P L E N T Y SUMMER 2019 Plenty Summer 2019-joomag copy | Page 36

R U S T I C R O A D S & W AT E R W AY S
EVERY
ROAD
HAS A
STORY
BY GINNY BARNES
I
t all starts with the word rustic: an adjective
that evokes country life, a simpler time in a
rural landscape, a time when agriculture and
the movement of agricultural products defined
road systems that gave passage from farm to
nearby mill, then on to market or river for trans-
port to larger towns or cities. Montgomery County
has a rich farming history which was still lively and
widespread into the middle of the 20th century.
Orchards and farms still operated in between post
World War II housing tracts just beyond the bound-
aries of Washington, DC. That farming history and
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PLENTY I SUMMER GROWING 2019
Berryville Road is designated as an Exceptional Rustic Road.
its vibrant present is now concentrated in the pro-
tected 93,000-acre Agricultural Reserve.
By the 1960's, paving, widening and altering of
existing roads to accommodate development had
alerted residents to the impending loss of something
that bound them to history, or took them past a local
stream where a grain mill or one-room schoolhouse
once stood. The practice reached epic proportions
when, in the 1980's, approved housing developments
even included requirements to upgrade roads miles
from the project itself.
The rapidity of changes aroused community
concerns about a loss of scenic beauty, of special en-
vironmental features and a heritage we’d only begun
to document. Several near losses of one-lane bridges
and uniquely picturesque roads led to citizen leaders
speaking out. As a result, the Montgomery County
Council created a Task Force in 1989 to study a Ru-
ral/Rustic Roads Program. In 1990, it recommended
creation of such a program noting that there are
roads throughout the County which reflect our