Ricketts Garage “Auto Hire” Billhead, May 7, 1914
Ricketts’ Garage “Auto Hire” Billhead, May 7, 1914
Many early car dealerships grew out of existing garages. Reed Brothers Dodge evolved out of the Rockville Garage. Shown above is Ricketts’ Rockville Garage “Automobiles for Hire” and “New & Second Hand Cars for Sale” billhead receipt recently found on eBay. The receipt, dated May 7, 1914 is made out to W.W. Welsh (William Wallace Welsh) and is signed for by Lee Ricketts. Leonidas “Lee” Ricketts and sons, Raymond, Emory, and Thomas Alva (who went by “Alva”) ran the local Overland Agency at the Veirs Mill Road/Rockville Pike location from 1914-1915.
Original Rockville Garage building at the intersection of Veirs Mill Rd and Rockville Pike, 1916.
Origins of the Rockville Garage from The Montgomery County Sentinel. May 20, 1914:
Mr. Alva Ricketts has purchased the vacant lot opposite the fair grounds, in this town, from Mr. Benjamin Haney and will in the course of a few days erect upon it a garage, in which will be kept his autos for the accommodation of the traveling public.
The Overland Agency was short-lived: by July of 1915, Lewis Reed and brothers Robert L. and Griffith Warfield established Rockville Garage after acquiring the building from the Ricketts family. An employee of Rockville Garage in 1915, Lewis Reed purchased a one-third interest from the Warfield brothers in January 1916. Three years later, the Warfield’s conveyed the balance of the property and Lewis became sole owner. In August of 1919, Lewis Reed’s brother Edgar joined the business, and the name of the company was changed to Reed Brothers Dodge.
February 14th – National Ferris Wheel Day & Valentine’s Day
Ferris Wheel at the Rockville Fair, circa 1920s. Photo by Lewis Reed
Did you know that February 14th is not only Valentine’s Day, but also National Ferris Wheel Day? This unofficial national holiday is held on this day to honor the birth of the inventor of the Ferris Wheel, George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. What better way to celebrate Ferris Wheel Day than enjoying this ca.1920s photograph of the Ferris Wheel taken at the Rockville Fairgrounds, courtesy of Lewis Reed.
Then and Now: Commander Hotel Ocean City MD 1930
Few hotels in Ocean City can celebrate continually trading for over 90 years. The family owners can trace their local history back over 200 years. There have been many changes in the world of travel at that time, but The Commander’s beachfront boardwalk location remains as special today as it was on the day it all began.
Commander Hotel (THEN): The Commander Hotel first opened on Memorial Day in 1930, offering 62 rooms, a full American Plan dining room, and a kitchen equipped with wood-burning stoves. The hotel featured the city’s first elevator, in-room telephone service, and both ocean and boardwalk-facing front porch with rocking chairs. During the World War II era, the hotel welcomed doctors, lawyers, and executives. Each room was equipped with blackout curtains for use at night, which protected the windows from enemy shelling from offshore submarines.
Commander Hotel on the boardwalk at Ocean City, Maryland. Photo by Lewis Reed, ca. 1930
Commander Hotel (NOW): The same view today. The Commander Hotel was, for a long time, the northernmost hotel on the Boardwalk. Its dining room was famous and the Commander outranked many other hotels, enjoying “elite” status. The facility underwent a two-stage renovation in 1979, and in 1992 the cabanas near the pool were rebuilt. The original structure was razed in 1997 and the current eight-story Commander was constructed on the 14th Street site the following year.
Commander Hotel today
Demolition of Original Rockville Garage Buildings (1971)
When the state widened the roads in 1970, Reed Brothers Dodge relocated its business to a brand new service complex at 15955 Rockville Pike, several miles north of its old location across from King Farm. The buildings on the Dodge Street site were all demolished to allow for re-routing of the Veirs Mill Road and Rockville Pike intersection.
February, 1971: demolition of the original Rockville Garage buildings, which had stood on the Veirs Mill/Rockville Pike location for more than fifty years. (Montgomery History, Sentinel Photo Morgue)
Top photo from Montgomery History’s Sentinel Photo Morgue: Taken from Veirs Mill Road, the photo shows demolition of the original Rockville Garage buildings, which stood at the triangle site for more than 50 years.
Note: I think the picture captured the moment the bulldozer pushed the second story of the flat-roofed Body Shop OFF of the first, hence all the dust and debris flying in the air! Zoomed in, you can just see the edge of the old concrete ramp on the right side which led up to the Body Shop, as well as a partially completed building in the background, which I believe is the Americana Centre that opened in 1972.
Bottom photo: aerial view of the empty lot taken in 1971 after the business had been relocated and the buildings had been razed.
This photo of the Reed Brothers Dodge site was taken later in 1971, after the business had been relocated to 15955 Frederick Road and the buildings had been razed. (Montgomery History, photo by Bob Pusey)
Then & Now: Veirs Mill Road, 1911
Do you recognize the road pictured below? Few modern residents of Montgomery County would guess, but it is a shot of Veirs Mill Road before it was paved.
Veirs Mill Road (THEN): In the early 19th century, rural roads were often little more than muddy trails. The popularity of the car coincided with the improvement of public roads around Rockville. By 1929, when Montgomery County residents owned 13,000 cars, Rockville Pike and Montgomery Avenue had both been paved, but the less-traveled Veirs Mill Road remained a narrow dirt road for decades after that. By the end of 1935, the highway was paved as a macadam road. Today, Veirs Mill Road is a four-lane divided highway.
Veirs Mill Road looking east at Cedar Lane prior to paving, 1911. This roadway was not paved until 1935. Photo by Lewis Reed
Veirs Mill Road (NOW): Today, Veirs Mill Road is a four-lane divided highway. Google Map Link: https://goo.gl/maps/7uvDAWoYvwQ6KUUt9
Today, Veirs Mill Road is a four-lane divided highway.
Veirs Mill Road at Cedar Lane showing deep ruts in the surface, 1911. The wagon wheels and tires of the time were very thin, and would sink straight into ruts, sometimes getting stuck. Photo by Lewis Reed.
From the “Times” (Washington):
Stalled in the mud… “Although he put on the entire 20-horsepower of his machine and called in assistance of several neighbors, it was not until shovels and crowbars had been procured to move his car… he was able to resume his journey. This experience not only caused more than an hour’s delay in reaching the city but the wear and tear on himself, those who rendered assistance, and incidentally, the machine. Thus, at least two months of the life of a $3,000 auto was spent in simply traversing a short stretch of roadway.”
A view down Cedar Lane in Bethesda, 1911. Photo by Lewis Reed.
Rockville Pike’s reputation as “one of the worst pieces of main highway in the state” eventually helped initiate Maryland’s Good Roads Movement, alongside a nationwide initiative to improve America’s roads. Responding to citizen demands, the newly created State Roads Commission incorporated the Rockville Pike into the state highway system.
In 1956, President Eisenhower passed legislation to implement (arguably) the greatest public-works project in U.S. history: the Interstate Highway System.
With this, every major city in America would be connected via highway construction, and mobility within the U.S. would ideally become limitless: a giant leap from the dirt roads and muddy paths that existed at the beginning of the century.
Find photos like these and much more on Montgomery History’s online exhibit, “Montgomery County 1900-1930: Through the Lens of 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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