Boyds is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in rural Montgomery County,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean t ...

, United States, located approximately north of Washington, D.C. Its ZIP Code is 20841. According to the United States 2010 Census, the

ZIP Code Tabulation Area ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) are statistical entities developed by the United States Census Bureau for tabulating summary statistics. These were introduced with the Census 2000 and continued with the 2010 Census and 5 year American Community ...

(ZCTA) for Boyds covers an area of about and has a population of 10,460. Black Hill Regional Park, Little Seneca Lake, and

Seneca Creek State Park Seneca Creek State Park is a public recreation area encompassing more than along 14 miles of Seneca Creek in its run to the Potomac River in Montgomery County, Maryland. The park features facilities for boating and fishing as well as trails f ...

are located in Boyds.

History

The community was named for Colonel James Alexander Boyd (1823–1896), a Scottish immigrant who was a construction engineer for the

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

. Boyd built a temporary village to house construction workers as the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad built the Metropolitan Branch line after the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...

. The railroad line began service in 1873. After the

railroad station A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing su ...

opened, a mill, stores, and other businesses were established in the area. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad opened a brick railroad station in 1887. The railroad station was demolished to make way for installation of a second

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

in 1927. A wooden station was built as a replacement, but it was later taken down.

Commuter Rail Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting commuters to a central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter rail systems are con ...

service (primarily to Washington, D.C.) is still provided at Boyds by the MARC system. James Boyd established

dairy farms A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or processing (or both) of animal milk – mostly from cows or buffaloes, but also from goats, sheep, horses, or camels – for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on a ...

in the area and lived in the town until his death in 1896.

Boyds Negro School

Boyds Negro School, located a
19510 White Ground Road
was the only public school erected for

African Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

who lived in the area from 1896 to 1936. Boyds Negro School is a Maryland Historic Site. Boyds Negro School is a small, one-room school house, containing a small number of desks, a blackboard, and a

potbelly stove A potbelly stove is a cast-iron, coal-burning or wood-burning stove that is cylindrical with a bulge in the middle. Gove PB (editor in chief) (1981). ''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged''. Springfield ...

, as well as a framed picture of

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became ...

. Subjects taught in the school included spelling, cooking, reading, singing, and weaving. Boyds Negro School was renovated by th
Boyds Historical Society
in 1989. The Boyds Historical Society filled the building with furnishings so the school would look as it did in the early 1900s. In 2006,

termites Termites are small insects that live in colonies and have distinct castes ( eusocial) and feed on wood or other dead plant matter. Termites comprise the infraorder Isoptera, or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae, within the order Blat ...

caused major damage to the wooden floor boards, and the school building was renovated. Boyds Negro School reopened on June 28, 2008, one of Montgomery County's annual heritage days. Boyds Negro School is currently open to the public on the last Sunday of every month, from 2:00 to 4:00 PM, April through October or upon request.

Boyds Mercantile and Stores

The first Boyds Country Store was opened in 1873, the same year that the railroad was connected to the town. It was run by James E. Williams. The store served as a market of goods for both citizens and passers-bye in Boyds, as well as a meeting place for the townspeople in the afternoon. Colonel Boyd built a second store across the road in 1895. It housed the general store and post office on its first floor and a town hall on the second floor along with a dance hall. As time went by, the town hall became smaller and smaller as the building was used for additional purposes until it was finally torn down for salvageable lumber in the early 1940s. In the evenings, families would gather on the front porch of the general store; the parents talking and their children playing out on the lawn in front of the store. After the first country store became vacant in 1946, it was bought in an auction by Brice P. Selby. He was known to allow his customers to buy on credit, resulting in not much cash profit for him and his store. However, Selby was well known as a kind and generous soul. A third store, known as the Boyds Country Market, exists on Barnesville Road across from the site of the old town hall. Boyds Country Market was built by Will Williams in 1933. The first two Boyds Country Stores, as well as the town hall, old Hoyle's Mill, and a hardware store were all destroyed in the development of the surrounding area. A small post office was located at the back of the country store from the early 1930s until 1974, when it was relocated to a new building on Barnesville Road, where it still sits today.Virts, Arthur: ''Boyds: a Character Study'', 2008

Recent development in and around Boyds

Boyds has until recently been a predominantly rural area. The first phase of modern development occurred in the 1980s, following the creation of the man-made Little Seneca Lake. However, since the 2000 Census, there has been enormous population growth in the zip code, particularly in the areas near

Germantown Germantown or German Town may refer to: Places Australia * Germantown, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region United States * Germantown, California, the former name of Artois, a census-designated place in Glenn County * G ...

and Clarksburg. Large home developments with thousands of residents each, such as The Vistas near the intersection of Route 118 and Richter Farm Road, have rapidly replaced farmland and forest.

Geography

More recently, there has been some discussion as to the exact southern boundary of Boyds. Survey maps show that the community's southern boundary runs along

Little Seneca Creek Little Seneca Creek is an U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed August 15, 2011 stream in Montgomery County, Maryland, roughly northwest of Washington, D.C. Geography The ...

Demographics

The residents of Boyds are 38.6% white, 9% Hispanic, 13.8% black, 35.3% Asian, 3.3% mixed or other.

References

External links

Map of BoydsBlack Hill Regional Park
– Montgomery County Department of Parks
Boyds Civic AssociationBoyds Historical Society
{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Montgomery County, Maryland Unincorporated communities in Maryland