Sandy Spring Museum

I had my wedding here, the land and décor is beautiful in the spring. I planned the wedding for outside, but it rained. In the midst of the chaos, the staff remained pleasant, accommodating, and organized. Everyone had a great time at the museum and since most us are from D.C., it was cool learning about this piece of history in our «own backyard.»

This is a museum based on the history of a small, agricultural, largely Quaker community in Maryland, from its early settlement in the 1720s and then well into the 20^th century. On first consideration, this just may not seem all that interesting to those not directly connected to that particular history, but give it time. You may be surprised by the things you learn, and just how far-​reaching the influence of this rural community became.
When the British burned Washington D.C., in 1814, it was to Brookeville, a village in the Sandy Spring «neighborhood», that President Madison fled, taking refuge among the Quaker friends and acquaintances of his wife, Dolley, and depositing the contents of the U.S. Treasury, in canvas sacks, on the floor of Brookeville Academy. When the soil of the mid-​Atlantic farming region was rendered almost completely barren, by tobacco over-​farming, and triggering westward expansion in the young U.S., it was in Sandy Spring that such soil replenishment techniques as the importation and use of South American guano, or the grinding of bones into fertilizer, were pioneered. Very few historians would argue that the coming of commercial rail travel was not a major factor in the development of our nation, and the first of those great railways was the Baltimore and Ohio (B & O). The first president of that company was Philip Evan Thomas of, not surprisingly, Sandy Spring, Maryland. Another innovation, this time in the U.S. postal system, was instigated by members of Grange Hall #7, in Olney, Maryland, another village in the Sandy Spring community. Rural package delivery by the U.S. Postal Service, known as Parcel Post, is another of Sandy Spring’s lasting contributions to the fabric of our national life.
Perhaps you still can’t be convinced to actually visit a museum about a small, rural, agricultural community, but I invite you to realize you probably have more connections to that community than you ever imagined, and to support its efforts in any way you can.