I am trying to find out more information about the Old Georgetown
Estate. The estate was land once used in the late 1800's and early
1900's by early settlers of Montgomery County, Maryland. The land
today is currently being used by the national institute of health in
Bethesda, MD. What I would like to know who lived on this land, who
owned this land and how did it become the National Institue of Health.
I also would like to know any interesting facts that might be out
their concerning the property or what has occured on the land over the
last 100-150 years. Also I would like to know how did the name old
georgetown get connected to the land/estate.  Some pictures also would
be very helpful.

Thank you-

Hello,
Here is a site that answers almost all of your questions:
http://www.nih.gov/news/NIH-Record/05_29_2001/story01.htm

And I found out why it is called Georgetown, unfortunately the link is
dead, but the from the google cache I found:
In 1751 the area then known as Tahogae was given to two men from
Scotland, Colonel Ninian Beall, and GEORGE Gordon, this area then
became known as George Town.
://www.google.com/search?q=cache:XlJItSl6XgsC:www.georgetownwaterfrontpk.org/gwp/History.htm+old+georgetown+maryland+history&hl=en

I think these two links provide a great deal of information and answer
all of your questions, and they even have pictures, although all the
pictures in the google cache are dead. :(
Hope this helps, please let me know if you have any other questions on
this topic.
Have a good one.
--jld

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Request for Answer Clarification by stephenh-ga on 05 Jun 2002 07:16 PDT

Hi

Thank you for the information you sent me. The first link was very
helpful but the second link of Georgetown was Georgetown Park which is
located in DC not in Montgomery, MD. Any further help you can give me
I would greatly appreciate it.

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Clarification of Answer by jeanluis-ga on 05 Jun 2002 08:17 PDT

Sorry about that, there are so many Georgetowns up in that area it is
hard to tell them apart.

Ok here is some interesting info about Georgetown Montgomery County
history:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/nlmsite/winona.html
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/nlmsite/first_peoples.html
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/nlmsite/gingle_family.html
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/nlmsite/woodmont.html

Here is some more info about the history of this area:
http://ci.poolesville.md.us/brief.htm

Here is more info about hauntings in the area:
http://www.marylandghosts.com/locations/montgomery.shtml

Here is some other interesting info about Georgetown, and Old
Georgetown:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~dcgenweb/dcmdva.html

This is about everything I could find that related to the areas
history at all, You may want to goto the Montgomery county archives if
you want to know more (although I doubt it would be much fun...):
http://www.montgomeryarchives.org/index.html

I hope this helps, please let me know if you want anything else,
Have a good day.
--jld

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Request for Answer Clarification by stephenh-ga on 10 Jun 2002 10:20 PDT

Since you so nicely wrote me back and told me so much I thought that I
woulld write you back and tell you that I still haven't found out my
answer. I really need to find it out.  I am hoping maybe you could
work a little more on it to see what you could get further.  Recenlty
I did go up to the Montgomery Couty historical society and they told
me that they didn't have much on the subject.

So I am wondering what else you might be able to do for me concerning
the history of the Old Georgetown estate. I haven't tried contacting
the NIH myself, but I think they won't tell me much, as they don't
know much. Either way, can you possibility ask them and get back to me
about what they said. You must be an expert about this subject since
you seem to know so much. All and any further help you can give me I
would appreciate it.

Thank you-

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Request for Answer Clarification by stephenh-ga on 10 Jun 2002 12:12 PDT

Someone thought that I should ask Bill Offiut this research question
as he might know the answer since he is an expert in this field, see
below.  But I thought I read someplace on the world wide web that he
dieded does anyone know anything it if he is still living or not.
Don't want to write him an e-mail if he is dead.

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Clarification of Answer by jeanluis-ga on 10 Jun 2002 12:57 PDT

A commenter posted this site:
http://www.montgomeryhistory.org/

Which, upon inspection seems to have a lot of information about places
you can go to learn more. In particular the library:
http://www.montgomeryhistory.org/library.html
http://www.montgomeryhistory.org/libraryhas.htm

I have contacted the NIH, but they need to get back to me, when they
do I will post what ever info they give me.
Stay tuned.
--jld

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Clarification of Answer by jeanluis-ga on 10 Jun 2002 14:16 PDT

Ok here is the e-mail I just got from the office of NIH history:

Hello,
We are working on a website to address your questions.  We currently
have a
few remaining brochures from "Seventy Acres of Science," an exhibit we
did a
few years ago about the history of the NIH campus.  If you will email
your
mailing address to Mrs. Marilyn Berman in my office
(bermanm@od.nih.gov),
she will mail you a copy of that brochure.

For additional information about the property over the last 100 years
and
information on the history of Old Georgetown Road, you should contact
the
Montgomery County Historical Society.  I am a member and just received
a
recent newsletter in which the history of Old Georgetown Road was
described
in detail.  Their website is http://www.montgomeryhistory.org/, and
their
phone number is 301-762-1492.

Hope this helps.

*******************
Victoria A. Harden, Ph.D.
Director, Office of NIH History and 
DeWitt Stetten, Jr., Museum of Medical Research
Building 31  Room 5B38  MSC 2092
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, MD 20892-2092
301-496-6610 (voice)
301-402-1434 (fax)
victoria.harden@nih.gov
visit our website at http://www.nih.gov/od/museum

--------------------------------------------------------

According to that, the info you seek is going to be online sometime...
You can also request that borchure she mentioned, and contact the
historical society. I am sorry that this does not give you the
immeadite answer you were probably hoping for. But it is better than
nothing.
Hope this helps
--jld

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Request for Answer Clarification by stephenh-ga on 17 Jun 2002 08:45 PDT

Please don't forget about me as  am still waiting to get more
infomation about the Old Georgetown Estate.  If guess that if I don't
here anything by 6/18 I will have to resubmit my question to get more
information.

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Clarification of Answer by jeanluis-ga on 17 Jun 2002 09:29 PDT

Ohh I am sorry, I thought you were going to contact the NIH for that
brochure, or wait until their website with this information went up.
Also I just read that post about Bill Offutt, it seems he is not dead,
and that he is a history professor at Pace University, NY Campus. Here
are 2 e-mail addresses I found for him:
Woffutt@pace.edu
billoffutt@aol.com
 
You might want to get in touch with him, because I am sorry to say I
am running out of information on the subject.
--jld

Hi - I'm not going to get stuck into this one as I'm still tackling
your other question.

I can answer your last point, though - the Old Georgetown Estats was
built on the Old Georgetown Road, which was the road which went to
Georgetown. Make sense?

Another good reference would be the Montgomery County Historical Society:

http://www.montgomeryhistory.org/

A further resource for questions of Bethesda history is Bill Offutt,
author of BETHESDA -- A Social History.

He has articles on several Bethesda websites (seach "Offutt, Bethesda,
history"); some of those sites note that he is available to answer
questions about local history at bill@bethesdahistory.com or
offuttbill@erols.com