About the Project
The Derwood Store and Post Office is located at 15911 Redland Road, Derwood. The County Council approved an amendment to list the resource in the Master Plan for Historic Preservation in April 2021.
The recommendation to study the store was brought forward in the Shady Grove Sector Plan (2006), and considered in the approved Shady Grove Minor Master Plan Amendment (2021). The community identified the store as a local landmark and requested it be considered for historic designation. A detailed history of the store’s progression through the historic designation process is provided in the Historic Preservation Commission Staff Report (April 29, 2019).
On April 6, 2021, the County Council approved the Shady Grove Minor Master Plan Amendment.
Historic and Architectural Significance
Clarence and Elizabeth Hoskinson built the Derwood Store ca. 1904 as a general merchandise store to serve their small manufacturing town and incorporated a post office in the building in 1905.
The Derwood Store and Post Office reflects the county’s heritage and development over time. It is associated with the growth of railroad communities along the Metropolitan Subdivision of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad; the inclusion of post offices within general merchandise stores; the commercial and social importance of general merchandise stores in rural communities; and Derwood’s early twentieth-century manufacturing history. The Store and Post Office also reflects the significant legacy of Derwood’s three female postmasters, who served for a total of 17 years and whose contributions to the community are not reflected in other sites.
The store is architecturally significant as a representative example of a typical turn of the twentieth-century general store: the two-story, front-gable form and porch are character-defining features of rural general stores. The original wood siding remains intact, though covered by a layer of asbestos shingles, and the store is embellished with a stamped tin shingle roof. The Derwood Store and Post Office is the oldest remaining commercial building within historic Derwood, where other commercial buildings associated with the area’s manufacturing history were destroyed by a fire in the mid-twentieth century.
Designation Timeline
Designation of resources to the Master Plan for Historic Preservation is a multi-step process that requires the review of the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC), the Planning Board, and the County Council. Members of the public can participate and comment at each step of the process.
The Historic Preservation Commission reviewed the Derwood Store and Post Office at a public meeting held May 7, 2019. The HPC found that the property meets historic preservation designation criteria and voted to recommend that the resource be listed to the Master Plan for Historic Preservation.
On May 14, 2020, the Planning Board reviewed the Public Hearing Draft Plan of the Shady Grove Minor Master Plan Amendment, which includes the recommendation to designate the Derwood Store and Post Office in the Master Plan for Historic Preservation.
On July 9, 2020, the Planning Board conducted a work session to specifically consider the HPC’s recommendations, the public hearing testimony, and the historic preservation staff’s recommendations regarding historic designation of the Derwood Store and Post Office. The Planning Board found that this resource merits designation in the Master Plan for Historic Preservation and moved the item forward to the County Council as part of the Planning Board Draft Amendment of the Shady Grove Minor Master Plan Amendment.
On February 23, 2021, the County Council hosted a public hearing on the Shady Grove Minor Master Plan Amendment.
On March 1, 2021, the Planning, Housing, and Economic Development (PHED) Committee held worksessions on the Planning Board Draft of the Shady Grove Minor Master Plan Amendment. The following month, on April 6, 2021, the County Council approved the Planning Board Draft with revisions as part of Resolution No. 19-779.
Resources
Derwood Store and Post Office Designation Report
Historic Preservation Commission Staff Report, April 29, 2019