Welcome to Sandy Spring Museum's History Section
Sandy Spring is the center of a unique Maryland community, a network of rural villages settled in the 1720's initially by members of the Religious Society of Friends, known as Quakers.
Though Quakers quickly became a minority in the expanding, prosperous farming and commercial settlement, their peaceful, industrious presence gave a distinctive character to the neighborhood. Over three centuries, Sandy Springers have made significant contributions to Maryland's political, economic, cultural, social, and religious history. They established places of worship and schools, organized banking and insurance companies, made influential improvements in farming techniques, patented innovative products, and erected substantial homes. Citizens of Sandy Spring, not all of whom were Quakers, fostered community spirit by organizing clubs (that still meet) dedicated to exchanging ideas about important social and political concerns, agriculture, horticulture, and family and women's issues.
Though the grist mills and lumber mills are gone, along with the village smiths and general stores, historic houses and farms remain. The legacy of the rural community survives in archival records and artifact displays at Sandy Spring Museum, in the diverse community of African-American landholding families, many freed before 1815, and in crucial community institutions like the Sandy Spring Bank, founded here in 1869.
You are invited to explore the history of the people, black and white, who built this community by browsing through these pages. You are also warmly invited to visit the Museum and see these materials first-hand, research a topic that excites your interest, and become a part of the Museum community.
17901 Bentley Road • Sandy Spring, Maryland 20860 • 301.774.0022 • electronic mail • sitemap
Site designed by Eclipse Design Group and Flying Solo Web/GraFX.