HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Seneca 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 ...
in 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. It is located near the intersection of River Road and Seneca Creek, not far from the
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, abbreviated as the C&O Canal and occasionally called the Grand Old Ditch, operated from 1831 until 1924 along the Potomac River between Washington, D.C., and Cumberland, Maryland. It replaced the Patowmack Canal ...
(C&O Canal) and
Potomac River The Potomac River () is in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and flows from the Potomac Highlands in West Virginia to Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography D ...
. Its history goes back before the
American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...
and it thrived when the canal was operating—having several warehouses, mills, a store, a hotel, and a school. Fighting occurred in the area on more than one occasion during 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 community declined as the C&O Canal declined. Today (2020), the community uses a Poolesville ZIP code, but is part of the Darnestown census-designated place. The Seneca schoolhouse is a museum, and nearby Riley's Lock and lock house are part of the
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park is located in the District of Columbia and the state of Maryland. The park was established in 1961 as a National Monument by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to preserve the neglected remains o ...
. The community is located near the Dierssen Wildlife Management Area and the McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area. Since 1978, Seneca and additional territory have been part of the Seneca Historic District.


History

The community of Seneca exists in
Montgomery County, Maryland Montgomery County is the most populous County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 United States census, the county's population was 1,062,061, increasing by 9.3% from 2010. The county seat is Rockville, Maryland ...
, on Seneca Creek near the
Potomac River The Potomac River () is in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and flows from the Potomac Highlands in West Virginia to Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography D ...
. The creek was once very powerful, and eight of Montgomery County's 44 mills in existence before 1800 were located on this creek or its tributaries. The Seneca Mill, a
gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...
, began operation around 1780, and was located on Seneca Creek close to the Potomac River. In 1781, the state of Maryland confiscated the lands of
Daniel Dulany the Younger Daniel Dulany the Younger (June 28, 1722 – March 17, 1797) was a Maryland Loyalist (American Revolution), Loyalist politician, Mayor of Annapolis, and an influential American lawyer in the period immediately before the American Revolution. His ...
, a prominent Loyalist to the Crown from
Annapolis Annapolis ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland. It is the county seat of Anne Arundel County and its only incorporated city. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east o ...
. His land along the Potomac River included a portion along Seneca Creek, and it was sold to help the state pay for the
American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...
. Robert Peter purchased of the Dulany property in Montgomery County, including the land that contained red
sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...
. Not far from Peter's property, John Garrett laid out a community in 1787. He called it Newport, and it was located on the west side of the mouth of Great Seneca Creek, on the Potomac River and about upriver from Georgetown. The Newport name did not last long—the locals called the community Seneca. Robert Peter died in 1806, and his eldest son Thomas inherited land near Seneca including the quarry. Construction of the
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, abbreviated as the C&O Canal and occasionally called the Grand Old Ditch, operated from 1831 until 1924 along the Potomac River between Washington, D.C., and Cumberland, Maryland. It replaced the Patowmack Canal ...
(a.k.a. C&O Canal) along the Potomac River began on July 4, 1828. The canal was necessary because portions of the river were too shallow and rocky for freight boat traffic. By that time, the Seneca Quarry and some nearby land on the Potomac River were owned by John Parke Custis Peter, the eldest son of Thomas and Martha Peter. The canal increased the importance of Seneca, and C&O Canal Lock 24, now known as Riley's Lock, is located where the
Seneca Aqueduct Seneca Aqueduct — or Aqueduct No. 1 — is a naviduct that carries the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (C&O) over Seneca Creek (Potomac River), Seneca Creek in Montgomery County, Maryland. The C&O built eleven aqueducts along its length. Seneca Aque ...
carries the canal over Seneca Creek near the community. By 1833, enough of the canal was completed to enable canal service between Georgetown and Lock 24, and further upriver—providing access to new markets for Peter's sandstone quarry. Portions of the canal locks and lock houses were constructed using the quarry's distinctive red sandstone. The same quarry, with its own stone-cutting mill, was used to produce material for buildings in Washington such as the
Smithsonian Institution Building The Smithsonian Institution Building, more commonly known as the Smithsonian Castle or simply The Castle, is a building on the National Mall housing the Smithsonian Institution's administrative offices and information center. Built as the first ...
. The canal also opened markets for area farmers. John Darby, and his son Upton, purchased the Seneca grist mill in 1855. In addition to milling operations, Darby's company shipped products on the C&O Canal. They had a warehouse on the creek (near Lock 24) and their own canal boats.


Peak and decline

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 ...
was difficult for the Peter family. Several skirmishes between Union and
Confederate A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...
troops occurred nearby, including an attack in 1863 that damaged nearby canal infrastructure. After the war in 1866, the Peter family sold the quarry and nearby property to the newly created Seneca Sandstone Company. Upton Darby donated land for a one-room schoolhouse that was built using red sandstone from the local quarry. An 1879 Montgomery County directory lists Seneca as having "public schools and churches in the vicinity". The community also had a store and post office. However, freight traffic on the C&O Canal had already peaked in 1871, starting a downward trend that would end with the canal closing permanently in 1924. As the canal declined, Seneca declined, and the permanent closure of the canal caused Seneca to lose its relevance. The school closed in 1910.


1950s, 1960s, and today

Seneca was the location of the Mills Cross Array, once the world's largest
radio telescope A radio telescope is a specialized antenna (radio), antenna and radio receiver used to detect radio waves from astronomical radio sources in the sky. Radio telescopes are the main observing instrument used in radio astronomy, which studies the r ...
which, in 1955, was used to make the first observations of radio waves emitted from a planet. In this case, the planet was
Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a Jupiter mass, mass more than 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined a ...
, and the discovery led to the growth of a new field of
radio astronomy Radio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies Astronomical object, celestial objects using radio waves. It started in 1933, when Karl Jansky at Bell Telephone Laboratories reported radiation coming from the Milky Way. Subsequent observat ...
. The Seneca Mill, a gristmill also known as the Darby Mill and later the Tchiffely Mill, was located on the west side of Seneca Creek about 0.5 miles north of River Road. The mill burned around 1956 and the ruins were destroyed when River Road was widened in the 1960s. In 2021, the radio telescope is gone and the site is now part of the McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area. A historical marker commemorating the discovery is located on River Road at the management area's parking lot. All that remains of Seneca are a few homes, the schoolhouse as a museum, the store, and ruins of the stone-cutting mill and quarry. The community is still listed by the United States Geological Survey as a populated place.


Geography

Seneca is a populated place that is not a census-designated or incorporated place having an official federally recognized name. Previous names for the community are Newport and possibly Middlebrook Mills. Seneca is located in Montgomery County, Maryland. The USGS defines a populated place as a place or area with clustered or scattered buildings and a permanent human population (city, settlement, town, village). A populated place is usually not incorporated and by definition has no legal boundaries. However, a populated place may have a corresponding "civil" record, the legal boundaries of which may or may not coincide with the perceived populated place. Seneca is located close to the intersection of River Road (Maryland Route 190), Seneca Road (Maryland route 112), and Rileys Lock Road, east of Great Seneca Creek and north of the Potomac River. The C&O Canal runs along the river, and Riley's Lock is the closest canal lock. The southern portion of Seneca Creek State Park is nearby, as is the Bretton Woods Golf Course. The
United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on Mar ...
(USGS) lists the community's elevation as .


Climate


Demographics

Seneca is part of the Darnestown
census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...
(CDP), an
unincorporated area 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 ...
in Montgomery County, Maryland. The CDP is with the Potomac River as its southern border and the Muddy Branch as much of its eastern border. Seneca Creek borders portions of its north and west sides. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the Darnestown CDP population was 6,802—and Seneca's population is a small subset of the CDP total. Total land area for the CDP was out of a total area of . The population density for the CDP was . The CDP had 2,275 housing units at an average density of . These densities were much lower than
county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...
Rockville, where the District 4 portion had a population density of and a housing density of .


Government

Citizens of Seneca are part of District 1 of the Montgomery County Council. The
county council A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries. Australia In the Australian state of New South Wales, county councils are special purpose ...
has representatives from each of five
district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...
s plus four at-large members. All members are elected at once and serve four-year terms.


Infrastructure


Transportation

Seneca's major roads are River Road (Maryland Route 190) and Seneca Road (Maryland Route 112). Three
Interstate Highways The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, or the Eisenhower Interstate System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National H ...
are reasonably close. Maryland's Interstate 270 is a major north–south Interstate Highway for Montgomery County that connects with Washington's
Capital Beltway The Capital Beltway, designated as Interstate 495 (I-495) for its entire length, is an List of auxiliary Interstate Highways, auxiliary Interstate Highway in the Washington metropolitan area. The Ring road, beltway encircles Washington, D.C., ...
(a.k.a. Interstate 495).
Interstate 95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, north to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the ...
is a major north–south highway for the nation's east coast. Portions of the
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA ), commonly referred to as Metro, is a tri-jurisdictional public transit agency that operates transit services in the Washington metropolitan area. WMATA provides rapid transit servic ...
's Metrorail system are located in Montgomery County, and Red Line stations on the west side of the county are closest to Seneca. Among those west side Metro stations with ample parking lots is the Grosvenor-Strathmore station.


Utilities

Seneca's
electric power Electric power is the rate of transfer of electrical energy within a electric circuit, circuit. Its SI unit is the watt, the general unit of power (physics), power, defined as one joule per second. Standard prefixes apply to watts as with oth ...
is provided by
Pepco The Potomac Electric Power Company (PEPCO) is an American utility company that supplies electric power to the city of Washington, D.C., and to surrounding communities in Maryland. It is owned by Exelon. The company's current trademarked slogan ...
(Potomac Electric Power Company), which serves much of Montgomery County, portions of
Prince George's County Prince George's County (often shortened to PG County or PG) is located in the U.S. state of Maryland bordering the eastern portion of Washington, D.C. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 967,201, making it the second-most populous ...
, and all of the District of Columbia. Washington Gas provides
natural gas Natural gas (also fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...
service to residents and businesses. The Shady Grove Processing Facility and Transfer Station, a county waste collection facility located in Rockville, is available for drop off of garbage, recycling, and yard debris.


Healthcare

The nearest
general hospital ''General Hospital'' (often abbreviated as ''GH'') is an American daytime television soap opera created by Frank and Doris Hursley which has been broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC since April 1, 1963. Originally a half-hour seria ...
is the Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center in Rockville. This medical facility has a five-star rating from the
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is a federal agency within the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that administers the Medicare program and works in partnership with state governments to administer M ...
. Adventist Health Care has multiple satellite locations throughout the county.


Education

Seneca is served by Montgomery County Public Schools. Those that live on, or east of, Rileys Lock Road attend Darnestown Elementary, Lakelands Park Middle School, and Northwest High School. Northwest High School is located in Germantown. Those that live west of Seneca Creek attend Poolesville elementary, middle, and
high schools A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...
. Private schools in the area include Butler Montessori, Mary of Nazareth Catholic School, and Seneca Academy.
Bullis School Bullis School is a private, co-educational college preparatory day school for grades K-12. The school is located in Potomac, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C. History Bullis School was founded in Washington D.C. in 1930 by Commander Wil ...
, which serves kindergarten through high school, is located slightly further away on a 102-acre campus in
Potomac, Maryland Potomac () is an Unincorporated area#United States, unincorporated community and census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it had a population of 47,018. It is named a ...
.


Higher education

Montgomery College Montgomery College (MC) is a Public college, public community college in Montgomery County, Maryland. The school was founded in 1946 as Montgomery Junior College. Four years later, it absorbed the 57-year-old Bliss Electrical School, which b ...
has a Germantown campus known as the Pinkney Innovation Complex for Science and Technology. It also has a campus in Rockville and a training center in Gaithersburg. The Universities at Shady Grove is located within North Potomac and offers select degree programs from nine public Maryland universities. Instead of being a university itself, this campus partners with other universities and offers courses for 80 upper-level undergraduate, graduate degree, and certificate programs. The participating universities handle admissions.
Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...
has a campus in Rockville near the Universities at Shady Grove.


Public library

Two libraries, part of the Montgomery County Public Library system, are located less than from Seneca. Poolesville Library, also known as Maggie Nightingale Library, is northwest of Seneca in Poolesville. Potomac Library, constructed in 1985 by the county, is located east of Seneca in Potomac. Priddy Library is part of the
University of Maryland Libraries The University of Maryland Libraries is the largest university library system in the Washington D.C.–Baltimore area. The system includes eight libraries: six are located on the University of Maryland, College Park, College Park campus, while ...
system and is located at the Universities at Shady Grove in North Potomac. The Priddy Library opened in 2007 and is available to the public.


Culture


Arts

The Seneca Schoolhouse Museum provides tours to schoolchildren so that they can experience a typical school day as it would have been on March 13, 1880.
Glenstone Glenstone is a private Contemporary art, contemporary art museum in Potomac, Maryland, founded in 2006 by American billionaire Mitchell Rales and his wife, Emily Wei Rales. The museum's exhibitions are drawn from a collection of about 1,300 works ...
Modern Art Museum is about six miles east of Seneca near the intersection of Travilah Road and Glen Road. The Strathmore Music and Arts Center in North Bethesda has a concert hall and art exhibits.


Recreation

Seneca Creek State Park is an irregular-shaped park of that follows Seneca Creek for to the Potomac River. The park has of trails for hiking, horseback riding and biking. Riley's Lock and Violette's Lock are in the
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park is located in the District of Columbia and the state of Maryland. The park was established in 1961 as a National Monument by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to preserve the neglected remains o ...
, as is the nearby Pennyfield Lock. These locks are used by kayakers, bikers, and hikers, and are also good places to observe wildlife. The 40–acre (16 ha) Dierssen Waterfowl Sanctuary is located at towpath marker 20.0 between Violette's Lock and the Pennyfield Lock. The McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area is located on River Road west of Seneca in Montgomery County, and borders the C&O National Park and Seneca Creek State Park. It is a tract that provides habitat for deer, turkeys, squirrels, songbirds, and waterfowl. On the Potomac River, the Seneca Landing Special Park has a boat landing near Riley's Lock. The Blockhouse Point Conservation Park, which has views of the Potomac River and ruins from the American Civil War, is also located along the Potomac River and C&O Canal. The Callithea Farm Special Park is a 91-acre (37ha) horse farm. The Montgomery County Park System has over of hiking trails. Among those trails is the Muddy Branch Greenway Trail, which has a route between Darnestown Road and Blockhouse Point Conservation Park near the Potomac River.


Notes


Footnotes


Citations


References

* * * * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

* *


External links


Dierssen Wildlife Management Area

Seneca Store

Seneca School House

Seneca Stone Cutting Mill
{{Authority control Unincorporated communities in Montgomery County, Maryland