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Community Corner

Rich History, Development Define Scotland Community

Scotland Community has developed since its beginning and many Potomac residents are proud to call it home.

To many Potomac residents, may just seem like another development along a well-traveled road; however, it is a place rich with history, where generations of African American families have endured for more than a century to call it their home.

Scotland has seen development and changes since its beginning. Once an undeveloped plot of land, it now has about 100 units and a

According to archives at the Montgomery County Historic Preservation Commission, Scotland was first settled in 1880 by William Dove — a former slave who purchased 36 acres at an auction for $210. Soon after, other African American families bought property and moved there. Originally known as Snakes Den, the community adopted the name Scotland in the early 1920s.

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Forty years later, Scotland had accumulated more than 50 acres, running alongside Seven Locks Road from Tuckerman Lane to Democracy Boulevard. But in spite of its size, the African American community was in threat of being squeezed out by the early 1960s. 

The suburbs of Montgomery County had grown steadily after World War II with white, educated professionals. By the late 1950s, housing developments such as Iverness and Cabin John began to encroach on the African American community. In addition, Scotland had no water or sewer infrastructure, no public transportation and no garbage service.

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Because of the rural conditions in the area, properties in Scotland were condemned, which helped to make room for the new developments. The residents not evicted from their property were offered a substandard price for their land.  

Scotland native Bette Thompson said some families sold their homes and left.

“People came around and asked if they wanted to sell their land,” she said. “They wanted us out.”

However, other families combined their land assets, and the Scotland Community Development was formed in February 1965. Thompson said Scotland received support from white people in the county. 

“A lot of the neighborhoods around helped us,” she said. “Save Our Scotland — that’s what it started out as.”

By 1968, a renovation project based on low-interest government loans helped Scotland to rebuild. Most of the revitalization work, which was completed by the mid 1970s, makes up present-day Scotland, which covers about ten acres. Twenty-five townhouses were purchased from families who could afford to buy, and another 75 homes were turned into rental townhouses.

Director of the , Kim Bryant, said the community center was built during the revitalization efforts of the 1970s, and Montgomery County moved a Recreation Department into the building during the 1980s.

Over the years, the recreation center hosted group dinners, karate classes, art lessons, financial advice seminars and public meetings. The building currently serves as a place for youth to meet after school to do homework, play cards and enjoy the small indoor court.

Bryant said the building, which is beginning to show its age, is scheduled to be torn down in the fall of 2011 and replaced with a new building.

The Community Center has a mural on one wall, painted in 1992 by Vaughn T. Holsey, which depicts the history of Scotland, including a schoolhouse that no longer exists.

“I went there to the seventh grade,” Thompson said, who still has a newspaper clipping of the one-room schoolhouse.

She said the building was torn down and townhouses are located there now.

In addition to the schoolhouse, the mural includes a rendering of a Methodist church in Scotland, which still exists.

Founded on Aug. 1, 1923, is the oldest landmark in the community. The congregation first came together in 1906 in a nearby home, and construction of the church building began in 1915 when they acquired the land from Rev. Otho Simms. 

While some of Scotland has remained the same for half a century, other things have changed. Since its early days, Scotland was a place inhabited by families with names like Mason, Dove, Crawford and Cooper. However, some of these families began to leave during the 1980s as their means improved. As they left vacancies behind, the 1990s saw the arrival of immigrants from Africa and Egypt into the community.   

Norhan Seif-Eldin, 23, said her family moved from Egypt to Scotland in 1995. She said back then that almost all of the residents were related by blood or marriage. Seif-Eldin said her family was the third from Egypt to move into Scotland.

Seif-Eldin, who moved away from Scotland three years ago, said she liked living there and called the people of Scotland welcoming, in spite of some bad press they’ve gotten over the years.

“I don’t think they [the media] always put the positive about Scotland,” she said. 

Thompson said that even through there have been many changes, she considers Scotland her home.

“I am going to live here as long as I can,” she said. “When I go, they are going to take me out feet first.”

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