Then & Now: Library of Congress
You might not realize how much Washington DC has changed until you look back and see what it looked like in the past. In this “Then & Now” feature, I have combined one of Lewis Reed’s original photograph’s for “then” and matched it with a corresponding contemporary shot for “now”.
Library of Congress (THEN): The Library of Congress was relocated to Washington, DC, in 1800, having previously been housed in New York and Philadelphia, which had each served as temporary capitals of the early United States of America. It is the research library serving the U.S. Congress as well as the national library of the United States, and it holds over 23 million volumes in its collection, making it the world’s largest library. The structure as it stands today was erected between 1888 and 1894, following the 1851 fire that destroyed 35,000 of the Library’s books (two-thirds of its holdings at that time), including much of Thomas Jefferson’s donated collection.
Library of Congress. Photo by Lewis Reed, ca. 1910
Library of Congress (NOW): The same view 108 years later. Now, the Library of Congress is one of the largest and best-equipped libraries in the world. It houses approximately 90 million items on 540 miles of shelves. The Library of Congress is physically housed in three buildings on Capitol Hill and a conservation center in rural Virginia. The Library’s Capitol Hill buildings are all connected by underground passageways, so that a library user need pass through security only once in a single visit.
Library of Congress today
Source: Wikipedia
Then & Now: Clinton Zion AME Church, Rockville
In 1867, several of Rockville’s African American families left Jerusalem Methodist Episcopal Church to start the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Zion Church under the leadership of Reverend Charles Pipkins. In 1890, Pipkins and his congregation cut timbers and erected. a frame church on Middle Lane. Taken approximately 100 years apart, these photos show the Clinton Zion A.M.E. Church then and now.
Clinton Zion A.M.E. Church (THEN): In 1904, the congregation moved to the brick church seen in this black & white photograph located on North Washington Street and today’s Beall Avenue. The church was named Clinton A.M.E. Zion in honor of Reverend George Wylie Clinton (1859-1921), a prominent member and editor of the church’s periodical, Star of Zion.
Zion A.M.E. Church, Rockville, Maryland. Photo by Lewis Reed, ca. 1912.
Clinton Zion A.M.E. Church (NOW): The congregation sold the brick church in 1955 to make way for a shopping center, dedicating their present church on Elizabeth Avenue in Lincoln Park in the fall of 1956. The growth of Clinton was the impetus for the most recent expansion effort. Construction of the new sanctuary began in 1989 and the newly renovated edifice was dedicated on Sunday, May 13, 1990.
Zion A.M.E. Church, Rockville, Maryland. 2012
Source: Clinton AME Zion Church
Rockville Academy Basketball Team 1915-1916
Before opening his Dodge dealership in 1915, Lewis Reed was a well-known amateur photographer in Montgomery County. He would occasionally get phone calls local high schools asking him to take pictures of their athletic teams and graduating classes.
This photo taken by Lewis Reed depicts the Rockville Academy Basketball Team of 1915-1916. Finding photos and information of basketball teams before the 1920s is a difficult task. The only information on this team that I could find was in the May 1981 edition of “The Montgomery County Story” and the news clipping just below it from the Washington Times. From the newsletter:
In 1915, Rockville High School organized an athletic association. They planned teams in baseball, football, and basketball. They quickly lost their first game of basketball to Rockville Academy, 29 to 26.
Rockville Academy Basketball Team 1915-1916. Photo Lewis Reed
Back: Roy Hilton, Lester Witherow, Grubb, Hamilton, Edmonds
Middle: Lawrence Higgins, Joe Dawson, Brownell (Buck) Riggs, J. Vinson Peter, John McDonald
Front: John Dawson
The Washington Times January 24, 1915
The Montgomery County Historical Society has identified several people in the photograph. If anyone can help put a name to a face, please leave a comment.
Source: The Montgomery County Story
Lewis Reed Photo: Old Country Store
Circa 1900s country store on a dirt road. Note the sign advertising Battle Axe Shoes. Two ladies standing on the porch. Location Unknown. Photo by Lewis Reed
This early 1900s photo taken by Lewis Reed is a flashback to a time when the clip-clop of horses could be heard going down the street, kids would walk to school, and people took the time to care about and create things that would last. This old store would have been considered not very clean from modern standards and the roads outside were unpaved.
While every store was different, there were similarities among many, including a front that was decorated by tin sign advertising, tobacco, cigars, shoes, hardware, and more. The sign in front advertises Battle Axe Shoes, Stephen Putney Shoe Company. I did a little research and found out Samuel and Stephen Putney were father and son shoe manufacturers of Battle Axe Shoes in Richmond, Virginia.
Usually, country stores featured double doors that opened inward and lots of barrels that might contain any number of items — from pickles, to crackers, potatoes, flour and candies. The store was usually an unpainted, two-story frame building fronted by a raised porch for convenient loading and unloading.
One thing in this photo I can’t explain are the steps seemingly leading to nowhere on side of the building. And I wonder what the tall pole is for? It seems to be bracketed on the side of the building. Ideas, folks?
The Putney’s owned and ran Battle Axe Shoes, and had this factory on 2200 West Broad Street as touted by the 1909 Postcard below.
By the way, it appears as if the writer of this postcard was a big fan of CAPS-lock to get his point across.
Impressive….
And environmentally friendly to boot! (Pun intended)
The postcard reads:
“The most ECONOMICALLY ARRANGED shoe plant in the country. Every facility for the saving of time, labor and expense employed. Built of concrete – insurance unnecessary. Entire business (except office) on ONE BIG FLOOR – no elevator costs, less force required, systematic arrangement of stock. Double railroad tracks in building for receiving and shipping freight. Bridge daylight on every side. Because of our greatly REDUCED COSTS OF OPERATION and the many Economical Advantages we posses, we CAN and DO make BATTLE AXE SHOES of SUPERIOR QUALITY over other makes of shoes. STEPHEN PUTNEY SHOE CO., RICHMOND, VA.”
Reed Brothers Baseball Team, 1920
Rockville’s first experience with baseball was during the Civil War on the fields where Richard Montgomery High School now stands. It was known as “Camp Lincoln” because of the Union encampment there, and Federal soldiers helped popularize the new game they brought from the North. One little known part of the history of the grounds is that during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln was afraid that Maryland would secede from the Union and that the District of Columbia would thus be bordered on both sides by Confederate states. He used the land of the fairgrounds for tents to maintain up to 10,000 Federal soldiers at a time in order to do his utmost to keep Maryland, especially via the major thoroughfare of Rockville Pike, within the Union.
After the Civil War, those fields – known as the Rockville Fairgrounds – continued to be a popular place for baseball. At the dawn of the 20th century, Reed Brothers Dodge had their own company baseball team that played on those same fields. The photos below were taken by Lewis Reed on a field at the Rockville Fairgrounds in the early 1920s.
Reed Brothers Dodge Baseball Team on field at Rockville Fairgrounds, circa early 1920s. Photo by Lewis Reed
Leo (Pat) Murray (Parts Department Manager), keeping score. Photo by Lewis Reed
Reed Brothers Dodge Baseball Team on field at Rockville Fairgrounds, circa early 1920s. Photo by Lewis Reed
Note the player with the five finger glove in the photo above. Out of all of these photos, this is the only glove that can be seen on a player. The use of gloves wasn’t original to the first years of the game; needing a padded glove was viewed as pretty wimpy. (According to this article in the Smithsonian Magazine, one of the first players to wear a glove tried – and failed – to find one that would be invisible to fans.) By the 1880s gloves were accepted equipment, however, and soon inventors and manufacturers were coming up with new and improved gloves (more padding, deeper webbing…)
Reed Brothers Dodge Baseball Team, circa early 1920s. This photo was taken at Welsh Field, which is the site of the County Office Building. The house in the background was in right field. Photo by Lewis Reed
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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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