From the Brookeville Historic District, participants will cycle 15 miles past historic landmarks, including ruins of a grist mill, a school and a manor house, before returning to Brookeville
SILVER SPRING, MD – The Montgomery County Planning Department, part of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, is sponsoring a 15-mile bike ride on Saturday, June 29, 2019 that starts at 9:30 a.m. at the Brookeville Beer Garden (20315 Georgia Avenue, Brookeville, MD) and ends at that location around 12 noon. The bike tour is part of Heritage Days 2019, a free festival sponsored by Heritage Montgomery.
The majority of the loop is a low-stress route, but some sections consist of hilly terrain and two-lane roads lacking shoulders and are unsuitable for young children.
Please RSVP online to reserve your spot.
All participants need to bring their own bikes and helmets, and are required to sign a waiver before the bike ride. They can access the waiver online at https://montgomeryplanning.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/BikeTourWaiver.docx.
The group ride will pass the following historic structures with some stops:
- Thomas Mill: Ruins of an early 19th-century grist mill located in Brookeville.
- Brookeville Academy: A stone, one-room school house, “sufficient for sixty pupils,” that was built around 1810.
- Sandy Spring Meeting House: A 1817 Quaker meeting house with an historic cemetery.
- Woodlawn: The manor house and its outbuildings illustrate Montgomery County’s agricultural history. The outbuildings consist of a 19th century stone barn (now home to the Woodlawn Museum), stone springhouse, tenant house and a 19th-century log building that may have served as slave living quarters.
- Olney Theater: A theater complex opened in 1938 as a location equally accessible from Baltimore and Washington, DC in a “relaxing county setting.”
- Oakley Cabin African-American Museum and Park: This location was the center of an African-American roadside community from the Emancipation era well into the 20th century and now serves as a living history museum.
About Heritage Days
Sponsored by the nonprofit organization Heritage Montgomery, this year’s free festival in upper Montgomery County, called Heritage Days, will be held on Saturday, June 29 and Sunday, June 30 from 12 noon to 4 p.m. each day. It highlights historic, cultural and outdoor recreation sites offering special programs, exhibits and demonstrations, live music, activities for children and much more. Heritage Days provides the opportunity to visit many small historic sites that are not regularly open to the public.
About Heritage Montgomery
The Heritage Tourism Alliance of Montgomery County (Heritage Montgomery) was established by state legislation in 2003 as part of the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority and became a Certified Heritage Area in 2004. A 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, Heritage Montgomery was created to raise the profile of the county’s rich cultural and historical resources, ensuring that residents and visitors understand and value the county’s past. As the area’s population has exploded, there has been a growing awareness of the importance of heritage programs and a higher profile for the history and heritage resources of the county. Heritage Montgomery encourages visitors to explore the county – to stay longer and return more often.