A Brief History of Brookeville

The Town was founded in 1794 by Richard Thomas on land inherited by his wife Deborah Brooke from her father Roger Brooke IV, son of James Brooke, an influential Quaker settler and the largest land holder in what was to become Montgomery County. The community originally consisted of four houses: the Caleb Bentley House (now know as Madison House), the Miller's cottage, the Blue House and the Valley House. To this core, Thomas laid out an additional 56 lots of 1/4 acre each sited along two major streets, Market and High, and two side streets, North and South. Map of Houses

By the early 19th century, the Town had grown more to include many more houses, two mills, a tanning yard, stores, a post office, two schools, a blacksmith, a constable, two physicians, two shoemakers, a seamstress and a carpenter. During the early part of the 19th century, Brookeville was a center of commerce and education, serving the surrounding, largely agricultural area. The Brookeville Academy was a regionally prominent center of learning, drawing students from Baltimore, Washington, and Frederick. The Town also played an important role in the development of the science of agriculture. Several of its citizens were part of a network of progressive agronomists. One, Thomas Moore, initiated a number of improvements in farming methods that were practiced both locally and nationally.

It was in the home of one of these progressive farmers, Caleb Bentley, that President James Madison and his staff sought refuge following the British invasion of Washington during the War of 1812. For two days during the British occupation of the capital in 1814, the President conducted the business of the Federal government from the Bentley home.

Following its historic role as the nation's "capital for a day", Brookeville continued to thrive. By 1890 it had become an incorporated town. The advent of the automobile in the early 20th century changed mobility patterns and, with it, changes in demographics and markets. This led to the eventual demise of the Town's commercial base. Brookeville nonetheless remains a unique collection of period structures existing in the same relationship to one another and to the roadway as when they were originally constructed in the 18th and 19th centuries. Fortunately there are many people still living in the area with ties to this historic community and their memories enrich the Town's continuing history.

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