Gaithersburg is a city[1] in Montgomery County, Maryland. As of
2005, the city had an estimated total population of 57,698[2], making it the third largest in the state behind Baltimore and Frederick. This city is located at 39°8'
North, 77°13' West, to the northwest of Rockville, the county seat of Montgomery County. Gaithersburg was incorporated in 1878.
Gaithersburg is home to the neo-traditionalist new town of Kentlands, designed by Andrés Duany and
Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, which was an important early example of the
new urbanism movement. Other new urbanist communities in Gaithersburg include Lakelands,
the Washingtonian Center, Aventiene (Crown Farm) and Watkins Mill Town Center.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) is headquartered in Gaithersburg[3]. Other major
employers in the city include IBM, ACE*COMM, Lockheed Martin Information Systems and Global Services business area headquarters, MedImmune (recently purchased by AstraZeneca), and Sodexho.
History
Gaithersburg began in 1765 as a small agricultural settlement known as Log Town, gaining the name Gaithersburg a
few years later.[4] In 1850, the post office was named
"Forest Oak". In 1873 the B&O
Railroad constructed a station at Gaithersburg, designed by Ephraim Francis
Baldwin as part of his well-known series of Victorian stations in
Maryland. Rapid growth occurred shortly thereafter, and on April 5, 1878 the town was officially incorporated as the City of Gaithersburg.
In 1899, Gaithersburg was selected as one of six global locations for the construction of an International Latitude Observatory as part of a project to measure the earth's wobble
on its polar axis. The Gaithersburg Latitude Observatory is (as of
2007) the only National Historic Landmark in the City of Gaithersburg. The
observatory and five others in Japan, Italy, Russia, and the United States gathered information that is still used by
scientists today, along with information from satellites, to determine polar motion; the size, shape, and physical properties of the earth; and to aid the space program through
the precise navigational patterns of orbiting satellites. The Gaithersburg
station operated until 1982 when computerization rendered the manual observation obsolete.
Geography
Gaithersburg is located at 39°7'55" North, 77°13'35" West (39.131974, -77.226428)1.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area
of 26.3 km² (10.2 mi²). 26.1 km² (10.1 mi²) of it
is land and 0.2 km² (0.1 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 0.69% water.
Demographics
As of the census2 of 2000, there were 52,613 people, 19,621 households, and 12,577 families
residing in the city. The population density was 2,013.3/km² (5,216.2/mi²). There
were 20,674 housing units at an average density of 791.1/km² (2,049.7/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 55.21%
White, 14.60% Black or African American, 0.99% Native American, 13.76% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 8.62% from other races, and 4.39% from two or more races. 19.76% of the population
were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 34.3% of Gaithersburg's population was
foreign-born.
There were 19,621 households out of which 34.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.6% were married couples
living together, 11.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.9% were non-families. 27.8% of all households
were made up of individuals and 7.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was
2.65 and the average family size was 3.25.
In the city the population was spread out with 25.0% under the age of 18, 9.0% from 18 to 24, 37.7% from 25 to 44, 20.0% from
45 to 64, and 8.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 95.1 males.
For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.4 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $59,879, and the median income for a family was $66,669. Males had a median
income of $44,331 versus $35,861 for females. The per capita income for the city was
$27,323. 7.1% of the population and 4.9% of families were below the poverty line. 7.2%
of those under the age of 18 and 11.4% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.
Government
Gaithersburg has an elected, five-member City Council, which serves as the legislative body of the city. The Mayor, who is
also elected, serves as president of the council. The day-to-day administration of the City is overseen by a career
City Manager, currently David B. Humpton.
Its current mayor is Sidney A. Katz. (1998-). Previous Mayors include:
- George W. Meem 1898–1904
- Carson Ward 1904–1906
- John W. Walker 1906–1908
- E. D. Kingsley 1908–1912
- Richard H. Miles 1912–1918
- John W. Walker 1918–1924
- Walter M. Magruder 1924–1926
- William McBain 1926–1948
- Harry C. Perry, Sr. 1948–1954
- Merton F. Duvall 1954–1966
- John W. Griffith 1966–1967
- Harold C. Morris 1967–1974
- Susan E. Nicholson, May-September 1974
- Milton M. Walker 1974–1976
- B. Daniel Walder 1976–1978
- Bruce A. Goldensohn 1978–1986
- W. Edward Bohrer, Jr. 1986–1998
The departments of the city of Gaithersburg and their directors include:
- Office of the City Manager, David B. Humpton (has announced retirement as of October 31, 2007)
- Assistant City Manager, Frederick J. Felton
- Assistant City Manager, Tony Tomasello
- Planning and Code Administration, Gregory Ossont
- Neighborhood Services, Kevin Roman
- Animal Control, Lisa Holland
- Planning Department, Lauren Pruss
- Permits and Inspections, Wesley Burnette
- Finance and Administration, Harold W. Belton
- Information Technology, Peter Cottrell
- Parks, Recreation, and Culture, Michele McGleish
- Police, John A. King
- Public Works, Jim Arnoult
Transportation
Gaithersburg train station
The road network is centered at the intersection of the north-south Frederick Avenue (Maryland State Highway 355) and the east-west Diamond Avenue (Maryland State
Highway 117). It is also connected to Frederick and Rockville by
Interstate 270, which also connects it with the Capital Beltway.
Shady Grove station, the western terminus of the Red Line of the Washington Metro, is
located just outside the city limits of Gaithersburg. Interstate 370 -- which presently
connects I-270 with the Shady Grove station -- terminates within Gaithersburg's city limits, transitioning into Sam Eig Highway near Washingtonian Center. If the Intercounty
Connector, an as-yet-unbuilt highway to Laurel, Maryland, is constructed, I-370
will become its western portion and Gaithersburg its terminus.
Gaithersburg is served by WMATA Metrobus, Montgomery
County Ride-On bus service and three MARC stations on the Brunswick Line- at downtown Gaithersburg, Washington Grove, and at Metropolitan Grove.
Additionally, the State of Maryland is considering construction of a light rail or
bus rapid transit line from Shady Grove Metro station to Clarksburg, Maryland called the Corridor Cities
Transitway, which if built would have several stations inside Gaithersburg city limits.
The mainline of the CSX Railroad bisects Montgomery County and runs as many as fifty
trains a day through the center of Gaithersburg. The MARC trains run on the CSX tracks, as do Amtrak trains.
The Montgomery County Airpark (IATA airport code: GAI) is located a short distance outside
Gaithersburg city limits. It serves general aviation purposes and is the only airport in Montgomery County.
Education
Gaithersburg is served by Montgomery County Public Schools.
Elementary schools that serve Gaithersburg include:
- Brown Station Elementary School
- Diamond Elementary School
- Darnestown Elementary School
- Fields Road Elementary School
- Flower Hill Elementary School
- Gaithersburg Elementary School
- Goshen Elementary School
- Jones Lane Elementary School
- Laytonsville Elementary School
- Rachel Carson Elementary School
- Rosemont Elementary School
- South Lake Elementary School
- Stedwick Elementary School
- Strawberry Knoll Elementary School
- Summit Hall Elementary School
- Thurgood Marshall Elementary School
- Washington Grove Elementary School
Middle schools that serve Gaithersburg include:
High schools that serve Gaithersburg include:
Reference in popular culture
In the episode Wedding Presence in King of
Queens the wedding took place here
Media
Gaithersburg is primarily served by the Washington, DC media market.
Newspapers
Gaithersburg is home to Gazette Newspapers, a publisher of weekly community
newspapers in suburban Maryland, including the Gaithersburg Gazette. The Town Courier newspaper is based in Kentlands
and focuses on Gaithersburg's west side neighborhoods, in addition to publishing Rockville and Urbana editions.
Television and Internet
Gaithersburg's city government operates Gaithersburg Television, which focuses on the city issues and is streamed online. Gaithersburg topics are discussed
on the controversial and non-affiliated blog Gaithersblog.
References and footnotes
- ^ "Gaithersburg", as place name, is used for more than just the City of
Gaithersburg. Many unincorporated parts of Montgomery County near Gaithersburg have mailing addresses of "Gaithersburg". At the
extreme, there are some properties on the south side of Damascus — several miles
north of Gaithersburg, and north even of Montgomery Village,
Germantown, Laytonsville and Clarksburg — which have
Gaithersburg mailing addresses. For example, the intersection of Log House Road and Woodfield Road (Maryland Route 124) is more
than five miles outside the Gaithersburg city limits. This article is, however, about the City of Gaithersburg.
- ^ Census Factfinder for Gaithersburg
- ^ Technically, although NIST's mailing address is in Gaithersburg, and the
City of Gaithersburg surrounds NIST's property, the land where NIST is situated is not incorporated into the City of
Gaithersburg. Instead, it is in an unincorporated part of Montgomery County. Owing to the piecemeal manner land has been added to
Gaithersburg over the years, there are multiple such unincorporated enclaves within
the perimeter; see the City's Zoning Map for details (3MB PDF)
- ^ According to Gaithersburg: History
of a City (Arcadia Publishing, 2002), the first settlements at Logtown, near the present-day Summit Hall, occurred in the
1750s, while Benjamin Gaither settled near the present-day Diamond and Frederick avenues "prior to 1800". This latter settlement
became informally known as "Gaithersburg" sometime after that. The Forest Oak Post Office was located in Gaither's store. These
two modern reference locations — Summit Hall and Diamond and Frederick Aves — are separated by about a half a mile.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Coordinates:
39.131974° N 77.226428°
W
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