Boyds is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

exurb An exurb (or alternately: exurban area) is an area outside the typically denser inner suburbs, suburban area, at the edge of a metropolitan area, which has some economic and commuting connection to the metro area, low housing-density, and rela ...

an Montgomery County,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

, United States, located approximately north of

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

Its ZIP Code is 20841. According to the United States 2020 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 9,538.

Black Hill Regional Park Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''Psyc ...

, 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, United States. The park features facilities for boating and fishing as w ...

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 oldest railroads in North America, oldest railroad in the United States and the first steam engine, steam-operated common carrier. Construction of the line began in 1828, and it operated as B&O from 1830 ...

. 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, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. The railroad line began service in 1873. After the

railroad station A train station, railroad station, or railway station 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 such ...

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 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 train, passenger rail service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting Commuting, commuters to a Central business district, central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter town ...

service (primarily to

) is still provided at Boyds by the MARC system. James Boyd established

dairy farms A dairy is a place where milk is stored and where butter, cheese, and other dairy products are made, or a place where those products are sold. It may be a room, a building, or a larger establishment. In the United States, the word may also des ...

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 known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa ...

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 One-room schoolhouses, or One-room schools, have been commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries, including Prussia, Norway, Sweden, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Portugal, and Spa ...

, containing a small number of desks, a blackboard, and a

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

, as well as a framed picture of

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world. The first country to fully outlaw slavery was Kingdom of France, France in 1315, but it was later used ...

Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 14, 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. He was the most impor ...

. 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 a group of detritophagous eusocial cockroaches which consume a variety of decaying plant material, generally in the form of wood, leaf litter, and soil humus. They are distinguished by their moniliform antennae and the sof ...

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

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