{"id":7733,"date":"2021-07-26T07:59:08","date_gmt":"2021-07-26T11:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/?p=7733"},"modified":"2021-12-27T15:59:56","modified_gmt":"2021-12-27T20:59:56","slug":"mapping-a-mystery-a-puzzle-from-the-countys-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/2021\/07\/mapping-a-mystery-a-puzzle-from-the-countys-past\/","title":{"rendered":"Mapping a Mystery: A Puzzle from the County\u2019s Past"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seeking the community\u2019s help to find answers<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Written by Kacy Rohn, in collaboration with Montgomery History<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Update: After receiving nearly 100 community submissions, see our best guess for the meaning of the letter \u201cP\u201d in this blog post<\/a>. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Historic maps are key to understanding Montgomery County\u2019s evolution. They reveal past social and economic systems, patterns of development and decline, and evolving transportation networks. Many of these maps have been closely studied for years, but they still hold mysteries about the county\u2019s past. We are seeking input from county residents and historians to unravel a question about Martenet & Bond\u2019s 1865 map<\/a> of Montgomery County.<\/p>\n

The map was published by Simon J. Martenet, a surveyor and civil engineer based in Baltimore who produced detailed maps of Maryland counties. In looking closely at this map to understand a historic road alignment, Historic Preservation Office staff were drawn in by an unexplained abbreviation: the letter P.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The abbreviation \u201cP\u201d appears frequently across the county, following local property owners\u2019 names.<\/p><\/div>\n

As we looked across the map, the letter P suddenly jumped out across the county. It appears in rural areas and in towns next to the names of presumed property owners. Without a key to the map, we considered several meanings: could it be \u201cplace,\u201d \u201cprincipal,\u201d \u201cplantation,\u201d or \u201cpump?\u201d Intrigued, we contacted S.J. Martenet & Co., the original mapmaking company, for its insight. It turns out this question is a mystery even to the company, whose records of the map\u2019s production were lost in the Great Baltimore Fire<\/a> of 1904. This abbreviation was not used in Martenet\u2019s other maps or included in a key, so the company doesn\u2019t know its meaning.<\/p>\n

With a growing mystery on our hands, we turned to the expert staff of Montgomery History<\/a>. Librarian and Archivist Sarah Hedlund investigated but ended up at the same dead end: none of the possible meanings seem to make sense in all circumstances.<\/p>\n

\"Historic

Near Colesville, Dr. Washington Duvall is identified with three sites, two of which are labeled with the abbreviation \u201cP.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

We\u2019re here to call on the expertise of county residents and historians who may hold the answer to this mystery \u2013 do you know what \u201cP\u201d represented?<\/p>\n

We ask anyone who might know the answer (or have a good guess!) to reach out to us<\/a>. We hope that together we can solve this puzzle and further our understanding of county history.<\/p>\n

\"Kacy
\nAbout the author<\/strong>
\nKacy Rohn is a Historic Preservation Specialist at the Montgomery County Planning Department, part of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC). Kacy conducts research and designation projects and leads historic preservation outreach and education programs. She completed a dual master\u2019s program in Community Planning and Historic Preservation at the University of Maryland, College Park in 2017.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seeking the community\u2019s help to find answers<\/em><\/p>\n

Written by Kacy Rohn, in collaboration with Montgomery History<\/em><\/p>\n

Update: After receiving nearly 100 community submissions, see our best guess for the meaning of the letter \u201cP\u201d in this blog post. <\/em><\/p>\n

Historic maps are key to understanding Montgomery County\u2019s evolution. They reveal past social and economic systems, patterns of development and decline, and evolving transportation networks. Many of these maps have been closely studied for years, but they still hold mysteries about the county\u2019s past. We are seeking input from county residents and historians to unravel a question about Martenet & Bond\u2019s 1865 map of Montgomery County.<\/p>\n

The map was published by Simon J. Martenet, a surveyor and civil engineer based … Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[299],"tags":[557,128],"class_list":["post-7733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-places","tag-historic","tag-historic-preservation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7733"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8191,"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7733\/revisions\/8191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}