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.”
Lewis Reed: Enters 1936 Amateur Photo Contest
The Star published a series of pictures reproduced from photographs taken by local amateurs. The pictures were selected and judged each week and the best one chosen on its merits and published the following Sunday. Lewis Reed submitted his photo, “Sunset Over the River”, in the Washington Star Best Snapshots of the Week in The Star’s Amateur Contest. There was no indication where the photo was taken, but I’m guessing it was probably on the Potomac River, Maryland. At the time, Lewis Reed would have been 49 years old. There was no mention of whether or not he won a prize for his photograph, but I’m not surprised he entered this contest. He was a passionate photographer and always had his camera with him.
The full page image below is from the Sunday Gravure Section of The Washington Star newspaper. When looking at the top of the page, I wondered what the term “Gravure” meant, so I “googled” it. Turns out gravure refers to the special newspaper sections of photographs which were printed with this process starting around the late 1800s. In the 1930s, newspapers published relatively few photographs and instead published separate gravure sections in their Sunday editions. These sections were devoted to photographs and identifying captions, not news stories.
Full page image from The Sunday Star, Washington, D.C. – Gravure Section – June 28, 1936.
“Sunset Over the River” taken by Lewis Reed in 1936
Lewis Reed was a well-known photographer in Montgomery County and many of his photographs are now part of the Montgomery County (Maryland) Historical Society photo archives. His photography has appeared in highly regarded history books such as, “Montgomery County: Two Centuries of Change” by Jane C. Sween, “Montgomery County (Then & Now)” by Mark Walston, “Montgomery County (MD) Images of America”, by Michael Dwyer, “Rockville: Portrait of a City” by Eileen S. McGuckian, and “Gaithersburg: History of a City”. His photographs have been featured in the Norris-Banonis Automotive Wall Calendar, on the national television show, American Pickers, and on television’s most watched history series, American Experience on PBS.
Wright Flyer Test Flights at Fort Myer, VA
On this day in September 17,1908, the first military airplane in the world, built by the Wright brothers for the Army Signal Corps, made its first flight at Fort Myer, Virginia. Less than a thousand people witnessed the first flight at Fort Myer, because the general public was still doubtful that powered flight had been achieved. But Lewis Reed was there… and to commemorate that milestone, I have posted six original snippets of history that Lewis Reed captured through the lens of his camera that day.
Wright Brothers Military Flyer in its hangar at Fort Myer, Virginia. Photo by Lewis Reed
Five years after the first successful flight at Kitty Hawk, Orville Wright and Thomas E. Selfridge test flew the Wright Flyer in a demonstration for the U.S. Army at Fort Myer, VA. The Army was considering contracting Wright’s aircraft to use as a military airplane, but, in order to win the contract, he needed to demonstrate the plane’s ability to carry a passenger. Twenty-six-year-old Lt Thomas E. Selfridge volunteered to be a passenger that day. Orville Wright succeeded in keeping the Wright Flyer aloft for one minute and 11 seconds. After more than four minutes in the air, the airplane crashed to the ground from a height of about seventy-five feet after a propeller blade broke and the machine went out of control. Orville Wright was severely cut and bruised and his passenger, Lt. Thomas Selfridge, became the first powered-aviation fatality.
Another early aircraft from 1909 was the Bleriot XI monoplane. Photo by Lewis Reed
Curtiss Model D. Photo by Lewis Reed
Curtiss Model D with tricycle undercarriage. Photo by Lewis Reed
Wright Model B with skids. Photo by Lewis Reed
Airplane Hangars at Fort Myers, Virginia. Photo by Lewis Reed
The Wrights would prove their machine’s qualifications at Fort Myer. They met or exceeded all of the Army’s specifications, including flying at 40 miles per hour, carrying a combined passenger weight of 350 pounds, maneuvering in any direction in the air, landing without damage, and flying for at least an hour non-stop, which was a world record at the time.
The Great Frederick Fair Parking Lot Shot, 1914
This fascinating scene of hundreds of cars parked in the Frederick Fair parking lot was taken by Lewis Reed in 1914. What is fascinating to me is, with all of these early cars painted in black, how on earth would you find your car in the parking lot?
This week (September 14-22) marks the 156th edition of the Great Frederick Fair, the largest and greatest county fair in the State of Maryland. There have been many changes since the first fair was held in 1822 when it was known as the Cattle Show and Fair: that was a two-day event, now it’s nine days. The location has changed and so has the name. Today, the Frederick County Fair is officially named the Great Frederick Fair. It’s been held in May, October and November, but now (and for many years) takes place in September — rain or shine.
Fair entertainment has certainly evolved over the years. In 1888, May Lillie, an “expert girl shot with a rifle” from the back of a running mustang, performed. In the early 1900s, acrobatic bears and monkeys, high-wire acts and vaudeville performers took the stage. In 1950, the highlight of the “Irish Horan and the lucky Hell Drivers” show was a “stock convertible catapulted from a giant cannon.” In 1965, it was Jack Kochman’s Hell Drivers performing stunts with cars.
The Thursday of the 1911 fair was noted as a record day with 15,000 people in attendance, 100 autos and 1,000 carriages, according to “The Great Frederick Fair” book. Today, fair attendance can range from 210,000 to 250,000 people during the nine-day fair.
Newspaper ad advertising The Great Frederick Fair. THE DEMOCRATIC ADVOCATE OCTOBER, 1914
Source: Frederick News-Post
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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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