Lewis Reed Photos: Remembering Trolley Cars of Rockville’s Past
This special post is a collection of early trolley car photos that were taken by Lewis Reed in the early 20th century. I wanted to share them because they offer a visual history of a part of Rockville’s transportation past.
With photography for a hobby, one that began even before automobiles were around, Lewis Reed had amassed a large library of photographs of buildings, farm carts drawn by oxen, trolley cars, and other historic spots in Maryland, Washington, DC and Virginia. Many of his early photographs are now part of the Montgomery County Historical Society photo archives.
Below are some vintage (circa early 1900s) trolley car photographs from Lewis Reed’s collection (click on photos to enlarge):
Lewis Reed took this photo of a trolley bound for Rockville with a five-by-four box camera which produced an image on a glass plate. Note the cow catcher on the front of the trolley.
The route of the Rockville trolley car started at the Washington terminus at Wisconsin and M streets in Northwest D.C., went up through Rockville along Rockville Pike and Montgomery Avenue to Laird Street and back again. From 1900 – 1935, the trolley cars went past Reed Brothers Dodge as they traveled up Rockville Pike.
1915 – Rockville Garage first gas station – a single pump. View looking West on Main Street of Rockville showing an early Trolley car. Also in the background is the old St Mary’s Cemetery.
Late 1920′s. Note the unpaved dirt road on Rockville Pike and trolley tracks running past Reed Brothers Dodge
Trolley Wreck – Montrose Rd & Rt 355
Trolley Wreck – Montrose Rd & 355
Georgetown Trolley Car
Trolley Car Interior and Passengers
Western Avenue car barn for the streetcars that served the Georgetown-Tenelytown-Bethesda-Rockville line
A car barn is the streetcar equivalent of a garage for buses. It’s a covered facility in which streetcars were stored overnight, cleaned and given light repairs before the next day’s run. The car barn for the trolleys at the time was the second Western Avenue car barn for the streetcars that served the Georgetown-Tenelytown-Bethesda-Rockville line. It was located at on west side of Wisconsin at between Harrison and Jennifer. It was demolished and later replaced by a purpose-built bus garage which is still in use by WMATA. The National Capital Trolley Museum was instrumental in helping to identify this car barn.
Map of the Rockville Trolley Line 1900-1935 – Peerless Rockville
Creed of A Dodge Brothers Salesman
The man responsible for much of the early Dodge Brothers advertising was George Harrison Phelps. Among other things, George Phelps wrote “The Creed of A Dodge Brothers Salesman” which embodied the Dodge Brothers philosophy in manufacturing and selling cars:
from Newspaperarchive.com – Spirit Lake Beacon Thursday, May 13, 1915
Dodge Brothers advertising was renowned for its simplicity. Sales brochures in 1914-15 and 1916 used the slogan, “It Speaks for Itself.”
Advertisements in 1916 emphasized the growing acceptance of Dodge Brothers care by the public. The campaign began with “A Year’s Growth of Good Will”, published on January 1, 1916.
Source: “The Dodge Brothers”, The Men, The Motor Cars, and The Legacy
COMING SOON: “Portrait Of An Automobile Dealer” Second Edition
Coming very soon, the new, improved, updated “Portrait Of An Automobile Dealer”, Second Edition. The first edition was made available through Blurb.com print-on-demand bookstore on Sept 2, 2012. I self-published this book, which means I have the ability to update it and upload a new edition whenever I want. This edition will be in both print and e-book formats.
At this point, I’ve added 60+ pages of additional content and over 100 new photographs. It’ll be the same as the first edition, but better.
Below is the new cover and description:
The History of Reed Brothers Dodge is Virtually the History of the American Automobile Business.
If you wanted to read the history of the American car industry a great place to start would be the history of Reed Brothers Dodge. Reed Brothers Dodge was one of the oldest Dodge dealers under the same family ownership in Maryland, and one of the oldest in the entire nation.
The first Dodge was offered to the public in 1914. Lewis Reed and Roy and Griffith Warfield opened their Dodge dealership and service facility just one year after Dodge made its first automobile. They named it the Rockville Garage.
In 1918, Lewis Reed bough out the Warfields. In 1919, his brother Edgar joined the business and the name changed to Reed Brothers Dodge.
“Portrait Of An Automobile Dealer”, Second Edition, will be available through Blurb.com print-on-demand bookstore very soon, so check back often.
Note: this book is not marked up for profit; but sold at base price.
“Oilfield Dodge” – 1920s Off-Roading
This 1920′s promotional film shows a Dodge Brothers sedan doing some serious off-roading to get to an oil well. It’s amazing to see what the car can do.
A 1920′s vintage Dodge Brothers sedan with “Oil Field Dodge” painted on it’s side shows us how the old timers four wheeled it through muddy fields and roads. This Dodge is on a mission to get to the gushing oil well in this film which was apparently some sort of promotional video for the car. It certainly looks like the Dodge was a well built car that was rugged enough to survive some terrible off road driving conditions. The car drives carefree over rocky and mountainous terrain and when it flips over on its side, it takes nothing more than a few people to roll it back over and, ‘vroom’, off it goes.
The video ends when the car reaches an oilfield where a group of drillers have struck an oil deposit, sending black gold shooting through the air next to the parked Oilfield Dodge.
You will watch this more than once I am sure.
Meet Our Founder: Lewis Reed
Lewis Reed
Lewis Reed was born in Darnestown, Maryland on November 25, 1887 and attended school in Montgomery County. He went to work for the fore-runner of the IBM Corporation at about the time it was founded in 1913. In 1915, he founded Reed Brothers Dodge. In 1920, he married the former Ethlene Thomas of Frederick County and moved to Gaithersburg. He had one daughter, Mary Jane, who later married Ernest Lee Gartner in 1944.
Before becoming interested in automobiles, Lewis Reed was one of the original employees of the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company, a Georgetown-based manufacturing firm that eventually became International Business Machines, Inc. He received his training at the Pierce Arrow factory at Buffalo, New York, the Dodge and Hudson factories at Detroit and the Washington Auto College. Pierce-Arrow was once one of the most recognized and respected names in the automobile industry. For 38 years, the Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company in Buffalo, New York, produced some of the finest automobiles made.
Lewis Reed was just a young man when he started selling cars built by brothers Horace and John Dodge in Detroit
When World War I broke out, Lewis Reed along with many other patriotic men joined the war effort. He did his bit in World War I by working at the Navy Yard in Washington DC as a torpedo tester.
Lewis Reed (left) as Chauffeur with unidentified family circa 1914
Prior to World War I, Lewis Reed’s love of automobiles led him to becoming a chauffeur. Chauffeurs were trained to be proficient with their driving skills, but they also had to keep the luxury automobiles in tip top shape which is where his mechanic training would have come into play.
Lewis Reed was a member of the Gaithersburg Grace Methodist Church where he served as a member and Chairman of the Board of Stewards, a lay leader and President of the Men’s Bible Class.
He was also a charter member and Past President (Feb.1933 – Feb. 1937) of the Gaithersburg – Washington Grove Volunteer Fire Department and a member of the advisory board of the Rockville branch of the First National Bank of Maryland.
Lewis Reed belonged to the Masonic Lodge of Rockville, the Pentalph Chapter of the Eastern Star and the Rockville Rotary Club. He was a Rotarian for 34 years and also had served as President of that group.
Lewis Reed Printing Pictures
With photography for a hobby, one that began even before automobiles were around Montgomery County, he had amassed a large library of photographs of buildings, farm carts drawn by oxen, and other historic spots in Montgomery County. Lewis Reed expanded his hobby to include movies, and made them not only of his family, but on his trips to various parts of the world. Many of his photographs are now part of the Montgomery County (Maryland) Historical Society photo archives.
Lewis Reed was not only passionate about automobiles and photography, he also enjoyed riding motorcycles. This is Lewis Reed on his Harley Davidson overlooking the countryside somewhere outside Frederick Maryland circa 1915.
Lewis Reed was a Charter Member and Past President of the Gaithersburg-Washington Grove Volunteer Fire Department. This is a photo of Past Officers of the Gaithersburg-Washington Grove Fire Department. (Lewis Reed far right)
Lewis Reed was a Rotarian for 34 years and had served as President of the Rockville Rotary Club. This is a Rotary get-together held on June 14, 1955. (Lewis Reed, 3rd from right)
The story of how Lewis Reed was chosen for a Dodge Brothers Motor Car franchise is lost, but his legacy continued until 2009 as the oldest Dodge dealership under the same family ownership in Maryland, and one of the oldest in the entire nation.
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Copyright Notice
Reed Brothers Dodge History (1915-2012) by Jeanne Gartner is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Reed Brothers Dodge History 1915 – 2012 
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