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
Before Reed Brothers: The Crossroads Where Rockville Garage Began
Long before the name Reed Brothers Dodge became synonymous with automobiles in Montgomery County, the triangular piece of land at the intersection of Rockville Pike and Veirs Mill Road was already emerging as an important crossroads in Rockville’s transportation history.
Today, thousands of vehicles pass through what locals know as the “Mixing Bowl,” but more than a century ago this busy intersection was a rural gateway into town. Dirt roads, trolley tracks, horse-drawn wagons, and a handful of early automobiles shared the landscape. It was here that the story of Reed Brothers Dodge would begin.
The August 1908 Sanborn map below shows the junction of Rockville & Georgetown Turnpike and Washington Road before the Rockville Garage existed. (The future site would be the empty “point” of the triangle formed by the intersecting roads). The map reveals three two-story dwellings further back in the triangle. Letters A, B, and C in front of the dwellings are arbitrary identifications supplied by the Sanborn Map Company, as house numbers were not commonly assigned until later in the century. The fairgrounds of the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair Association (a.k.a. “Rockville Fair”) was located directly across the Rockville & Georgetown Turnpike.
This August 1908 Rockville Sanborn Map (zoomed in) shows the junction of Rockville & Georgetown Turnpike and Washington Road before the Rockville Garage existed.
The arrival of the automobile would soon change everything.
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.
By 1914, local businessman Alva Ricketts recognized the growing demand for automobile sales and repair services and constructed a small garage at this important junction near the Montgomery County Fairgrounds. The new business became known as Rockville Garage and initially operated as an agency for Overland automobiles. Leonidas “Lee” Ricketts and sons (Raymond, Emory, and Alva) ran the local Overland Agency at the Veirs Mill Road/Rockville Pike location from 1914-1915. 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 the 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.
Original Rockville Garage building at the intersection of Veirs Mill Rd and Rockville Pike, 1916.
Lewis Reed Enters the Picture
In 1915, 25-year-old Lewis Reed joined Robert L. and Griffith Warfield in acquiring Rockville Garage from Lee Ricketts and Sons. Reed had been working as a machinist and saw opportunity in the rapidly expanding automobile industry. The partnership continued under the Rockville Garage name, but the seeds of a much larger enterprise had been planted.
Only three years later, Lewis Reed purchased the Warfields’ interest in the business. Shortly afterward, the operation became known as Reed Brothers Dodge following the arrival of his brother, Edgar Reed. What began as a modest garage at a rural crossroads would grow into one of the oldest continuously operated Dodge dealerships in the United States.
The original owners of Rockville Garage. L-R: Roy Warfield, Lewis Reed, Griffith Warfield, 1916.
The Crossroads That Shaped A Century
Looking at historic photographs taken by Lewis Reed, it is difficult to imagine that the bustling intersection of today was once little more than a dirt road with a single gasoline pump standing in front of a small garage. Yet that humble location provided the foundation for nearly a century of automotive history.
Then & Now Comparison From Quiet Crossroads to “Mixing Bowl”. The once‑quiet junction has evolved into what locals now refer to as “the mixing bowl,” a complex web of roads, traffic signals, and near‑constant traffic.
Before there was Reed Brothers Dodge, there was Rockville Garage. And before there was Rockville Garage, there was simply a vacant lot at a crossroads where a handful of visionaries saw the future arriving on four wheels.
The story of Reed Brothers Dodge did not begin with a dealership. It began with a garage, a strategic location, and a belief that the automobile was about to change everything.
Senate Resolution No. 10: A Historic Tribute to Lewis Reed and Reed Brothers Dodge
On February 8, 1967, the Senate of Maryland adopted Senate Resolution No. 10 to honor the life and legacy of Lewis Reed, founder of Reed Brothers Dodge, following his passing at the age of 79. This single-page resolution, recorded in the official proceedings of the Senate, recognized not only his long career in the automobile business, but also his broader contributions to the civic and economic life of Montgomery County.
Senate Resolution No. 10, adopted by the Senate of Maryland on February 8, 1967, honoring the life and achievements of Lewis Reed, founder of Reed Brothers Dodge.
Lewis Reed’s story begins in October 1915, when he opened a new automobile agency in Rockville and chose to represent the then-young Dodge Brothers Motor Car Company. At that moment, Dodge had been producing automobiles for less than a year, yet Reed saw its potential and became the first Dodge dealer in Montgomery County and the earliest in the state of Maryland. This pioneering decision anchored a business that would endure for generations, evolving from the era of dirt roads and hand-cranked engines into the age of modern highways and high-compression engines.
Over the next five decades, Reed Brothers Dodge weathered profound change: two world wars, the Great Depression, postwar expansion, and the transformation of Rockville from a small town into a busy suburban center. Through these shifts, the dealership gained a reputation for fair dealing, continuity of family ownership, and steadfast adherence to the Dodge ideal of “𝘋𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺.” Customers often returned across decades and generations, treating Reed Brothers as a trusted local institution rather than just a place to buy and service automobiles.
Yet Lewis Reed’s influence extended beyond the showroom floor. He was also one of Montgomery County’s earliest and most devoted photographers, documenting streetscapes, parades, farms, people, and everyday scenes that might otherwise have vanished without a trace. His images, many taken in and around Rockville, now serve as a visual time capsule, preserving a detailed record of the county’s transformation across the first half of the 20th century. In recognizing Lewis Reed, the Senate was, in effect, honoring both a businessman and an unofficial historian of the community.
Senate Resolution No. 10 is significant because it places Lewis Reed and Reed Brothers Dodge within the formal historical record of the State of Maryland. It acknowledges that a local automobile dealer, by virtue of long service, integrity, and civic commitment, could shape the character and memory of a place just as surely as a public official or institution. For those interested in local history, early motoring, or the story of Rockville’s growth, the resolution provides a brief but powerful summation of why Lewis Reed’s name still matters. He remains the only automobile dealer in Maryland to receive such recognition by a Senate resolution.
From Horsepower to Headlines: Reed Brothers’ Early Auto Ads
Advertisements do more than just simply pitch a product, they capture a moment in history. The following early auto ads placed in local newspapers by Rockville Garage/Reed Brothers Dodge do more than mirror the evolution of automotive technology and related advertisement, they present a snapshot of the motoring experience.
Auto ads at the end of the 19th century were similar to the printing technology at that time. Especially at the start of the century, the vintage car prints didn’t have any vehicle image on them and most used black and white paper. But as soon as the 20th century started, vehicles started to appear on the ads with a lot of font style variation. The history of branding begun at the start of the century. However, they used a uniform approach of black and white images, and more focus was on the safety and speed of the car.
The first ever car advertisement in 1898 featured the headline “Dispense With a Horse” and simply sold the benefits of the Winton Motor Carriage. The ad showed that it’s not costly to maintain, its speed is 20 mph, and it had no odor. In the end, the ad compared it with the horse saying that a horse would never be able to do these tasks.
The first ever car advertisement by the Rockville Garage was placed in The Washington Herald less than 20 years later. During the early years, Reed Brothers represented several franchise nameplates along with Dodge, including Oldsmobile, Hudson, and Essex. The Hudson and Oldsmobile were sold at Reed Brothers from roughly 1917 through 1923. Through the years the ads have definitely improved from a timeless, artistic aspect; however the older ads definitely transport you back to a simpler time, both in the car world and in American history.
The Washington Herald, Monday, March 5, 1917
The Montgomery County Sentinel. May 02, 1919
The Montgomery County Sentinel. June 20, 1919
World War I, and the food shortage that came along with it, was a defining moment in history and a direct cause of the rise of the lightweight tractor. — Rick Mannen, editor, Antique Power.
The Montgomery County Sentinel, April 18, 1919
A demonstration of The Bates Steel Mule Tractor will be given on the farm of J.B. Diamond, Jr., near Gaithersburg, on December 3rd and 4th by the Rockville Garage.
Upside Down to Prove Its Strength
We make this test at our store to show the strong, rigid body construction of the Hudson and Essex Coaches. In this position it is supporting a crushing load of 2700 pounds. Come see it. Test the doors and windows, which operate with ease, showing a total absence of body strain.
Rockville Garage Hudson-Essex Advertisement: The Evening Star, Washington DC, March 1, 1923
Dependability, The Dependables (1920s-1967)
Capitalizing on their reputation, the Dodge Brothers used their name, “Dodge Brothers” followed by “Reliable, Dependable, Sound” to market their products. Devoted Dodge customers raved about the rugged construction, quality, and power of their vehicles. Buyers consistently commented that this was a car that could be depended upon. In a Dodge marketing stroke of genius, Theodore MacManus coined the word “dependability.” Dodge was using the term in advertising from around 1914, and by the 1930’s, the word was appearing in dictionaries, and soon found its way into common, everyday usage.
Montgomery County Sentinel. Feb 25, 1927
Dodge “Punishment Pit” – Torture Makes Them SAFER!
Rather than trying to compete with other manufactures with claims of mechanical prowess, Dodge tried a different approach in 1933 with their “Show Down” Plan.
Did you know that Dodge Brothers corporation had a “punishment pit”? This pit was a new type of automobile proving ground that was regarded as the quickest and most satisfactory way of finding out how an automobile can stand up under treatment of the most severely abnormal sort. Before Dodge introduced its latest models, some of the test cars were tortured in the punishment pit for as long as 600 hours.
The Montgomery County Sentinel. August 24, 1933
The 1930s seemed to be the last great age of the publicity stunt for automobiles. Radio had already made inroads, and within a decade or two television would become the next great medium to reach the masses, but in the 1930s promoting new cars to a nationwide audience still took some creativity, something that Dodge had plenty of.
The Dodge Boys White Hat Specials (late 1960s)
In the late ’60’s, The Dodge Boys “White Hat Specials” were part of Dodge’s marketing and advertising campaigns. In these ads, the Dodge sales people, “the Dodge Boys,” were referred to as “good guys in white hats” and portrayed as friendly, helpful, and customer-oriented, as well as able to “beat the competition to the draw.”
Here are clips from a two-page ad that Reed Brothers ran in The Gaithersburg Gazette on Thursday, August 26, 1965 to promote their 50th anniversary. The title of the ad reads: “The Dodge Boys and Reed Brothers celebrate a 50 Year Success, 1915 to 1965! If you need a New or Used Car, come in today and cut yourself a “Slice of Savings…”
The Gaithersburg Gazette. Thursday, August 26, 1965
The Gaithersburg Gazette. Thursday, August 26, 1965
More Than Just Motors: The Enduring Link Between Reed Brothers Dodge and the MCPD
When you look back at the history of Montgomery County, Maryland, certain names are synonymous with the growth of the region. Reed Brothers Dodge is certainly one of them, but while we are often remembered as the first Dodge dealership in the area, our history is also deeply intertwined with the very foundation of the Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD). This connection wasn’t just about the cars and motorcycles; it was about the people who kept them on the road.
This is the first known photograph of the entire Montgomery County Police Force Motor Unit. Pictured left to right: Earl Burdine, Lawrence Clagett, Guy Jones, Chief Charles Cooley, Leroy Rodgers, and Oscar Gaither. Photo taken by Lewis Reed on July 4, 1922.
The relationship between Lewis Reed and the MCPD began on the department’s very first day of duty: July 4, 1922. On that historic morning, Chief Charles Cooley and his five original officers gathered at Reed Brothers Dodge to have their first official group photo taken. At the time, the department was a “mounted” unit on Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Because modern, branded dealerships didn’t exist yet, Reed Brothers served as a vital hub for sales and service. Lewis Reed and his brother Edgar were motorcycle enthusiasts who had founded Rockville’s Park Avenue Motorcycle Club a decade earlier in 1912, and their expertise made the dealership the natural home for the county’s early fleet. In those early days, each officer was allotted $300 a year for motorcycle upkeep, and our shop was where much of that vital work happened.
As the decades passed and the MCPD grew into a modern force, the need for expert maintenance grew with it. The department eventually established its own internal garage, but they didn’t have to look far to find the best talent to staff it. The “Reed Brothers standard” was so well-regarded that the police garage specifically recruited veteran mechanics from the dealership. By the late 1970s, two of our most skilled technicians, Ben McGowan and John Hall, transitioned from the service bays at Reed Brothers Dodge to work for the Montgomery County Police garage. Ben, an electrical and AC specialist, and John, a Maryland State Inspector and ASE-certified mechanic, brought a wealth of “under-the-hood” knowledge to the county.
This pipeline of talent from the dealership to the public sector highlights a beautiful piece of Rockville history. It shows that Reed Brothers Dodge was more than just a business; it was a training ground for the craftsmen who kept the county moving. When we see photos of those early 1922 officers on their Harleys or hear stories of the police fleet in the decades that followed, we aren’t just looking at machines. We are looking at the legacy of men like Lewis Reed, Ben McGowan, and John Hall– the hands that built, serviced, and supported the safety of our community for over a century.
First motorcycle club in Rockville, Maryland. One Harley Davidson, one Indian, and Three Excelsior motorcycles on Park Avenue, 1912. Lewis Reed, far left.
As the curator of these archives and the granddaughter of Lewis Reed, I feel a great sense of pride in preserving these connections. Seeing the faces of men like Ben McGowan and John Hall reminds me that our family business was built on the shoulders of dedicated craftsmen who served their neighbors and their county. It is a legacy of service that I am honored to document and share with you today.
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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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