PLENTY Spring 2020 Plenty Spring 2020-WEB | Page 18

roam the re se rve
Parks, History and Fun in
Brookeville and Sandy Spring
by sarah r o gers
E
ast of I-270, just 20
miles north of Wash-
ington DC, the eastern
Agricultural Reserve
offers an abundance of things to
do and places to explore. Discover
farms, woodlands, historic towns,
stunning architecture, brewer-
ies, parks and much more in and
around Brookeville.
Founded in 1794, Brookeville is
truly a step back in time, with its
historic character largely intact.
Once a main thoroughfare joining
Ellicott City, Frederick and Wash-
ington DC, the town is a showcase
of early architecture dating from
the 1790s through the 1950s. An
early American center for com-
merce and industry, by 1813
Brookeville was home to two mills,
one used for lumber and grinding
castor oil and the other used for
processing grain, a tanning yard,
two stores, a blacksmith’s shop,
a post office and a boys school,
as well as a constable. On a walk
through town, a visitor can see the
mill ruins, the millers cottage, the
stone Academy school, Madison
House, and abundant waterways
that powered early industries.
Set on a plateau surrounded
on three sides by Reddy Branch,
a tributary of the Patuxent River,
and encircled by rich farmlands
and forest, the peaceful hamlet
was at the forefront of extinguish-
ing the practice of slavery and was
the United States “Capital for a
Day” during the War of 1812.
Like nearby Sandy Spring, the
town was founded by members of
The Society of Friends, or Quakers.
Early on, the Quakers opposed the
enslavement of others and by the
late 1700s they began manumitting
the enslaved African Americans
they held and sup-
porting escapees by
providing shelter at
stops along the Un-
derground Railroad.
Freed blacks
often remained in
the area providing
skilled, domestic,
and farm labor
for wages. These
people bought land,
built houses and
churches, and set-
tled their families
in a number of local
The historic Brookeville
Academy (circa 1810),
one of the first private
academies in the County,
was restored in 1997.
It is an award-winning
centerpiece in the Town
of Brookeville, serving as
its community center.
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plenty I Spring sowing 2020