Discover

'Gaithersburg' is a city^[1] in Montgomery County, Maryland. As of 2005, the city had an estimated total population of 57,698^[2], making it the third largest in the state behind Baltimore and Frederick. This city is located at 39°8' North, 77°13' West, to the northwest of Rockville, the county seat of Montgomery County. Gaithersburg was incorporated in 1878.
Gaithersburg is home to the neo-traditionalist new town of Kentlands, designed by Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, which was an important early example of the new urbanism movement. Other new urbanist communities in Gaithersburg include Lakelands, the Washingtonian Center, Aventiene (Crown Farm) and Watkins Mill Town Center.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is headquartered in Gaithersburg^[3]. Other major employers in the city include IBM, ACE
★ COMM, Lockheed Martin Information Systems and Global Services business area headquarters, MedImmune(recently purchased by AstraZeneca), and Sodexho.

Contents

History

Geography

Demographics

Government

Transportation

Education

Refrence in Popular Culture

Media

Newspapers

Television and Internet

References and Footnotes

External links

History

Gaithersburg began in 1765 as a small agricultural settlement known as Log Town, gaining the name Gaithersburg a few years later.^[4] In 1850, the post office was named "Forest Oak." In 1873 the B&O Railroad constructed a station at Gaithersburg, designed by Ephraim Francis Baldwin as part of his well-known series of Victorian stations in Maryland. Rapid growth occurred shortly thereafter, and on April 5, 1878 the town was officially incorporated as the City of Gaithersburg.
In 1899, Gaithersburg was selected as one of six global locations for the construction of an International Latitude Observatory as part of a project to measure the earth's wobble on its polar axis. The Gaithersburg Latitude Observatory is (as of 2007) the only National Historic Landmark in the City of Gaithersburg. The observatory and five others in Japan, Italy, Russia, and the United States gathered information that is still used by scientists today, along with information from satellites, to determine polar motion; the size, shape, and physical properties of the earth; and to aid the space program through the precise navigational patterns of orbiting satellites. The Gaithersburg station operated until 1982 when computerization rendered the manual observation obsolete.

Geography

Gaithersburg is located at 39°7'55" North, 77°13'35" West (39.131974, -77.226428).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 26.3 km² (10.2 mi²). 26.1 km² (10.1 mi²) of it is land and 0.2 km² (0.1 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 0.69% water.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 52,613 people, 19,621 households, and 12,577 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,013.3/km² (5,216.2/mi²). There were 20,674 housing units at an average density of 791.1/km² (2,049.7/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 55.21% White, 14.60% Black or African American, 0.99% Native American, 13.76% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 8.62% from other races, and 4.39% from two or more races. 19.76% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 34.3% of Gaithersburg's population was foreign-born.
There were 19,621 households out of which 34.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.6% were married couples living together, 11.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.9% were non-families. 27.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.65 and the average family size was 3.25.
In the city the population was spread out with 25.0% under the age of 18, 9.0% from 18 to 24, 37.7% from 25 to 44, 20.0% from 45 to 64, and 8.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 95.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.4 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $59,879, and the median income for a family was $66,669. Males had a median income of $44,331 versus $35,861 for females. The per capita income for the city was $27,323. 7.1% of the population and 4.9% of families were below the poverty line. 7.2% of those under the age of 18 and 11.4% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.

Government

Gaithersburg has an elected, five-member City Council, which serves as the legislative body of the city. The Mayor, who is also elected, serves as president of the council. The day-to-day administration of the City is overseen by a career City Manager, currently David B. Humpton.

Its current mayor is 'Sidney A. Katz.' (1998-). Previous Mayors include:
#George W. Meem 1898-1904
#Carson Ward 1904-1906
#John W. Walker 1906-1908
#E. D. Kingsley 1908-1912
#Richard H. Miles 1912-1918
#John W. Walker 1918-1924
#Walter M. Magruder 1924-1926
#William McBain 1926-1948
#Harry C. Perry, Sr. 1948-1954
#Merton F. Duvall 1954-1966
#John W. Griffith 1966-1967
#Harold C. Morris 1967-1974
#Susan E. Nicholson, May-Sept. 1974
#Milton M. Walker 1974-1976
#B. Daniel Walder 1976-1978
#Bruce A. Goldensohn 1978-1986
#W. Edward Bohrer, Jr. 1986-1998
The departments of the city of Gaithersburg and their directors include:

★ Office of the City Manager, David B. Humpton

★ Planning and Code Administration, Gregory Ossont

★
★ Neighborhood Services, Kevin Roman

★
★ Animal Control, Lisa Holland

★
★ Planning Department, Lauren Pruss

★
★ Permits and Inspections, Wesley Burnette

★ Finance and Administration, Harold W. Belton

★ Information Technology, Peter Cottrell

★ Parks, Recreation, and Culture, Michele McGleish

★ Police, John A. King

★ Public Works, Jim Arnoult

Transportation

The road network is centered at the intersection of the north-south Frederick Avenue (Maryland State Highway 355) and the east-west Diamond Avenue (Maryland State Highway 117). It is also connected to Frederick and Rockville by Interstate 270, which also connects it with the Capital Beltway.
Shady Grove station, the western terminus of the Red Line of the Washington Metro, is located just outside the city limits of Gaithersburg. Interstate 370 -- which presently connects I-270 with the Shady Grove station -- terminates within Gaithersburg's city limits, transitioning into Sam Eig Highway near Washingtonian Center. If the Intercounty Connector, an as-yet-unbuilt highway to Laurel, Maryland, is constructed, I-370 will become its western portion and Gaithersburg its terminus.
Gaithersburg is served by WMATA Metrobus, Montgomery County Ride-On bus service and three MARC stations on the Brunswick Line- at downtown Gaithersburg, Washington Grove, and at Metropolitan Grove. Additionally, the State of Maryland is considering construction of a light rail or bus rapid transit line from Shady Grove Metro station to Clarksburg, Maryland called the Corridor Cities Transitway, which if built would have several stations inside Gaithersburg city limits.
The mainline of the CSX Railroad bisects Montgomery County and runs as many as fifty trains a day through the center of Gaithersburg. The MARC trains run on the CSX tracks, as do Amtrak trains.
The Montgomery County Airpark (IATA airport code: 'GAI') is located a short distance outside Gaithersburg city limits. It serves general aviation purposes and is the only airport in Montgomery County.

Education

Gaithersburg is served by Montgomery County Public Schools.
Elementary schools that serve Gaithersburg include:

★ Flower Hill Elementary School

★ Brown Station Elementary School

★ Rachel Carson Elementary School

★ Diamond Elementary School

★ Darnestown Elementary School

★ Fields Road Elementary School

★ Gaithersburg Elementary School

★ Goshen Elementary School

★ Laytonsville Elementary School

★ Rosemont Elementary School

★ Strawberry Knoll Elementary School

★ Summit Hall Elementary School

★ Thurgood Marshall Elementary School

★ Washington Grove Elementary School

★ Stedwick Elementary School

★ Jones Lane Elementary School
Middle schools that serve Gaithersburg include:

★ Forest Oak Middle School

★ Ridgeview Middle School

★ Gaithersburg Middle School

★ Lakelands Park Middle School

★ Montgomery Village Middle School

★ Neelsville Middle School

★ Cabin John Middle School

★ Robert Frost Middle School

★ Kingsview Middle School
High schools that serve Gaithersburg include:

★ Gaithersburg High School

★ Northwest High School

★ Quince Orchard High School

★ Watkins Mill High School

★ Thomas S. Wootton High School

Refrence in Popular Culture

In the episeode Wedding Presence in King of Queens the wedding took place here

Media

Gaithersburg is primarily served by the Washington, DC media market.

Newspapers

Gaithersburg is home to Gazette Newspapers, a publisher of weekly community newspapers in suburban Maryland, including the Gaithersburg Gazette. The Town Courier newspaper is based in Kentlands and focuses on Gaithersburg's west side neighborhoods, in addition to publishing Rockville and Urbana editions.

Television and Internet

Gaithersburg's city government operates Gaithersburg Television, which focuses on the city issues and is streamed online. Gaithersburg topics are discussed on the blog Gaithersblog.

References and Footnotes

1. "Gaithersburg", as place name, is used for more than just the City of Gaithersburg. Many unincorporated parts of Montgomery County near Gaithersburg have mailing addresses of "Gaithersburg". At the extreme, there are some properties on the south side of Damascus — several miles north of Gaithersburg, and north even of Montgomery Village, Germantown, Laytonsville and Clarksburg — which have Gaithersburg mailing addresses. For example, the intersection of Log House Road and Woodfield Road (Maryland Route 124) is more than five miles outside the Gaithersburg city limits. This article is, however, about the City of Gaithersburg.
2. Census Factfinder for Gaithersburg
3. Technically, although NIST's mailing address is in Gaithersburg, and the City of Gaithersburg surrounds NIST's property, the land where NIST is situated is not incorporated into the City of Gaithersburg. Instead, it is in an unincorporated part of Montgomery County. Owing to the piecemeal manner land has been added to Gaithersburg over the years, there are multiple such unincorporated enclaves within the perimeter; see the City's Zoning Map for details (3MB PDF)
4. According to Gaithersburg: History of a City (Arcadia Publishing, 2002), the first settlements at Logtown, near the present-day Summit Hall, occurred in the 1750s, while Benjamin Gaither settled near the present-day Diamond and Frederick avenues "prior to 1800." This latter settlement became informally known as "Gaithersburg" sometime after that. The Forest Oak Post Office was located in Gaither's store. These two modern reference locations — Summit Hall and Diamond and Frederick Aves — are separated by about a half a mile.

External links

★ Official City Government Website

★ Gaithersburg Local Community News