Before Trick-or-Treating: Lewis Reed’s Photographs Capture Halloween in Early Montgomery County
Homemade masks, autumn parties, practical jokes and an eerie clown on horseback reveal how Marylanders celebrated Halloween more than a century ago.
Long before Montgomery County neighborhoods filled with porch lights, plastic pumpkins and children carrying bags of candy, Halloween had a very different look.
There were no inflatable ghosts covering front lawns. Costumes were more likely to be assembled at home than purchased in a store. And the familiar ritual of children traveling door to door calling “trick or treat” had not yet become the centerpiece of the holiday.
Fortunately, we can still catch glimpses of that earlier Halloween.
Among the many photographs taken by Lewis Reed of Montgomery County, Maryland, are several remarkable images associated with Halloween celebrations of the early 20th century. Reed is better known locally as the founder of Reed Brothers Dodge in Rockville, but long before and throughout his years in business, he was also an enthusiastic photographer who recorded the people, places and everyday life around him.
His Halloween photographs open a small window onto a holiday that was still evolving into the celebration we recognize today.
A Mask Was Sometimes All You Needed
Halloween preparations, circa 1914. These women pose with homemade masks for an upcoming celebration. Photograph by Lewis Reed.
One of Reed’s photographs, dating to about 1914, shows women holding simple masks in preparation for Halloween. To modern eyes, the scene may hardly look like “costumes” at all. That is precisely what makes the photograph so interesting.
Early 20th-century Halloween celebrations retained much of the atmosphere of the masquerade. Revelers might wear ordinary clothing accompanied by a mask, hat or other homemade disguise rather than dress from head to toe as a recognizable character. Manufactured Halloween costumes became increasingly available during the following decades.
The photograph captures that transition almost perfectly: familiar people made mysterious for an evening by little more than a mask.
It also reminds us how much of Halloween once depended upon imagination rather than merchandise.
Halloween Was a Social Occasion
Family and friends gathered for a Halloween celebration more than a century ago. The homemade masks and disguises give the photograph an unmistakably eerie quality. Photograph by Lewis Reed.
Another Reed photograph preserves a Halloween gathering from roughly the same period.
The faces, masks and unusual assortment of hats can look surprisingly unsettling today. But Halloween parties were popular social occasions, particularly among teenagers and adults.
Period newspaper accounts describe homes decorated with autumn leaves, flowers, lanterns and orange-and-black decorations. Games might be followed by music and dancing, often with plenty of refreshments before the evening ended. Contemporary Halloween menus included familiar seasonal favorites such as pumpkin pie and molasses cookies, alongside dishes that would seem decidedly less familiar today.
The emphasis was on gathering together.
Halloween was not yet overwhelmingly a children’s holiday. Historical accounts of the period note that modern door-to-door trick-or-treating had not become the dominant American custom it would later become.
Newspapers Help Fill in What the Camera Could Not
Lewis Reed’s photographs freeze individual moments, but newspapers from the same years help bring the scenes to life.
Stores advertised masks, costumes and masquerade supplies as Halloween approached. Society columns reported parties and sometimes even identified the guests who attended them. Recipes appeared for Halloween refreshments.
And then there were the warnings.
The Evening Star, October 31, 1916
Because Halloween had another longstanding tradition: mischief.
Young revelers were expected to engage in a certain amount of harmless trouble, but communities did not always agree about what qualified as harmless.
An October 31, 1916 edition of The Evening Star, for example, carried warnings concerning Halloween pranks. Among the activities attracting unwanted attention was the practice of throwing flour.
Imagine answering your front door on Halloween evening and receiving a handful of flour instead of handing out a miniature candy bar.
The past can seem very distant until a newspaper reports exactly what people were worried about on an ordinary Tuesday night.
From Mischief to Community Celebration
As the new century progressed, communities increasingly tried to channel Halloween mischief into organized entertainment.
Parties, civic events and parades offered a way to turn Halloween into a community occasion rather than an evening of overturned objects, practical jokes and property damage. By the 1920s, Halloween was gradually assuming more of the organized, public character that would help shape later celebrations.
And somewhere along the way, Lewis Reed pointed his camera at one of the strangest Halloween figures in his collection.
The Clown on Horseback
A masked clown wearing dark glasses rides horseback during an early Halloween parade or celebration. The location is unknown. Photograph by Lewis Reed.
Few historic photographs require as little explanation as this one.
A clown sits astride a horse.
He wears an elaborate costume, an oversized collar, a pointed hat and round dark glasses.
More than a century after the shutter clicked, the photograph somehow manages to be humorous, theatrical and just a little unnerving at the same time.
Unfortunately, the location has not been identified. But that uncertainty is part of the fascination of working with a historic photograph collection. Not every image arrives with a caption. Sometimes the photograph survives while the names, date and circumstances slowly disappear.
What remains is the moment itself.
And in this case, it is a wonderfully peculiar piece of Halloween history.
Lewis Reed’s Camera Preserved Everyday History
Lewis Reed did not photograph only important ceremonies or prominent citizens. His camera also recorded farms, roads, automobiles, businesses, family gatherings, community events and seemingly ordinary moments throughout Montgomery County.
That breadth is what makes his photographs so valuable today.
A picture of several people preparing masks for a party probably did not seem historically significant when the photograph was made. Neither did a group posing at a Halloween gathering.
But more than a century later, such photographs allow us to study things that official histories rarely preserve: what people wore, how they entertained themselves, what their homes looked like and how traditions changed from one generation to the next.
Montgomery History today uses Lewis Reed photographs in interpreting the county’s early 20th-century past, including images documenting major community events and institutions.
Even Reed’s seasonal photographs extend beyond Halloween. One surviving image shows men gathering pumpkins in Thomas Kelley’s field near Pleasant Hills in the Darnestown area during the early 1900s, preserving another small piece of Montgomery County’s autumn past.
Men gathering pumpkins in Thomas Kelley’s field near Pleasant Hills in the Darnestown area, early 1900s. Lewis Reed’s photographs preserved not only community celebrations, but also the seasonal traditions of everyday life in Montgomery County. Photograph by Lewis Reed.
Halloween Changes. Photographs Remain.
Halloween has changed enormously since Lewis Reed raised his camera more than a century ago.
Masks became full costumes. Homemade disguises gave way to mass-produced characters. Mischief nights gradually yielded to organized community celebrations. Trick-or-treating became an American childhood tradition, and Halloween grew into one of the country’s most recognizable holidays.
But look closely at Reed’s photographs and something remains familiar.
People were dressing up.
Friends were gathering.
Someone was undoubtedly preparing food.
And somebody, apparently, thought riding through a Halloween parade dressed as a clown in sunglasses was a perfectly good idea.
More than one hundred years later, Lewis Reed’s camera lets us join the party.
Remembering My Mother on Her Birthday
Every year when September 24 arrives, my thoughts turn to my mother, Mary Jane (Reed) Gartner. This year, rather than simply remembering her birthday, I find myself thinking about something that has become increasingly meaningful to me: how much of the history I have spent years preserving grew out of the many conversations we shared and the memories she passed along to me.
Mary Jane (Reed) Gartner (1922–2019).
My mother was the daughter of Lewis Reed, founder of Reed Brothers Dodge, and she grew up surrounded by a family business that became part of Rockville history. Long before I understood how valuable her memories would become, she was my connection to an earlier generation of the Reed family. During countless afternoon visits, we would sit together and go through boxes and albums filled with old photographs. Many had no names, dates, or locations written on them. I would hold up a photograph and ask, “Who is this?” or “Where was this taken?”
More often than not, she knew.
A face that meant nothing to me would bring back a name. A house, automobile, storefront, or familiar stretch of road would trigger a story. Sometimes one photograph led to another memory, and before long I was hearing about people and places that otherwise might have disappeared from our family history.
At the time, I don’t think either of us realized just how important those afternoons would become.
Years later, as I began researching and writing the history of Reed Brothers Dodge and organizing my grandfather’s enormous photographic collection, I repeatedly returned to the information my mother had shared with me. Her memories helped put names to faces, places to photographs, and stories into context. They became part of the foundation for this blog, my books, and the historical exhibits that followed.
In many ways, she became one of my most important historical sources.
A special Christmas memory with my mother, Mary Jane (Reed) Gartner, in 2004.
But what I inherited from my mother went far beyond family history.
She taught me to approach life with determination and curiosity. One of her favorite sayings was, “Anything worth doing is worth doing well.” She also refused to accept the word “can’t”. If there was a problem, her instinct was to look for a way around it rather than a reason to give up.
That philosophy stayed with me throughout my life.
Perhaps that is also why she never allowed age to dictate what she could learn. At 90, she joined Facebook. She learned to Skype and text, used an iPhone and a Windows PC, and approached new technology with the same curiosity she brought to so many other things. Instead of saying something was too complicated or that she was too old to learn it, she simply learned it.
She was also my greatest supporter.
One memory I especially treasure is seeing her in the audience at Glenview Mansion in 2016 when I received the Arthur M. Wagman Award for Historic Preservation Communication from Peerless Rockville. I was being recognized for documenting and sharing Rockville history, but so much of that work had been made possible by the woman sitting in the audience.
When I saw the pride on her face, I knew the moment belonged to both of us.
My mother died on September 10, 2019, just two weeks before her 97th birthday. Yet in a very real sense, she remains present in the work I continue to do. Every time I identify another photograph, uncover another piece of family history, or share another story from the Reed Brothers Dodge archives, I am building upon something she helped preserve.
Historical preservation is often thought of in terms of photographs, documents, newspapers, and artifacts. But some of our most valuable history lives only in people’s memories. If we are fortunate enough to ask the questions while those people are still with us, their memories can become part of the permanent record.
I was fortunate.
I asked the questions.
And my mother told me the stories.
Today, on what would have been her 104th birthday, I remember my mom not only as Lewis Reed’s daughter or as part of the Reed Brothers Dodge story, but as my mother, my greatest supporter, and the person who helped me understand that preserving history often begins with simply sitting down, listening, and remembering.
Happy Heavenly Birthday, Mom.
The stories you shared with me are still being told.
Three Cars, Three Nights at the Rockville VFD Carnival
For generations of Rockville residents, summer once meant carnival time. Each year, the Rockville Volunteer Fire Department Carnival transformed its grounds along Rockville Pike into a gathering place filled with rides, games, music, food, and crowds of families and friends.
But in August 1956, the excitement reached another level.
During the final three nights of that year’s carnival, three brand-new automobiles were given away, one each night.
And one of them came from Reed Brothers Dodge.
The Rockville Volunteer Fire Department Carnival midway along Rockville Pike was a familiar summer gathering place for generations of local residents.
The Rockville Volunteer Fire Department had been holding its annual carnival since 1932. What began as a fundraiser grew into a Rockville tradition, eventually occupying approximately ten acres along Rockville Pike, directly across the highway from Reed Brothers Dodge.
Unlike a traveling carnival, much of the Rockville operation was permanent. Fire department members constructed and maintained the familiar red-and-white buildings on the grounds, along with a large dance pavilion built in 1947. For most of the year the property stood quiet. When carnival week arrived, the lights came on and the grounds were transformed.
Carnival entrance from the Pike, c. 1950. Photo credit: RVFD Photo Archives.
Reed Brothers was more than simply a neighbor across the Pike. The Reed family’s connection with the Rockville Volunteer Fire Department dated to the department’s organization in 1921. Edgar Reed and his brother Philip were among its original members, establishing a relationship between the Reed family and the fire department that continued for decades.
By then, Lewis Reed and Edgar Reed were operating Reed Brothers Dodge just across the road. The dealership had been selling Dodge automobiles in Rockville since 1915, and the two institutions would become familiar landmarks along Rockville Pike as the town grew around them.
Closer view of the carnival grounds reveals Reed Brothers Dodge directly across Rockville Pike. The dealership and carnival were longtime neighbors, while the Reed family’s connection with the Rockville Volunteer Fire Department dated to its organization in 1921.
By the 1950s, the automobile giveaway had become one of the most anticipated traditions of the Rockville VFD Carnival. A brand-new car was a spectacular grand prize, and local automobile dealers helped keep the tradition going over the years.
Few carnivals, however, could have matched what happened in 1956.
On August 16, the Montgomery County Sentinel announced the carnival’s final three nights with a headline certain to attract attention:
“Three Cars Given Away At Rockville Carnival.”
The Montgomery County Sentinel reported on August 16, 1956, that three new automobiles would be given away during the carnival’s final three nights.
Montgomery County was expanding rapidly, new neighborhoods were appearing, and the family automobile was becoming an essential part of everyday life.
A new car wasn’t simply another carnival prize. It was the grand prize.
For Reed Brothers, participating in the automobile giveaway was a natural extension of its longstanding connection to the fire department and the community. By 1956, the dealership had been selling Dodge automobiles in Rockville for more than forty years, and its buildings, signs, and rows of new cars were a familiar sight directly across the Pike from the carnival grounds.
The three automobiles were not the only attractions. The 1956 carnival offered rides, games, dancing, live entertainment, food, and prizes ranging from cooking utensils to stuffed bears. Admission was just 20 cents for adults, while children were admitted free.
Behind all the festivities was an important purpose. The Sentinel described the carnival as the culmination of a year’s work by members of the fire department and its principal source of financial support. At the time, the department received no tax money for its services.
Every admission, meal, game, and prize ticket helped support the firefighters who served the community.
A new Dodge offered as a grand prize at a later Rockville VFD Carnival. Automobile giveaways were a popular carnival tradition for many years. Photo credit: RVFD Photo Archives.
New automobiles would continue to be among the carnival’s most exciting prizes in the years that followed.
The Rockville VFD Carnival eventually disappeared as the community and the demands upon the fire department changed. Reed Brothers Dodge remained across the Pike for decades longer.
Today, photographs and newspaper accounts preserve a glimpse of an earlier Rockville, when the annual firemen’s carnival brought the community together and buying a carnival ticket might result in considerably more than a stuffed bear.
You might just drive home in a brand-new Dodge.
Sources:
Montgomery County Sentinel, August 16, 1956
Rockville Volunteer Fire Department historical archives
Reed Brothers Dodge History archives
The Day Auto Racing Came to Rockville: Rare Photos from 1923
On Saturday, August 25, 1923, spectators gathered at the Rockville Fairgrounds for something never before seen there: automobile racing.
Professional drivers brought their high-powered racing machines to the half-mile dirt track for the first automobile races ever held at the Rockville Fair. Standing trackside with his camera was Rockville automobile dealer and photographer Lewis Reed, who captured a remarkable series of photographs of the action.
More than a century later, his images preserve the day auto racing came to Rockville.
Rockville drew a large crowd for its first automobile races at the Rockville Fair, August 25, 1923. Photo by Lewis Reed.
Rockville’s First Auto Races
The automobile races were the featured attraction on the final day of the 1923 Fair. Contemporary newspaper accounts described them as an innovation for Rockville and confirmed that they were the first automobile races ever held there.
Seven high-powered cars competed in events ranging from one to ten miles, driven by some of the leading professional racers of the day. Canadian dirt-track racer Frank Ripple was among the featured drivers and was expected to attempt speed records in a powerful machine equipped with a 140-horsepower airplane engine.
The new attraction proved popular. Except for Thursday, traditionally the Fair’s biggest day, the Saturday automobile races reportedly drew the largest crowd of the five-day event.
Five racers charge around the dirt track at the Rockville Fairgrounds, August 25, 1923. Photo by Lewis Reed.
Racing on the Dirt Track
Lewis Reed’s photographs show just how exciting early automobile racing could be. Cars raced closely together on the unpaved oval, their narrow tires throwing enormous clouds of dust into the air as drivers fought for position around the sweeping curves.
Spectators stood remarkably close to the action.
Race cars disappear into a cloud of dust while rounding the Rockville Fairgrounds track. Print made from a Lewis Reed glass negative.
One of Lewis Reed’s most interesting photographs from the races shows a car carrying two men. The passenger was a riding mechanic, once a familiar figure in early automobile racing. In addition to watching the mechanical condition of the car, he served as an extra set of eyes for the driver, keeping watch on competitors approaching from behind.
Driver and riding mechanic on the dirt track at the Rockville Fairgrounds, August 25, 1923. Photo by Lewis Reed.
A Future Indianapolis 500 Driver Raced at Rockville
Years after I first published these photographs, the story took an unexpected turn.
I received a message from John Snowberger, whose father, Russ Snowberger, raced at the Rockville Fairgrounds during the early 1920s. John told me that he had photographs of his father in his race car and believed that my grandfather, Lewis Reed, may have taken them.
Russ Snowberger, born in Denton, Maryland, raced throughout the region before going on to become a nationally known driver and a veteran of the Indianapolis 500.
Although I have not been able to establish that Snowberger competed specifically in the August 25, 1923 races, his son’s recollection provides a fascinating connection between Rockville’s early dirt-track racing and a driver who would later compete on one of the world’s most famous speedways.
It also raises an intriguing possibility: somewhere among Lewis Reed’s surviving photographs of early race cars and drivers may be an unidentified image of a young Russ Snowberger.
A Moment Preserved in Photographs
More than a century later, Lewis Reed’s photographs provide a rare visual record of the day automobile racing first came to the Rockville Fair.
They capture speeding cars, clouds of dust, spectators lining the track, and an era when automobile racing was still new enough to be a major local attraction.
And thanks to a message received nearly a century later from the son of an Indianapolis 500 driver, we now know that the old Rockville dirt track had connections extending well beyond Montgomery County.
For one dusty Saturday in August 1923, Rockville became a racing town.
From Rockville to Gaithersburg: The Montgomery County Fair Through the Lens of Lewis Reed
Special Feature for Montgomery County Agricultural Fair Week
August 14–22, 2026
A look back at the fair’s early years through the lens of Lewis Reed.
Every August, hundreds of thousands of visitors flock to the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair to enjoy livestock exhibitions, agricultural displays, carnival rides, competitions, concerts, and family traditions that have endured for generations. While today’s fairgrounds in Gaithersburg are familiar to many, the fair itself began long before the current site existed.
Organized in 1846 by the Montgomery County Agricultural Society, the annual fair was established to promote agriculture, encourage innovation, and strengthen the county’s farming community. For decades, it brought together farmers, merchants, craftsmen, and families from across Montgomery County to exchange ideas, exhibit their finest livestock and crops, and celebrate the region’s agricultural heritage.
By the time Lewis Reed began photographing Montgomery County around the turn of the twentieth century, the fair had become one of the county’s largest and most anticipated annual events. Carrying his camera throughout the fairgrounds, Reed documented not only the exhibits and attractions but also the people who made the fair an enduring community tradition.
Fairgoers stroll along the midway in their Sunday best, ca. 1910. Broad-brimmed hats, long flowing dresses, and tailored suits reflected the fashion of the era, when dressing for the county fair was as much a social occasion as the event itself.
Reed’s photographs reveal a fair that was both educational and entertaining. Agriculture remained its foundation, but visitors also came to enjoy the excitement of the midway, where amusement rides, games, and food vendors transformed the fairgrounds into a festive gathering place for young and old alike.
Ferris Wheel at the Montgomery County Fair, Rockville, ca. 1910. One of the fair’s most popular attractions towered above the fairgrounds, symbolizing how the annual exhibition combined agricultural traditions with modern entertainment.
Behind the excitement of the midway was the fair’s original purpose. Exhibition halls displayed the county’s finest produce, flowers, baked goods, preserves, and handcrafted items, while nearby barns housed prize-winning livestock representing the best of Montgomery County’s farms. Manufacturers exhibited the latest farm machinery and equipment, giving visitors an opportunity to see how new technology was steadily transforming rural life.
Agriculture remained the heart of the fair. Manufacturers displayed the latest farm machinery, giving local farmers an opportunity to compare new equipment and modern farming methods.
Visitors explored displays celebrating Montgomery County’s agricultural achievements, local craftsmanship, and community pride.
An exhibitor captures the attention of fairgoers.
One of Lewis Reed’s most compelling photographs captures hundreds of automobiles parked throughout the fairgrounds. As a lifelong automobile enthusiast and future founder of Reed Brothers Dodge, Reed recognized that the motorcar was transforming Montgomery County. His photograph preserves that moment when the automobile had become an integral part of daily life and community gatherings.
Hundreds of cars in the parking lot.
The grandstand and one-third-mile dirt race track were among the fair’s most popular attractions. Horse racing remained a favorite event, while bicycle races, motorcycle exhibitions, and eventually automobile competitions reflected America’s growing fascination with speed and mechanical innovation. Reed’s photographs preserve these moments at a time when transportation itself was rapidly changing.
Bicycle races became very popular throughout the country and were a novel event at the Rockville Fairgrounds as early as 1915. The track was a half-mile dirt racing oval with wide, sweeping curves and a grandstand for spectators, which made for clear views. Notice the riders are in shirts and ties.
Harness racing was one of the main attractions at the race track before the introduction of the automobile and the subsequent popularity of racing cars.
Spectators pack the grandstand for the automobile races at the Rockville Fair, August 25, 1923. Racing events drew visitors from across the region and showcased the excitement of the new motor age.
The Rockville fairgrounds continued to host the Montgomery County Fair until 1932, when financial hardships brought on by the Great Depression forced the Agricultural Society to sell the property. The site would later become the home of Richard Montgomery High School. In 1949, hundreds of volunteers joined together to establish the Montgomery County Agricultural Center in Gaithersburg, where the fair continues today.
Winter at the Rockville Fairgrounds, 1910. Lewis Reed’s photograph captures a rare, tranquil view of the fairgrounds between seasons, preserving a landscape that would eventually disappear from Montgomery County.
Much has changed since Lewis Reed walked the fairgrounds with his camera. The original race track has disappeared, the Rockville fairgrounds exist only in photographs, and Montgomery County has grown from a rural farming community into one of Maryland’s most populous counties. Yet the fair’s mission has remained remarkably consistent: celebrating agriculture, education, community, and innovation.
As visitors gather for this year’s Montgomery County Agricultural Fair, Lewis Reed’s photographs offer a rare opportunity to look back at the fair’s early years and experience a tradition that has united generations of Montgomery County residents for nearly 180 years.
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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.
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