STAND WITH US
As Neighbors. As Friends.
Stand with Tobytown is dedicated to highlighting the history of the extraordinarily resilient African American settlement community of Tobytown and to promoting the wellbeing of its residents. We believe that our Tobytown neighbors are facing an existential plight that requires nothing short of an outpouring of concern, support, and action.
Appreciating Tobytown begins with understanding its nearly 150-year history. Today’s Tobytown residents are descendants of its original founders: a small group of formerly enslaved men and women who migrated from Tennessee to Maryland in 1875 in search of a better life. Early on, their settlement was surrounded by farmland and seasonal mills that provided work to many in the growing community. In 1881, the nearest village, then known as Offutt’s Crossroads, changed its name to Potomac, Maryland — a place that would eventually become synonymous with decades of ever-increasing prosperity. Yet that same progress saw the area’s farms and mills give way to suburbanization — leaving the people of Tobytown struggling with long-term unemployment, discrimination, lack of running water or electricity, and geographic isolation with little access to transportation. All of these factors drastically limited Tobytown’s prospects for economic growth over generations.
A new chapter in Tobytown’s history began in 1965 when a local journalist wrote a lengthy article on Tobytown’s struggle with sub-standard living conditions such as tar paper shanties, wooden shacks, non-potable well water, and a single outhouse. These revelations mobilized a group of area residents to work in partnership with Tobytown residents and the county to build 26 rent-to-own dwellings which went up in 1973. While these improvements were a major advance for Tobytown, other issues like geographical isolation and lack of access to public transportation remained. Tobytown was not added to the area bus route until 2016, despite county officials acknowledging as far back as 1965 that the community was urgently in need of bus service.
Today, Tobytown residents have emerged from the devastating impact of the pandemic, followed by the price shock of rampant inflation. Many residents are older and live on fixed incomes. Please visit our Two Ways to Give page to help us raise money for grocery gift cards that will be distributed to residents throughout Tobytown to help them through these challenging times. Our project also focuses on capturing the history of Tobytown through research and documentary work.
We hope you will stand with us.
A late afternoon view of the historic Pennyfield Lock House located on the C&O Canal, just south of Tobytown. The Lock House was built circa 1830. (Photo courtesy of the C&O Canal Trust.)
