New Exhibit Shows Life in Montgomery County in the 1950s (VIDEO)
The 1950s was known for its “boom” across the nation but especially in Montgomery County, according to experts from Montgomery History.
“You had not only this atomic era of the Cold War where people were worried about bomb shelters and that kind of boom, but we also had the ‘baby boom’ going on,” Montgomery History’s executive director, Matt Logan, said.
And then there was a boom in growth.
“Here in Montgomery County, the population doubled in the 1950s,” Logan said.
And that’s why Montgomery History’s new exhibit showcases what staff calls a pivotal time for the area.
From clothing, transistor radios, toys and even a replica of the popular Hot Shoppes; the new exhibit titled, “Boom: The 1950s in Montgomery County,” will allow participants to examine the success and conflict in the region during.
“Many of the objects that we have here tell sort of a happier story about life in the 1950s but that was very difficult time period from the Civil Rights’ stand point.”
The Boom display can be seen at the Beall-Dawson Museum in Rockville until July 15, 2018.
Montgomery History is taking us back in time with its new exhibit at the Beall-Dawson House in Rockville. @mymcmedia pic.twitter.com/V3hvTuIoRa
— Mitti Hicks (@MittiMegan) October 19, 2017
To the 1950’s to be exact; when minimum wage was $1.00 per hour and Hot Shoppes and Drive-In Movies were a thing. @mymcmedia pic.twitter.com/bkxOTjjbAY
— Mitti Hicks (@MittiMegan) October 19, 2017
My family moved to Bethesda in 1957. My wife moved to Silver Spring in 1954. There was no beltway but there were streetcars to Glen Echo. Coal trains rumbled under the East West Highway Bridge. Wheaton Plaza was not yet open. There were outhouses and cows in Rockville. Bethesda had two movie houses, the Baronet and the much bigger and more stylish Bethesda. Bethesda was on the “wrong side of the tracks” from Chevy Chase and the children there were not allowed to play with us.
Wow, interesting stuff. My grandfather had a farm in Norbeck, MD. I need to go the library they have up there.
Thank You for sharing !
I moved to Rockville in 1953 and lived there until 1972. I lived through the integration of Richard Montgomery High School and closing of Carver High, played golf at the White Flint golf course, roller skated at Congressional, and saw the first 4 lane road built in Rockville. I was active in Boy Scout Troop 447 at the Rockville United Methodist Church and camped on a farm where the mall currently sits in Gaithersburg.
Rockville is no longer the town in which I grew up. I personally have an aversion to cars and concrete so I now enjoy retirement in the mountains of Appalachia.