
Center, and the Weiss shopping center, but do you
know what was there many years ago? When you
visit our exhibit, you will take a pictorial walk through
the town of yesteryear and progress into the current
David’s pictures of Tom and Ray’s remind us of good
times at the local establishment.
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Lastly, you can take a look at the future when you
stand back and admire our water tower, complete
with a Swarmin’ Hornet on the side.
flags honoring the twelve Post members who died
during the past year. The service concluded with a
21-gun salute, bagpipers, and a bugler playing Taps.
This is “Your Town” and we are sure you will enjoy
learning a little more about it. The exhibit runs until
the end of September.
The Heritage Society was represented this year by
President Jim Starcher and Vice President Anita Fry.
Many organizations in town participate year after year
in this event sponsored by the Damascus American
Legion. We thank our Legion friends for providing
such a great service to our community.
So, see you at the museum.
So Long….
We said “Bon Voyage” to our exhibit on international
travel at the end of May. It had a great four-month
run, and we hope you were able to visit the museum
to enjoy the treasures your friends and neighbors
brought from their travels abroad. Damascus Globe
Trotters was the 20th exhibit featured in our little
museum since it opened almost six years ago. They
have all been fun, interesting, and diverse, but this
one contained such a wide variety of unusual items
representing the history and culture of foreign lands
that it made you want to pack your bags.
Our exhibits change every four months, and each one
is different and unique. If you haven’t seen the
current one, plan your visit now, and come back often
because new items are added throughout the exhibit.
And remember, the miniatures return in October.
Flowers from many town organizations grace the
Honor Roll at the Damascus American Legion.
Memorial Day Celebration
Three years after the Civil War ended the head of an
organization
of
Union
veterans
established
Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate
the graves of the war dead with flowers. It is believed
that May 30 was chosen because flowers would be in
bloom all over the country. Although the name
changed from Decoration Day to Memorial Day
gradually, it was not until after World War II that
Memorial Day became the preferred name of the
holiday.
The name was officially changed by
Congress in 1967.
The Damascus American Legion, Post 171, held their
annual Memorial Day program on May 24. The
Damascus Heritage Society joined a group of more
than 200 to honor the fallen veterans. The ceremony
began with a concert by the Browningsville Band
followed by the raising of the American flag, the
Pledge of Allegiance, and the National Anthem. The
keynote speaker was Retired Army Colonel “Bill”
Holmes. The Ladies Auxiliary presented individual
Anita Fry holds beautiful flowers from her garden
that she and Jim presented on behalf
of the Heritage Society.
If you haven’t been to a Memorial Day service, plan to
attend next year. It is a wonderful afternoon full of
community spirit.
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Celebrate Damascus
Heritage Montgomery
- A County-wide Celebration -
With no rain and a little breeze, July 10 turned out to
be a beautiful evening for a parade. It seemed as
though the entire town lined the parade route. Many
of the floats and marching units depicted this year’s
theme which was Disney Cartoons. Once the parade
was over and the sun had set, the fireworks began –
and what a spectacular display they were. The oohs
and aahs could be heard among the crowd as the
shower of color lit up the sky. We all thank Robert
Williams for providing this year’s display.
Heritage Montgomery weekend arrived in a down
pour of rain. The museum staff showed up on time,
not expecting many people to brave the elements to
help celebrate the annual event. To our surprise,
visitors began arriving before the official opening and
kept coming all day.
Bernardine Beall, impersonating Ethel Scott from the
1930’s, entertained the visitors with stories of
Damascus. Ethel Scott, in addition to being the
mother of Bernardine, was the wife of Bernard “Buck”
Gladhill, a prominent player in Damascus history.
Along with her many delightful stories, Bernardine
also fascinated people with her knowledge of how the
streets in Damascus got their names.
Dan and Pat were ready for the parade. It was a
beautiful evening in Damascus.
We opened the museum early on Saturday. The rain
cleared, and the sun came out to provide a perfect
day for all the activities planned for the town’s big
day. Celebrate Damascus is always the museum’s
busiest day, and this year was no exception. The
trolley stop outside our door brought more than 200
visitors to see the current exhibit, “Our Town – Then
and Now.” The adults enjoyed taking a brief walk
down memory lane while the younger generations
lined up to try typing on an antique typewriter. Many
had never seen a typewriter and did not realize how
much effort it was to hit the keys – it truly is a
computer generation.
It was a great weekend, thanks to the committee who
worked so hard all year to organize and prepare for
this event. Thank you, thank you everyone.
Bernardine at her best - telling stories of
the Damascus of yesteryear.
Membership Drive
Visitors enjoyed the current exhibit, “Our Town –
Then and Now,” by taking a pictorial walk along some
of the major thoroughfares as they looked at the
“then” pictures and compared them with the “now”
pictures.
Our yearly membership drive began on July 1.
Membership dues are the main source of funds
providing support to the museum. If you have
received a letter or email asking to renew or begin a
membership, we hope you give what you can. All
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donations are appreciated and are tax deductible. If
you did not receive a membership application, please
fill out the one on the back of this newsletter and mail
it or drop it by when you visit the museum.
designed a garden shed with a landscaped base,
and the monthly projects were now a part of this
larger project. Several members are close to being
finished and will display them at the upcoming exhibit.
Sponsored by the Friends of the Library, the group
meets one Saturday a month. In addition, recently
club members were each given a cigar box, donated
by Anita Fry, Vice President of the Damascus
Heritage Museum, and are planning their own
scenes. Hopefully, some of these will be ready for
display at the exhibit, along with lots of holidayrelated miniatures, and other miniature items by
individual club members.
Whether you are a native of Damascus from an old
Damascus family or a recent resident, we hope you
will help us preserve the history of our wonderful
community. Please support your museum.
About our Artist:
David Terrar
David attended a Heritage Society meeting a while
back to tell us a little about himself and his pictures;
pictures that you will currently find on display at the
museum. David has lived in Damascus for 27 years.
He studied art in Paris. His career in Human
Resource Administration allowed him to work in 38
countries and live in ten. He has been painting on and
off for 49 years but it was not until a medical crisis
arose that he gave up his stressful job to begin
painting full time. He requested a grant from the Arts
and Humanities Council of Montgomery County to
make a visual documentary by painting 15 pictures in
and around Damascus. He explained how he chose
his locations and the angles from which to paint them.
His visual documentary was done to say “thank you”
to Damascus.
Remember the Baltimore row houses from 2011?
Looks like you could step up and knock on the door.
They are so real that they even have the painted
screens that Baltimore is so famous for.
David’s paintings are a part of the current exhibit.
The miniatures exhibit will run for four months, from
October 2015 - January 2016. It is a really
fascinating hobby and we look forward to seeing what
our Damascus miniature hobbyists are preparing for
our enjoyment.
Back by popular demand.....
THE MINIATURES
ARE COMING TO TOWN
LIKE US ON
Four years ago, the Mini Wonder Workers of
Damascus, a 5-member club led by Sue Ann
Ketchum, exhibited their miniature roomboxes,
vignettes, and scenes for a three-month period at the
Damascus Heritage Society Museum. At that time
they provided a sign-up sheet for visitors to see if
there was enough interest to start another club. Over
30 people signed up and came to the initial meeting.
Sue has been mentoring this new club for almost 4
years now. The members range in age from 10 - 88
years old and have a wide variety of skill levels, and
call themselves the Mini Misfits of Damascus. They
made quite a few small projects during the first two
years, however, during the third year, the club
members asked for a larger, ongoing project. Sue
FACEBOOK
www.facebook.com/DamascusHeritageSociety
Our friends on Facebook now number 864 and the
number continues to grow. Here you can preview the
current exhibit, and find pictures and fun facts of
exhibits from the past, and even read the latest
newsletter.
Visit us at www.Facebook.com/Damascusmuseum
and leave your own fun fact about Damascus or
comment about your community museum.
We thank Pedro Argote of Valor Graphics for all his
work in creating and maintaining this site for us.
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The name Wyndo was created by the present
owners, the Doodys. They needed a farm name with
which to register their Holstein cattle. As their first
choice, Wyndy Ridge, was already taken, they took
the first three letters of Wyndy and added the first two
letters of their last name; hence Wyndo. The farm
has been in the Doody family for three generations,
since 1960.
Lighting the Way
Can you imagine walking around town at night with
just the light of the moon to guide you? That is how it
was in Damascus until 1946. Luckily Damascus has
always had community-minded organizations to take
care of such problems. The American Legion was
chartered in 1945, and chose installing street lights
on Main Street as their first project. That original
project, headed by Luther Burke, Leroy Mullinix, and
Kenneth Howes, was to install nine street lights on
Main Street. By the time the county took over the
task of installing the lights, the American Legion had
installed 25-30 lights around town.
During your visit to the MOOseum, make sure to get
a look at their latest addition, a beautiful Model T Ford
Milk Truck advertising Martin’s Dairy. And of course
you must see Eddie’s cows.
In Memory of and In Honor of
The original lights were green enameled Radial
Wave, 150 Watt, incandescent lights. They were bell
shaped with a “ruffled” bottom, and were used in
Damascus from 1946 until 1957.
Two memberships have come in with dedications
since our last newsletter:
Charles Rhinehart, Jr
In memory of
Bob and Kathleen Rhinehart
Thanks to museum friend,
Gary Richard, who collects
everything Damascus, big
or small, the current exhibit
has four generations of
street lights on display,
including the Radial Wave.
Today’s lights may be
brighter, but their beauty
has been replaced by
function only. When you
visit the exhibit, look under
the table to see the street lights once used in
Damascus.
Becky Abrahams
In memory of
Gerald King
Our Dedication Books are always available for
your perusal when you are in the museum. We
have records of all the dedications since the
beginning of the Heritage Society.
It is a
wonderful way to remember friends and family.
MOOseum
Our friends at the King Barn Dairy MOOseum,
located at the South Germantown Recreational Park,
have opened for the season. Each month they
feature a different family dairy farm and on the 4th
Sunday of each month, members of that farm family
are on hand to discuss their experiences of life on the
farm. On July 26, the John Doody farm in Damascus,
Wyndo Farm, will be highlighted. You may remember
that in 2013 Julia Doody was the Maryland Dairy
Princess and assisted us in opening our Dairy Farms
exhibit in November of that year.
BIG SHIRTS
little shirts
ManY siZes OF shIrtS
You can never have enough tee shirts. They
are a summer staple for young and old alike.
If you don’t have a Damascus Heritage
Museum tee shirt, your wardrobe is not
complete. Stop by, pick one up, and wear it
proudly to support your local museum. We now
have children’s shirts – shirts for the whole
family. Get some today.
Genoa King and his wife Vinnie bought the land upon
which Wyndo Farm is now situated in 1905, after
moving from Damascus where they had owned a mill.
The land was once part of a tract called “Trouble
Enough Indeed”, granted to Thomas Whitten in 1766.
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Population Then - 1941
The 1941 Gazetteer of Maryland listed the following
populations:
Browningsville 116
Claggettsville 40
Clarksburg
150
Damascus
175
Etchison
12
Kemptown
86
Kings Valley 27
Lewisdale
40
Purdum
121
Woodfield
48
Remember this?
NOW… The Safeway as it is today. Fifty years later
and this area of our town is hardly recognizable.
MUSEUM HOURS & LOCATION
The museum is open Wednesday and
Saturday from noon until 4:00.
We are
located on the grounds of the Library/Senior
Center at 9701 Main Street in Damascus. To
arrange a special tour or group tours in the
off hours, call 301-253-2014.
So, see you at the museum.
THEN… The Damascus Courier, Volume 1, Number 1,
October 8, 1964 – This sign was announcing the new
shopping center that was coming to Damascus.
9899 Main Street
The year was 1915, one hundred years ago, when
Russell Duvall opened his store in the little village of
Damascus. The village was just a year shy of
celebrating its 100th birthday and there were already
several stores to serve its residents, but it was a
growing town, and there was always room for another
business. The store was located on the corner of
Main Street (Rt. 108) and Ridge Road (Rt. 27). At the
time, Damascus was a rural farming community
where families grew much of their food, therefore Mr.
Duvall’s store would have carried general
merchandise such as tools, cloth, and seeds, in
addition to staple food items. It would have had a
meat cooler that was cooled with blocks of ice, seed
bins, and rows of shelves. Russell Duvall operated
his store for ten years before selling it to Roby Miles.
THEN, A LITTLE LATER… The shopping center came,
was remodeled a couple of times, and then torn down
completely in 2009, only to be rebuilt in the current
configuration. This was just one version of the
Safeway over the years as it was ready for demolition
in order to make room for the current Safeway
located across the parking lot.
Roby Miles purchased the store in 1925 and operated
it for more than 20 years. During the 1940’s, he built
an addition, doubling the size of the structure, and
adding a basement. As happens in many small
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towns, the store became an informal “community
center” where people came to see their neighbors
and exchange news, as well as buy food and other
necessities.
Can you
guess what
these are????
In 1947, the store was sold again, this time to Brown
Williams and his wife Hepsie. The population was
about 200; the town was growing slowly.
Mr.
Williams hired a teenage boy by the name of Tommy
Bellison to help in the store. Young Tommy took to
store work so well that in the early 1950’s he
purchased the store from Brown Williams. Thus the
little store on the corner became Bellison’s Grocery
Store. The store sold groceries until 1973 when the
Safeway opened. Unable to compete with a major
grocery store, Bellison decided to run a carryout
business from the building, but eventually moved the
carryout across the street to Tom & Ray’s restaurant
which he and Ray Luhn had opened in 1960 on the
site of Zem’s clothing store that had recently burned
down.
Yes, Gary collects
everything and these
just happen to be in
the museum for this
exhibit. Recognize
them? They are
announcements from
the Druid Theater,
outlining the coming
attractions.
In this issue:
I’d like to point out that this newsletter is a
collaboration of effort from multiple individuals. Pat
wrote a lot of the articles this time and I edited and
added a few tidbits here and there as needed. Jim
Starcher provided the letter from the President, of
course. Anita, Pat, and Jim supplied the current
pictures and I dug through the archives and added
some of the old pictures that we had from previous
exhibits. Since I am no longer in Damascus I rely on
those who are there to give me the info on the current
happenings. I enjoy keeping up with recent activities
and always enjoy putting the newsletter together,
adding, subtracting, editing, arranging, and just
generally making it all fit into the space allotted. So
as you see, it is a team effort. It seems to be working
smoothly from my perspective but only you can tell us
that. If you have any comments or suggestions,
please speak up and let someone know and we will
try to accommodate your wishes.
Linda Olsen, Editor
Bellison’s Store, 1970
Photo courtesy of Steve Hawkins
for the “Country Stores” Exhibit.
Future Meetings
Meetings convene at the Damascus Public Library at
7:00 PM in the large meeting room, unless noted
otherwise, as follows:
Our little store with the long history was torn down to
make room for the Miles Center which was built in
1991. Although another landmark has disappeared
from the history of our town, it will live in the
memories of those who may have stopped by for a
gallon of milk or perhaps an ice cream cone on a
warm day.
The Damascus Heritage Society is
making an effort to preserve the town’s history for the
generations of Damascans to come.
Monday, August 17
Monday, September 21
Monday, October 19
Monday, November 16
Monday, December 21
Call 301-253-2014 for information.
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Memberships:
BECOME A FRIEND OF THE
DAMASCUS HERITAGE SOCIETY
[ ] Individual $25
Name:
[ ] Family $35
Address:
[ ] Business/Friend $50-$99
City, State, Zip:
[ ] Fellow $100-$499
Phone:
[ ] Sponsor $500-$999
Email:
[ ] Patron $1,000-$4999
[ ] Benefactor $5000+
All payments are tax deductible - we are a
501c3 non-profit charitable organization.
Mail to:
Damascus Heritage Society Inc.
P.O. Box 218
Damascus, MD 20872
Copying service provided by our friends at
If desired, in Memory/Honor of (circle one):
DOVETAIL - Printing – Signs – Woodworking
NEWSLETTER – Summer 2015
Damascus Heritage Society Inc.
P.O. Box 218
Damascus, MD 20872
See you at the museum.
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